Schiltigheim’s beer festival will be held without Heineken

France | Danielle Dambach, the mayor of Schiltigheim, announced that the 41st edition of the local Beer Festival will take place from 4 -7 August, but without the “privileged partner” of this event, the Espérance brewery (Heineken).

The reason: Heineken’s announcement, in November 2022, of the closure of its Schiltigheim brewery within three years and the loss of 200 jobs. Between January and March, a dozen employees in charge of brewing and filtration succeeded in blocking the entire site for 28 days in order to prevent its closure.

The municipality of Schiltigheim, north of Strasbourg, opposes this closure even though the brands owned by Heineken (Adelshoffen, Espérance, Fischer) have participated in this beer event since 1972.

“It is not revenge. We don't have the same objectives or the same values, our paths diverge,” the mayor told French media on 4 April. “I do not accept that a multinational firm that has killed several Schilikois beers is honoured at the festival.”

The problem remains: who will supply the beer instead? Only local breweries are admitted to serve the more than 10,000 visitors. This leaves the microbrewery Storig. In 2022, of the total beer sold, 12,641 litres were provided by the Heineken brewery, 2,930 litres by Storig.

The mayor promised she will find a new partner within weeks.