(Photos by Jim Lauwers)
The First Annual Columbus Beerfest kicked off last night at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, and continues this evening with more beer, music and festivities from 7pm to 11pm. The event features over 150 craft beers from both local and national brewers. Below are are photos taken at last night’s event.
Launched in August 2010, TheMetropreneur.com is a local online resource devoted to small business development and entrepreneurship. Its aim is to tell the stories of Central Ohio’s business community, foster regional economic development and assist entrepreneurs with its resource-heavy focus. Click here to visit TheMetropreneur.com.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
As much as I wanted to be there, I was in Ann Arbor all weekend attending a wedding..though..I did come across this if the Columbus folks are willing to make the trip:
http://www.michiganbrewersguild.org/events.asp
13th Annual Summer Beer Festival
Riverside Park ~ Depot Town, Ypsilanti, Michigan
Friday July 23rd, 2010 5pm to 9pm
Saturday July 24th, 2010 1pm to 6pm
Tickets go on sale May 1st!
The Summer Beer Festival is the Michigan Brewers Guild’s oldest and largest of our four annual festivals. The festival takes place outside in a lovely riverside setting and will feature more than 300 different beers from more than 50 different Michigan breweries.
A variety of tasty food items are available for purchase from independent food vendors inside the festival and there will be a diverse selection live music from a variety of local bands.
Tickets on sale beginning May 1st ***Purchase Tickets***
Friday $30 advance ($35 at gate if available)
Saturday $35 advance ($40 at gate if available)
The festival is expected to sell out again this year so advance ticket purchase is encouraged to assure admittance. Tickets are available on line to print at home on your printer and are also available at some member breweries and select retail outlets. Ticket outlets will be posted on our blog, the MASH, as they become available at the outlets. http://www.mbgmash.org Designated Driver tickets are available in advance on line for $5. Designated Drivers are not allowed to drink beer.
15 drink tokens are included with admission and each drink token is redeemable for a 3oz sample of beer. Additional tokens will be available inside the festival for 50 cents. The Michigan Brewers Guild utilizes drink tokens and specially marked cups to assure that we comply with Michigan Liquor Control Commission regulation and have a controlled means of serving beer. Festivals attendees are expected to willingly provide a token for each and every sample of beer received. We appreciate your cooperation.
The festival will take place rain or shine.
You must be at least 21 years of age to enter the festival. Everyone will be required to show valid ID for entry.
The City’s event ordinance Section 10-288(c) prohibits the following within the event area: dogs (except service dogs), horses, farm animals, uncaged domestic animals, snakes, exotic animals, bicycles, skateboards, roller-skates, rollerblades, and glass containers.
Outside food and beverages are permitted but bags and coolers will be inspected to assure that no outside alcohol or glass is brought into the festival.
Children are not allowed in the festival excepting very small, immobile children who remain in a backpack or stroller. Sorry, but this is an adult event.
Michigan Brewers Guild Enthusiast Members will be allowed to enter the festival one hour prior to general admission each day. You must present a valid membership card to enter early. Memberships can be purchase on line through our web store.
Please visit our blog at http://www.mbgmash.org for specific and up to date details.
We look forward to seeing you at the festival.
I spoke to one of the organizers afterward and the fest attendance really took off. Ticket sales pre-show were very lagging and had them worried. As a result, many of the details mentioned fell through the cracks. It seems the list and maps were left at Kinkos.
They also ran out of beer for some breweries on Friday night. I attended the Saturday session and the crowd was over 1,500. They will know better next year.
Nice pics of the Friday session. I took some on Saturday (http://bit.ly/dtojwU). I look forward to it being better next year.
I had a great time, sure lots of improvements can be made but it was a great time.
For the price the number of tickets was great, had they only offered 15 tickets, I probably would not have gone, even if I only used 15 of my 25.
Hopefully next year they have more seating and I would love to see even more brewers. Was hoping to try some of the Great Lakes seasonal brews.
I attended Saturday night, with some folks I met thru CU/Twitter… we had a good time, but left with the overall impression that the event was put on by a bunch of frat guys. I know they got blasted with an unexpected crowd, but they didn’t seem to have an organizational framework to work from, in terms of managing the folks trying to get in (really? you don’t have the 25 tickets counted out and in baggies/piles/bundles/whatever, ready to go?), once getting in, turns out that no one was even bothering with tickets anyway. I was also expecting a map/list, and to not have one was a little frustrating. There were no real “lines” because there was no where for folks to go once they’d gotten their beer — they were simply reabsorbed into the crowd. So, there might be a line, but other folks were just walking up to the counter, so that’s how we started managing it (but for a couple of places with very clear, LONG, lines).
The band was decent.
I defninitely wished for more local food options – if they did the event outside, I wonder about our local army of truck-food vendors getting space to serve the drunken and hungry. THAT would have been awesome.
It’s an event with potential, that’s for sure.