Boundary Bay Brewery Celebrates 20 Years of Downtown Sounds Beer Partnership

Boundary Bay Brewery is celebrating 20 years of Downtown Sounds with its annual release of Downtown Sounds IPA and Aftersounds after party.

For twenty years, Downtown Sounds, a free outdoor musical event in downtown Bellingham, has become synonymous with summer fun for all ages.

A lot has changed since the early days when the event was held in an alley, expanding over the years to its current location at Bay and Holly Streets. Boundary Bay’s co-owner and General Manager, Janet Lightner, recalls the very first Downtown Sounds.

“They were just getting it off the ground and didn’t have a liquor license, so we brought our root beer. That was the start of our beer garden partnership. It’s been amazing watching Downtown Sounds grow into such a community defining event over the last 20 years. It’s something we’re proud to be a part of from the beginning.”

In 2021 the brewery began brewing a special Downtown Sounds IPA, specifically for the event as a celebration of the thriving downtown event and community.

This year’s Downtown Sounds release is a West Coast IPA with Cryo Mosaic, Citra, and El Dorado hops reverberating fruity aromas of peach rings, citrus and dried apricot. With 7.0% ABV and 54 IBU, its moderate bitterness harmonizes into a smooth and refreshing finish.

The limited release is available exclusively at the Downtown Sounds beer garden and at Boundary Bay Brewery, located downtown at 1107 Railroad Ave.

The music doesn’t end with Downtown Sounds. The after party kicks off with more live music at Aftersounds, hosted in Boundary Bay’s beer garden. Aftersounds is a partnership with Black Noise Records and the brewery and features live Hip Hop and vinyl DJ artists from 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM. Entry is $5 and is for ages 21+.

This years Aftersounds line up includes:

7/10 - DJ Spel Chek, The Rhetorician, and JDone

7/17 - DJ Kitchen Sink, Estimate, and Nodalus

7/24 - Yogoman, Chrvns, and Slap Serif

7/31 - Mike Nardone, BlkSknn, and AJ Suede

8/7 - OG Neeks, Ca$h McClane & S.Tone, and Neffy3600 & YoGirlCallMeSenpai

The Downtown Sounds and Aftersounds kick off is Wednesday, July 10th for a five week run, wrapping up on August 7th.

Cheers to another 20 years of music filling the streets of Downtown Bellingham.

Boundary Bay Brewery - Pioneering craft beer, local food and community in the Pacific Northwest Since 1995

We acknowledge that Whatcom County is located on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples. They cared for the lands that included what we’d call the Puget Sound region, Vancouver Island and British Columbia since time immemorial. This gives us the great obligation and opportunity to learn how to care for our surrounding areas and all the natural and human resources we require to live. We express our deepest respect and gratitude for our indigenous neighbors, the Lummi Nation and Nooksack Tribe, for their enduring care and protection of our shared lands and waterways.