Over the weekend of Sept 28 & 29, JAMS.TV hosted the Australian Sake Festival in Sydney.

This was the third time to hold the Sake Festival in Sydney, and the second time using Carriageworks as a venue.

As event organisers, we certainly learnt a lot from last year’s festival, (the first to be held in such a large venue), and made many positive changes to make for a better experience for festival attendees. Splitting the sessions this year allowed for smoother entry and shorter queues, creating a more comfortable atmosphere for patrons and allowing them to maximise the opportunity to experience the offerings at a large variety of stalls and booths.

The weather was also on our side this year and conditions were perfect for a fun and exciting Sake Festival!

This year’s Sake Festival in Sydney was held at Carriageworks and welcomed close to 8000 visitors over the 2 day event.

Festival tickets included a customised Sake Festival glass and the opportunity to sample a diverse and extensive range of Japanese sake and other beverages from Japan. The glasses were a wonderful souvenir but we have realised there may be a benefit to offering a smaller vessel and will switch to a ceramic ochoko option next year. This will be a far more convenient size for people to carry with them throughout the festival.

With a large number of stalls and around 500 sake on tasting – from sparkling sake, low alcohol sake, aged sake and kanzake, to sake based liqueurs, and much more – there really was something to suit every palate. There were also several non alcoholic drink options available for the non-drinkers as well as a diverse selection of food on offer from various local caterers and restaurants. One of the highlights this year was the EUREKA! booth. Sake Samurai and owner of EUREKA! Sake Bar in Tokyo, Marie Chiba, brought her team to Sydney for Sake Festival. Their booth was very popular, giving patrons the opportunity to try several iconic small dishes from EUREKA!’s menu, alongside paired sake, carefully curated by Marie Chiba.

Our entertainment program, featuring a diverse range of artists, performers and musicians, along with a Kagami Biraki ceremony, took place on centre stage and was very popular with the crowd. Wadaiko Rindo’s taiko drumming performances certainly raised the pulse of the festival-goers and got the atmosphere pumping. Melbourne based Sake Samurai, Simone Maynard, presented fun and educational sake seminars, including sake tastings. Seminars from the Niigata Prefecture booth were also held on stage and gave patrons a great insight into Niigata sake and a handful of breweries from the renowned sake brewing region.

We are thrilled to announce that we were able to raise close to $4000 for the Noto Peninsula Earthquake Fundraiser via our raffle. Congratulations to our prize winners and a huge thank you to everyone who purchased tickets and of course to everyone who donated prizes.

Sake Festival is constantly looking at ways to evolve and to provide a rich cultural experience to patrons in addition to tasting sake and other beverages. We are not just a festival about sake, but rather a festival that celebrates Japanese food, beverage and culture. We strive to provide a rich cultural experience and welcoming environment where patrons can get a taste of Japan and many of its rich cultural elements and fascinating history and tradition.

From a ‘sake’ perspective, Sake Festival, along with our sister project ‘Australian Sake Awards’, aim to abolish any current and lingering misconceptions about sake, to make sake more accessible and approachable to consumers, to educate people more about sake and to show the wide appeal and variety of sake, and also continuing to strengthen our (and Australia’s) relationship with brewers and breweries from Japan.

We would love to see more brewers visit our Sake Festival and share their sake and their stories with Australian sake lovers and the sake curious. Many patrons claimed that a highlight from the festival was being able to meet and talk with sake brewers from Japan. These experiences also provide the brewers with a unique opportunity to gain insight into the Australian market and how sake is received in Australia.
We are currently working on ways we can make Sake Festival even better next year and looking at ways we can create more educational opportunities and interactive experiences, including more food pairing possibilities.

We look forward to our next Sake Festival in Melbourne and Sydney in 2025, and of course, our smaller version of the festival is set to make its debut in Brisbane in March!

We wish to thank everyone who attended the festival and we hope to see you again next time! If you are yet to visit Sake Festival, we encourage you to visit us next year – we will be waiting!

KANPAI!!

Photos by: Sayu Matsunaga