Heverlee Belgian Beer Festival at New Waverley*

Last night I attended Belgian beer brand Heverlee's micro-festival at New Waverley. Read on to get a taste of what's to come this weekend as the festival kicks off.

Edinburgh’s New Waverley arches have been transformed into a contemporary Belgian beer garden as Heverlee beer launches a three-day micro-festival this weekend. Celebrating Belgian National Day (21 July), Heverlee at New Waverley fuses Scottish and Belgian cultures and has been curated by some of the Scotland’s best-known names in food, music and art to create an exciting and diverse line-up.

Brought together for the very first time by Heverlee, street food market, The Pitt, venture out of Leith for a rare appearance in the city centre, joining forces with Firecracker Recordings to take-over the currently unused space for three days.

Over the micro-festival, a hand-picked line-up of eclectic electronic DJs include the likes of Richard Chater from Numbers, Label owner House of Traps and Edinburgh’s own Linkwood. Another big name on the bill will be NTS, LuckyMe Record’s Éclair Fifi, a Scottish DJ who has previously held slots on BBC Radio1, and of course legendary club night Rhythm Machine.

Popping up outside their usual home of Leith, The Pitt are serving up a range of delicious Belgian inspired dishes including; classic moules-frites, steak-frites and Carbonade flamande (a traditional Belgian beef stew) made with Heverlee beer. For those looking for something sweet, mouth-watering traditional Belgian waffles are also on offer.

Artist Fraser Gray, who runs LeithLate's highly successful Shutter Project and Mural Projects, has invited a range of street artists to create one-off murals, taking cues from Belgian life, live across the weekend. Belgium is one of the most prolific countries in the world for contemporary street art, with the city of Antwerp playing host to Meeting of Styles, an international street art tour which takes place annually in over sixteen countries.

Following their appearance at this year’s Hidden Door festival, Edinburgh’s projection specialists KinoKlub have installed an immersive art installation in one of the arches, engulfing the space with Belgian themed animations and scenes from classic Belgian cinema. On Sunday, Picture House Pop Up will take over the arch for an exclusive screening of two feature length films.

At the bar, guests have the chance to enjoy cold pints of Heverlee pilsner style lager. The recipe for Heverlee was inspired by master brewer, Joris Brams, after he found descriptions of a historical beer brewed by monks at the Abbey of the Order of Premontre, Leuven in 1129. You can try two limited Heverlee brews, created in Belgium especially for the event and revealed on the opening night, which I can safely say are totally delicious! Cans and bottles of Heverlee are available at New Waverley, before they hit the shelves of shops and bars later this year.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Herverlee's inaugural Edinburgh micro-festival, and can't wait for more exciting projects from the brand. If you haven't already, be sure to pop down to New Waverley this weekend!