obsidian dark beer festival 2026

The festival will be taking place at the historic Ballarat Mining Exchange, 12 Lydiard St North Ballarat.

The festival will be completely indoors, with heated concrete floors to provide any extra warmth that you need in addition to the delicious beers on offer.

Local to Ballarat

 - best to utilise public transport, taxis or ubers to and from the venue

Melbourne based

 - utilise the cheaper daily fares and journey to Ballarat on a VLINE service. The timing of sessions should enable you to easily get to and from the festival in a timely manner (but you can always hang around and sample some of the great local bars and eateries)

 - the venue is around a 5 minute walk from the Ballarat Train Station

Surrounding areas

 - most areas will have some form of public transport service to Ballarat but if not, why not make a night of it and stay in town at one of the great accommodation providers!

Expect to see a variety of dark beer offerings! From Brown Ales, to Barrel Aged Stouts, Dark Saisons to Belgian Quads.

Attendees will be given a tasting card on entry that identifies where and what each brewery have on offer - the order and method of how you tackle them is completely up to you!

Tickets will be available for sale up until the commencement of each session (subject to availability). If capacity allows, ticket sales will be available during each session. 

Social media pages will be updated to reflect a session being sold out.

You will be provided a wristband on entry which will enable you to leave the venue and return. This may be required if you wish to head outside for a cigarette, as the venue itself is non-smoking.

Coming soon

Coming soon