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Beard festival keeps growing

Fourth annual Okanagan Beard Festival starts in February
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Patrick “Redbeard” Vrolyk had some shining facial hair for the third round of the Okanagan Beard Festival in 2017. Dale Boyd/Western News

The fourth annual Okanagan Beard Festival kicks off with the registration and first-round judging event on Feb. 4 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Cannery Brewing Company

This 10-week competition and celebration of the bearded lifestyle includes judging in 12 categories: best beard, longest beard, thickest beard, most original beard, best sculptured beard, most creative beard, best styled moustache, most original moustache, longest moustache, best moustache/goatee combination, best beard/moustache combination, best effort.

In addition to these 12 categories, the festival also includes a best-barber category. All competitors will be representing their respective barbers during the course of the competition. The barber with the most award-winning clients at the finale of the festival will earn bragging rights as the top barber.

This year’s festival consists of four events, taking place at two venues in Penticton: Cannery Brewing on Feb. 4 and the Barking Parrot Bar on Feb. 25, Mar. 25 and Apr. 15. The winners will be announced and awards presented at our festival finale event on April 15. Registration fee is $25, limited to 100 registrants.

Community sponsors for this year’s festival include Duffy Baker Construction Corp., Kinash Real Estate Group - Re/max Penticton Realty and Cannery Brewing.

Net proceeds from this event will benefit Penticton’s Discovery House. To date, the Okanagan Beard Festival has raised approximately $8,500 for Discovery House and his year’s donation will be used to help the men’s recovery facility with their plan to add two more beds to their recovery facility.

The Okanagan Beard Festival is co-organized by Peter Beauchamp of Okanoggin Barber Shop and Tim Tweed of Splendid Bastard Beard Supply. More information on Facebook at okanaganbeardfestival.