Mixed feelings about Boise BeerFest
There is a lot to discuss about last weekend’s first Boise BeerFest in Ann Morrison Park, but there is one thing organizers can do for sure next year that will exponentially improve the event.
Get signs. Lots of signs.
There was plenty of beer to drink, food to eat, sun to bask in, and grass to chill in.
But there were no signs anywhere. As in signs for what kind of beer you were standing in line to sample. Signs clearly specifying what food was for sale where. Signs on where to get tickets so your kids could play on the inflatable slides.
Signs. That’s the key — especially in the beer tents.
I don’t know how successful a beer fest the Boise BeerFest was, but the event itself sure was a lot of fun. The weather was good, people were well behaved, and who doesn’t like to hang out with other like-minded people and drink beer together?
But for me, the thing that still bothers me is I couldn’t tell what beer I was standing in line for.
The lines were long, so it wasn’t like you could just move over down the tables to try something you wanted. You would have to stand in the long lines all over again.
A good beer festival is about trying a bunch of different kinds of beer. I ended up drinking big glasses of a few beers so I didn’t have to deal with the rugby scrum inside the two big pouring tents.
One of the lures for me was to drink beers I can’t normally get here, like Dogfish Head or Bear Republic, but I had no idea where to stand in line to get them. I think by the time I got there on Saturday afternoon, those kegs were blown, anyway. But a sign would have helped.
I expect a big, rowdy crowd for a beer festival. That’s fine. I would like that crowd to congregate a little bit away from the tasting tables, though. It was hard to tell who was in line and where the lines began.
One bit of really good news from this is that the event was well attended.
Boise BeerFest organizer Rick Boyd said between 20,000 to 25,000 people came to the weekend long event. Festival goers drank 364 kegs of beer. That is a stunning success for a first time event. Boise is clearly thirsty for large craft beer events.
There were no fights or major trouble that I am aware of. Vibes were good.
For instance, I accidentally elbowed a dreadlocked guy walking by me, quickly apologized, and he gave me a hug. It was like that, from what I could tell. Organizers had taxis lined up, which was very smart.
And where else can you get a fresh funnel cake after drinking a bunch of beer?
First time event also means you learn a ton about what to do and what not to do for the next time. I have faith improvements will be made.
I don’t know if this is possible, but the best way to do something like this is to have separate tents for each brewery. That’s what they had at the on-hiatus Old Boise Brewers Festival, and it worked great.
I realize that would likely take up too much room and be hard to pull off at the area designated for the festival at Ann Morrison. But clearly readable signs for each brewery is a must if the pouring is going to be done in those large tents.
I did like the kids play area (all those inflatable slides and stuff), because it meant the whole Orr family could go. That was really nice, not to have to abandon the family for a precious weekend summer day.
I would say this, though. If you want to charge to allow kids to play on the inflatable slides and bounce house, then be upfront about it. Don’t call it donations, and then tell the kids going on the slides they have to buy tickets first. I thought that was bogus — even if the proceeds went to charity. There is nothing wrong with a small charge for the service — just be upfront about it.
I heard some complaints from fest-goers about all the dogs around, but they didn’t really bother me too much. All the dogs I encountered were all exceedingly well behaved. I see how it could bug some people though, especially if they happened to step in a jackpot.
Other than the lack of signage, all my other complaints were minor nits. I thought it was a lot of fun and showed how much demand there is here for a good festival.
Still, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Email me porr@idahostatesman.com or add comments to this blog.
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Maybe it was the Pyramid Challenge...
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There is no life in Idaho...it is a mirror site on god's server. You were dreaming but it is over. Go to your residence and await our commands and THEN we will restore control...
Lines and such
Patrick, you are younger than me so should be able to get up in the morning. The lines from noon to about 4:30 weren't too bad. Most events from an earlier arrival time can be quite easy to navigate and this one was no exception. The many beers were quite good. The signs behind the tables let us know which brewery we wanted to try. Each had 2 to 4 samples of which you could choose. We didn't know which those samples would be until we got there, but having to wait for only 2 to 4 people, I didn't find the wait excessive. I did like the "token per taste" instead of the "one price drink all" you proposed. We enjoyed the event and look forward to next year.
Homer Simpson to Earth: I mean, IT'S ALL BEEEER!
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There is no life in Idaho...it is a mirror site on god's server. You were dreaming but it is over. Go to your residence and await our commands and THEN we will restore control...
The lack of signage, or hanging up the signage
Obviously that was the worst part about it, and I'm stupefied as to how the organizers could screw that up. A map/guide from the information booth is essential for events like this, and they didn't do it. Initially I assumed that the breweries that had their banners hung up were the ones that were available. So I came to the conclusion that half of the 50-or-so breweries being represented came in on one day and the other half came in on the other. It wasn't until I came back on Sunday (when the lines were MUCH shorter, by the way) that I realized how big of a mistake the organizers made. Some of the breweries represented had signs, but they were 8.5" X 11" printouts attached to the taps--- four feet off of the ground! Gee, thanks. How is someone in the back of the tent browsing the selections supposed to see that?
Another negative was that too many of the breweries provided beer you can normally get here. The good thing about beerfests in a place like Portland is that the breweries bring something special along that's not normally able to be purchased (or purchased easily). Apart from breweries that don't sell their stuff in Boise, it was the same ol' same ol'.
There were some definite positives to it, but I'm keeping my mouth shut so as not to tip off the organizers. I'm glad it was reasonably successful, but they need to work the kinks out.
I'm Confused...
Why would you NOT want to tip off the organizers about the definite positives? Are you planning on putting on a competitive event next year? If not, I don't understand the attitude. What were the things that made it work? Let the organizers know those things too. Constructive criticism will help things grow.
As far as "Another negative was that too many of the breweries provided beer you can normally get here": Remember, this was a first year event. Some of those breweries have been burned at beer fests here before. The fact that this one had such a high turnout (an absolute record as far as I can remember) bodes well for the future. It adds credence to Boise being a beer lover's town in the eyes of the outside world. (And yes, signage would have helped everybody find the beers that were new to the area.)
They're the type of
They're the type of positives that made the time there more fun and free-spirited but are also ones that they might want to put a clampdown on next time. I don't know these organizers, so I don't know how uptight they might be. As a result, I don't want to bring it up. But it did make my experience better, and I know I'm not the only one. But the good turnout was the primary positive. They just need to primarily work on effectively communicating information to the attendees.
In other words, don't be knockin' the free beer.
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There is no life in Idaho...it is a mirror site on god's server. You were dreaming but it is over. Go to your residence and await our commands and THEN we will restore control...
props
You have done a great job lately of promoting craft beer without putting the knock on those of us who don't share your enthusiasm.
As for dogs.. you can't go anywhere without putting up with them, and it gets real old. Any outdoor event (even if they are prohibited), stores like Home Depot. How about leaving them home?
Boise BeerFest
Hey guys, sorry its taken me this long to get over to the board and respond to some of the points that were made about Boise BeerFest. Let me start by saying thanks to everyone who came out and made it the success that it was. The brewers and distributors who participated were blown away at how many people showed up and were very happy with how much beer I purchased for the event. They have made me promise to do it again every year.
Now, on to the points raised. I totally agree that better signage is a must and next year this problem will be rectified. The issue this year was availability of product. I had instructed the distributors to have 400+ kegs on hand of what they planned to serve to deal with the volume I was expecting. They came with 150 kegs so we were out of beer by 2 on Saturday. That meant that the entire line up changed so what we were serving at 4 on Saturday was completely different than when we opened up at 11. Another signage issue was tent size. We needed bigger tents to accomodate the beers as the jockey boxes were so close together and so cramped that people couldn't determine what line they were in and ended up just getting whatever was being poured at the box they ended up in front of. Next year 3 tents and more space.
The next point is the availability of beer that isn't in this market. I personally brought in 15 beers from outside of the area in a U-Haul truck because none of the local distributors wanted to get stuck bringing in products that they feared they couldn't sell. I bought every single keg of craft beer available in N Idaho for this event and we were out of all of them on Sunday morning. As Wildaho mentioned the distributors and brewers have been burned too many times by beer festival organizers in this town so they don't want to bring in anything that they don't already have. Now that we've shown them what is possible next year will be much easier and the selection will be much better. That said though, we had 107 beers to start the day on Saturday and 29 of those were beers that are/were not available in Boise. I'd say that's pretty damn good for a first year event.
Dogs & Kids, not much we can do there. I believe that kids and a kids area are a big plus as our charity raised more money on the kids area in those two days than they raise all year normally so I think that was a big win for them. Dogs on the other hand are another issue entirely. Its a public park and we can't deny anyone access to the space. When we saw dogs causing problems we had them escorted out of the event. Most people were very understanding.
Tokens vs All you can drink model. The city frowns on all you can drink as a concept as I'm sure you can imagine so had we approached them with that model we would not have recieved the support that we did. Tokens are the most manageable way to dispensing beer and since the tokens are good at all of our events including Alpenfest which is coming up in a couple weeks its a good bargain for the attendees. The other problem with all you can drink models is the attendee either ends up falling down drunk or gets ripped off because they didn't drink as much as they paid for. Our average sale was $15 per person, an all you can drink package would have been priced at $25 so it was clearly a better value to buy the tokens.
Next year we will have more than 150 beers, many from brewers that aren't in Boise currently that have contacted me since the event asking to be involved. We will be moving to the soccer fields in Ann Morrison to make a little more room for the crowds. We will open up on Friday night and go through Sunday night. We will go even bigger and better with the entertainment. We will incorporate a lot more activities into the event like games and contest and we will show the rest of the NW that Boise deserves to be taken seriously as a beer town.
Thanks again to everyone for coming out and we'll see you at Alpenfest October 10th.
That beer's empty now...oh.
At least we're getting near Bob and Doug's favorite time of year.
HOCKEY SEASON!
We can drink beer all year long. It's the gift that keeps on being delivered to the store.
(paraphrasing wildly)
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There is no life in Idaho...it is a mirror site on god's server. You were dreaming but it is over. Go to your residence and await our commands and THEN we will restore control...