The MIXOLOGY Bar Awards 2027 Will Not Take Place

There are decisions that are hard to make. This is one of them. After careful consideration, the management of Meininger Verlag has decided: The MIXOLOGY Bar Awards 2027 are canceled. Of course, we as the editorial team stand behind this decision. The Festsaal Kreuzberg will remain quiet and dark on the evening of October 11—contrary to the advance coverage in our latest issue. So we’ll have to wait until next year.

The reason is simple: it’s about money. An event like our Awards costs a lot of money. A great deal of money. Money, by the way, that is raised only to a small extent through ticket sales. No, the budget for our Awards—as with all standard formats of this kind—comes from sponsors. Every sponsor that appears as a partner at our Awards pays a substantial sum for it. A substantial sum, but one we consider reasonable; and one that has worked well for a long time. Until now.

The economic situation, which has been tight for years and is becoming increasingly complicated, has not left our awards unscathed. The year before last, it was difficult to secure even a modest number of partners for the awards. Last year was even harder—even though both ceremonies that year were fantastic and we received almost exclusively positive to enthusiastic feedback. Even the food was good!

This year, however, we’ve reached the point where it just doesn’t work anymore. It’s a situation that can be compared to the following scenario: You put a really great cocktail on the menu for 15 euros and know that guests will love it. The problem: The cost of ingredients alone is 20 euros. No one puts a cocktail like that on the menu. That’s roughly how things are with our awards this year.

In the conversations our colleagues responsible for marketing the awards have been having with potential partners, we’ve heard the following response—in one form or another—more frequently than ever this year, from both long-standing loyal clients and potential new ones: “We’d love to participate. But we just can’t this year.” That’s fair and honest, and we don’t blame anyone. Long-serving brand managers only dream of the pre-COVID era’s dream budgets after a few drinks. If we’ve hit the end of the line for now, that’s a reality everyone has to live with. But this is also the moment when we must echo the sentiment of the many absent partners: “We’d love to do the awards. But we can’t this year.”

That is why my most important wish is that the cancellation of this year’s awards not be interpreted as an act of ill will. It is a purely business decision, made out of corporate responsibility.