Belfry aims to recover costs from cancelled wine auction
After the enforcement of archaic liquor laws shut down the Belfry Theatre's annual charity wine auction last month, organizers are hoping an online auction will help recover some of the costs they incurred organizing the event.
The Belfry's Crush wine auction was cancelled for auctioning bottles of donated wine using a special occasion licence, a common practice that was only recently deemed illegal by the province.
Rich Coleman, the minister in charge of liquor licencing, has indicated liquor laws will be clarified sometime next year to explicitly permit charity wine auctions.
In the meantime, charities are permitted to auction gift baskets that contain wine, so long as the wine is paired with other donated items.
The Belfry is now hoping three gift baskets containing donated wine will bring in the bidders.
The three packages include donated items from Charelli’s Cheese Shop and Delicatessen, The Whole Beast Artisan Salumeria, Prestige Picture Framing and the Victoria Royals.
Bidding starts at $200 and will close Dec. 16 at 4 p.m.
To view the gift baskets, visit belfry.bc.ca/online-holiday-auction.
dpalmer@vicnews.com
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