At Fort George, February is Stout Month. Every year new and unique stouts are released throughout the month. In the midst of this quaffable darkness, in the darkest month of the year, in the darkest, uppermost corner of Oregon, The Festival of Dark Arts descends on Fort George, transforming the heart of Astoria into a land of stout.
It’s the world’s darkest beer festival.
Fort George’s Festival of Dark Arts 2025 featured a world-class list of 108 stouts from 85 breweries. Stouts flowed from 0ver 70 taps at 15 pouring locations around the brewery in Downtown Astoria. The nearly impossible task of imagining, managing, staffing, and coordinating the world’s best stout festival begins as soon as the previous years’ fest is over so we’re already hard at work on 2026. Thanks to the efforts of a huge host of volunteers, security personnel, employees, artists, musicians, performers, and friends, Festival of Dark Arts 2025 was the biggest, best, darkest beer festival yet. Next year it will be even bigger, better and darker.
The first Festival of Dark Arts was held in Astoria in February 2002. Jack Harris, Fort George Co-Founder, celebrated the first Stout Month in 1992 while working at the McMenamin’s Cornelius Pass Roadhouse. Everywhere he moved and everywhere he brewed, he took Stout Month with him. You can read more about the history of Stout Month here. After leaving McMenamin’s, Jack wasn’t ready to leave behind the darkness.
“I carried Stout Month with me to The Lighthouse Brewpub in Lincoln City and on to Boulder, Colorado. I also imposed Stout Month on Bill’s Tavern in Cannon Beach for nine years before bringing it up here to Astoria,” says Jack. The first Festival of Dark Arts in Astoria was a collaboration with Astoria Visual Arts and featured 10-12 stouts on tap, a gallery of dark art and fire dancers in the street.
In 2025, over 3,000 attendees sampled stouts from all over the country and around the world, enjoying 34 performances on 3 stages, live tattooing, tarot readings, ice sculptors, aerial dancers, beer painters, printing demonstrations and a myriad of food offerings perfectly suited to stout from Donut Burgers to Cthulu Sticks.
2025 BREWERIES
Black Raven Brewing Co. | Brehon Brewhouse | Level Beer | Little Beast Brewing | Modern Times | Three Chiefs Brewing Co. | pFriem Family Brewers
Reuben’s Brews | Scuttlebutt Brewing | Sockeye Brewing | Sunriver Brewing Co. | Assembly Brewing Co. | Boss Rambler Beer Club | Deschutes Brewery
Everywhere Beer | Holy Mountain Brewing | Irrelevant Beer | Living Häus Beer Company | Matchless Brewing | McMenamins | Obelisk Beer Co.
Ravenna Brewing Company | Ruse Brewing | Structures Brewing | Terranaut Beer | Trap Door | AleSong Brewing & Blending | Block 15 Brewing
Cloudburst Brewing | Fair State Brewing Cooperative | Great Notion Brewing | Revision Brewing Co. | Single Hill Brewing | Threshold Brewing | Vice Beer
Astoria Brewing Company | Chetco Brewing Co. | Formula Brewing | Ilk Beer | Longmire Springs Brewing | Mount Olympus Brewing | Georgetown Brewing Co.
North Jetty Brewing | Packwood Brewing Co. | Public Coast Brewing Company | Sisu Beer | Steam Donkey Brewing | Willapa Brewing Co. | Brouwerij De Molen
Brouwerij Van Steenberge | Ghost Town Brewing | Lucky Envelope | Victor-23 Brewery | Xicha Brewing | Abomination Brewing | AleSmith Brewing Co.
Mikkeller Beer | Breakside Brewery | Claim 52 Brewing | ColdFire Brewing | Evasion Brewing | Fremont Brewing | Kings & Daughters
No Boat Brewing Company | Alvarado Street Brewery | Cellarmaker Brewing Co. | Double Mountain Brewery | Half Acre Beer | Métier Brewing Co. | Moksa Brewing
Oakshire Brewing | Our Mutual Friend Brewing | Varietal Beer Co. | Brujos Brewing | Troon Brewing | Buoy Beer Co.
Firestone Walker Brewing Co. | Omnipollo | Burial Beer Co. | Grains of Wrath | E9 Brewing Co. | Structures Brewing | Von Ebert Brewing
Heck Brewing | de Garde Brewing | Gigantic Brewing Company | Everybody’s Brewing | Terminal Gravity Brewing | Boneyard Beer
