Mourning the death of last-minute tickets to beer festivals
It is difficult these days to go to a weekend beer festival without buying your tickets days in advance.
From the viewpoint of the festival organizers, advance sales yield a firm estimate of how many people will be attending. At the recent City Paper festival, organizers capped ticket sales at about 1,200, and the Saturday event sold out on Thursday. This resulted in good crowd control and kept the beer flowing.
However, procrastinators, who waited until the day of the event to see what their schedule was like and what kind of weather the day would provide, got shut out. I confess I was in that position but was saved by the kindness of festival poo-bahs.
The spontaniety of "oh, it is a sunny Saturday, let's go drink beer," is lost. I mourn its passing. Anyone else? Anyone have mournful tales of being turned back at the gates of a festival?
Howsabout tales from the other side -- festivals that did not cap sales and were mobbed?
The next local beer festival, Savor, with a theme of matching food and beer, is set for Washington the weekend of May 16-18. It features Boston Beer's Jim Koch, Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver, and Maryland's Flying Dog and Clipper City crews. The tickets -- $85 per session for drinkers, $50 for designated drivers -- are being sold only in advance. None will be sold on the day of the event. Click here for details.
Comments
I think capping the numbers is critical to people's enjoyment for most festivals. I've been to several, particularly in PA, that I'd never attend again because of size. Brew at the Zoo for example needs to control its crowds a bit. Though they may contain the number, it always appears over crowded and an overall mess.
Posted by: Mike | May 2, 2008 3:17 PM
You can always wait till the Polish Festival in June - walk to Patterson Park, buy a ticket. Sure the only beers available may be Bud and Bud Light - but it's always a good time.
Posted by: bryanintimonium | May 5, 2008 10:47 AM
I understand giving an incentive to designated drivers, but $50!? You'd better be serving a four-course meal at the festival if you're going to charge me $50 if I agree not to drink. I'm sorry, that's ridiculous.
Posted by: Stefanie | May 5, 2008 12:29 PM
I went to the inaugural Maryland Ocktoberfest (at the fairgrounds in Timonium), which wasn't bad, but it has gotten out of control since then. Last year they were still charging people $20 to get in AFTER they cut off beer ticket sales. What a racket they had going there. I got in just before that but was turned away from the ticket booth when I went to reload. I witnessed a line of irate festival-goers waiting for a refund, only to be mocked by some security guards and a guy who I believe was the person running the event (he did reluctantly refund some of their admissions but made them return their mugs and leave the site).
The entire set up is congested as well. They would be much better off spreading things out and not trying to cram everything under the grandstand.
Posted by: Greg S | May 6, 2008 10:47 AM
I was extremely disappointed that Saturday to miss the CityPaper event because it sold out early, but I acknowledge that if I really wanted to go I should have bought tix early and sold them off if I ended up unable to make it. Lesson learned. I look forward to the many upcoming street festivals - I remember big beers being relatively cheap last year at the St. Anthony festival in Little Italy.
Posted by: Heather | May 7, 2008 10:44 AM