Having visited the Oregon Brewer's Fest in Portland last month, I think this is a great idea. One question, though: Who schedules a beer festival on a Sunday?

Thanks Drew. I'm seriously sick and tired of concerts and events in Baltimore I want to go to that are on Sunday! If you want people to go, make it on Saturday!

Hmm, looked pretty enticing until I saw it was during the Ravens game... with only 4 oz cups, it'll be hard to sit back and watch the game... most of the time at these things is wandering around to find your next sample and then waiting in line for the next beer.

Plus that can make Monday rough.

The Baltimore Marathon is the the day before this Beer festival. Finding an open festival space most Sat's in the Balto metro area is pretty tough given the number of ethic festivals the city holds in the Parks and around the stadiums. Especially so in Fall/Spring when the weather is generally nice. I am sure the organizers were just looking for a date when the Ravens were out of town to draw a crowd. Matbe they were thinking folks would watch the game on the square and walk down at halftime or after?

@Sturmy your post (typo) makes me smile.... if only Baltimore had "ethic festivals" .... that's a bummer that I'm going to have a beer fest/ravens conflict.

Sunday - the closing day of beer week? Could that be why? I mean, for an event that runs from Oct 7th - Oct 17th, and it's the closing festival....

But then again, just a stab in the dark...

Beer Week it is! The previous Sat. is BAM's Octoberfest and the day before is the Chesapeake Real Ale Challenge at Pratt St Ale House. So Sunday it is. If you can't drink from noon to five on a sunday and make it to work on Monday go to one of the other events or call in sick.

If I may add something:

Part of the rationale for the Baltimore Beer Festival was for an opportunity for excellent breweries that don't happen to be in Maryland (for example: Dogfish Head, Victory, Saranac. Leinenkugel's, Samuel Adams, and others--many of whom are Beer Week sponsors) to showcase their stuff at a Baltimore Beer Week Festival. The BAM Oktoberfest in Timonium on Oct. 9th is, by design, an event showcasing Maryland breweries (Brewers Assn. of Maryland--duh!), and the excellent Chesapeake Real Ale Festival is focused exclusively on cask-conditioned "real ale". We came close to having a similar festival to close out the inaugural Baltimore Beer Week in 2009, but arrangements fell apart.

As one of the founders of BBW, I'm rather relieved to have Mr. Green, Smalltimore, and this festival to help close out Baltimore Beer Week 2010. It expands the scope of BBW beyond the immediate central Maryland region, on top of the efforts by many fine bars featuring fine beers from across the nation and globe.

no offense, but though i appreciate them sponsoring beer week, Leinenkugel's is far from an excellent brewery as far as beer taste goes. also, i'm pretty sure they're going to have a big projection tv showing the game during this event. fingers crossed no dead fish/sewage stank that day! cheers!

the festival runs until 5 PM. if you can't find enough to eat in canton to sober you up in time for work on monday, then beer is not your problem my friend. i've seen plenty of people in pretty rough shape later in the day at mother's purple patio and they made it to work just fine on monday.

Hey, dude, it could be FAR worse.

Technically, there's no real mechanism in place to prevent Anheuser-Busch or Stella Artois from steeping up and signing on as a mega-sponsor of Baltimore Beer Week...... other than, say, the gentle discretion of the BBW committee. (But I think AB or the like are sharp enough to recognize that something like BBW is just "not their scene".......)

The Ravens game will be played on a big screen and sipping on beers under the blink of the Natty Boh sign sounds great to me. With over 25 different breweries and 60 beers, there will be a minimum wait for your next beer. As far as having it on a Sunday, you have your notice to call out work two months in advance.