A huge cocktail festival is coming to Toronto this fall

A major cocktail festival featuring Toronto’s top bars is coming to the city this fall, but you’ll have to act fast if you want to score a ticket.

The best and brightest on Toronto’s internationally regarded cocktail bar scene are showing up and showing out this October as the Toronto Cocktail Festival, presented by The Alchemist Magazine, returns to the city for a week of boozy bliss.

A far cry from the street festivals that rain chaos over major arteries all summer, the cocktail festival consists of a series of special ticketed events designed to highlight the diversity of the city’s bar scene.

It all kicks off with a cocktail-paired brunch at Casa Madera, featuring a four-course brunch designed by Executive Chef Daniele Pisanu, cocktail pairings by Justin Helie-Masters, and a roster of surprise guest bartenders.

Over the course of the festival, you can also score a spot on one of four neighbourhood cocktail crawls, where you’ll be able to explore a lineup of the best bars in Little Italy, the Fashion District, Bloor West or Queen and Ossington.

A ticket to any of the bar crawls includes one craft cocktail at each bar, as well as chef-crafted canapés to pair with them, not to mention the opportunity to make some new cocktail-filic friends.

The festival culminates with the epic Gala of Cocktails, which sees Waterworks Food Hall taken over by more than 25 open bar (yes, I said open bar) stations from a slew of the city’s best bars, each pulling out all the stops for the city’s armchair cocktail connoisseurs.

Along with the drinks, bites from the Food Dudes and live DJ tunes are also on the roster.

On top of the major events, smaller ones will be happening at bars across the city all week long. A series of daily cinq a sept happy hours will take over bars like Crybaby Gallery, 915 Dupont, Bar Banane and Mother Cocktail Bar (to name only a few), while those eager to sharpen their expertise can attend a variety of yet-to-be-announced seminars from industry leaders.

Tickets to all of the festival’s major events — the cocktail-paired brunch, neighbourhood cocktail crawls and the gala — go on sale online Saturday, Aug. 1, and with a tendency to sell out in the time it takes to down a dirty martini, you’ll want to snag yours ASAP.

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