Forget Octoberfest–this is your fest.
If you’re passionate about beer, home brewing, and everything that has to do with beer sampling and know of others that share the same interests, why not take a shot at organizing and starting your own brew festival tradition? There’s a lot that you’ll need to do and a lot of duties to assign, but if it all comes together, your own brew fest can be a fun, rewarding experience.
So what exactly do you need to do to plan your own beer festival? Here’s a look:
Gauge Interest: The first step in planning any festival– especially if it’s a first festival–is to gauge interest. Do this by putting out feelers to local breweries and pubs in your area to see if they would be interested in attending and maybe even in helping you promote it. Talk with the owners about this. As people who deal with a clientele of beer enthusiasts on a daily basis, they’ll be able to give you a better idea of how successful–from a participation standpoint–a brew fest might be.
Set a Date, Venue, and Logistics: If you’re confident a brew fest will be well attended, then the next step is setting a date, selecting a venue, and working out other various logistics. For instance, if your brew fest is taking place outside, you’ll likely need to look into tents, porta potty rentals, security, and maybe even a rain contingency plan. In line with other logistics you’ll need to work out, consider planning special events and competitions for your brew fest. Taste tests, home brewing competitions and beer pong all make for good events at beer brew festivals. Don’t forget to check for any necessary permits you might need!
Seek Sponsorship: If you can secure any sponsorships for your brew fest you can save organizational costs, and can charge cheaper admission prices. Circle back to the local breweries and pubs you visited when seeing whether or not your brew fest was feasible and ask if they’d be willing to sponsor the event.
Market and Advertise: The final step is to market and advertise your brew fest. See if local businesses will hang flyers in their windows to help spread the word and consider buying ad space in your local newspaper. Create a press release and send it to local media outlets to see if they’ll add the brew fest to their event calendars. Also encourage any sponsors to help promote the event.
It’s a lot of work planning and organizing your own brew fest and a lot more work on the day-of to ensure it goes off successfully. But doing so can be a fun, rewarding experience that may spur a new tradition. Make it even more fun and try to promote your home brewed beer to promote at the festival! You can get everything you’ll need right from our website.
