I was looking for some other opinions on this years Allagash Street Fair. Typically all of their events are superbly run and always a great time but I definitely felt there was a ton of confusion on Saturday. Parking at 190 Riverside wasn't marked, nor were there attendants there, so we had to guess the correct area to park. Even the shuttle drivers had no idea what was going on. I was lucky enough to get VIP tix, which got me in an hour early and I was able to try almost all the out of state brews from Jester King, Odell, etc (which were phenomenal). However within the initial hour of general admission almost all the out of staters ran out of beer. The ticket system was extremely confusing. I wish they just had one type of ticket, 4oz pours for all breweries. There just seemed to be a lot of missing information about the event details in general. Also, in the initial emails they mentioned VIP's would have full access of the fair plus " the ability to purchase beers from participating breweries", which to me, and a few other fair goers I spoke with made the impression we would be able to buy bottles to go from out of staters (wishful thinking I know). The beers, food and music were terrific, I just hope they're able to work out some of the kinks for next year.
We made the mistake of having another beer at Oxbow and got to Allagash at 2pm, missing the bulk of the beer. Got a Rising Tide MITA & Bells Oarsman and left to head back to town. Gave my beer tickets away on the way out. Never been to event with so many people and so little beer.
I went last year and decided to skip this year because of all the reasons mentioned. They clearly didn't learn from their mistakes last year, which is a bummer. The worst part about last year (and maybe this year) was that they had different tickets for different brewers. So I bought tickets only to have them sell out of beer before I could use them. And then I wasn't able to refund them. Really bad all around in terms of beer and it looks like they still didn't learn their lesson
I was at last year and this year. The shuttles were bad last year as well, with people waiting over a hour to catch one. I am shocked to hear that they were even worse this year. 2015 was an absolute blast. I showed up 2 hours into the festival and there was plenty of beer to go around. I got to try every beer (including out of state beers) no problem. 2016 was miserable. I showed up 15 minutes after opening. Waited for some food from a food truck and in that 30 minutes, Jester King totally tapped out. I drank 1 taster from Odell's then went over to Wicked Weed and they were totally tapped out. The only reason I bought tickets were for JK and Wicked Weed and I got squat from them. JK blamed it on them being popular, but I call BS on that - they brought barely any beer for this. Even the local breweries were tapping out and there was no beer or food left by a little after 4 PM. This thing was supposed to last until 6 PM. Even worse, it was my 30th birthday and so I dragged my whole family out to this and they were miserable. They were from out of state and were very confused on how the whole ticket system was supposed to work. I won't be going again next year, don't know how they messed this one up so badly.
I'm sick of events and fests being poorly run and running out of stuff hours early when you pay to RELAX and enjoy the things you want to enjoy that others can't because they don't have a ticket.. We've had a few up here on the Seacoast that have been a disaster. It's so stupid if you have to pay to get into an event that just becomes another Treehouse'sh line. Clean up your act or don't hold the events, simple as that. Doesn't by any means make any of them bad breweries. But some things are better at being what they are.
I concur. Given the success of last year and as @Davl22 said given Allagash's history of superbly run events, no one expected this to be the atomic trainwreck that it was though. Extremely disappointing. Good to know about the Seacoast, I guess I won't be going to any NH events either.
I guess there are two sides to every story. I showed up an hour early and parked at 125 Industrial Way. When this thing was first announced, it was mentioned there would be limited parking there for $5. When I got there, the attendant at the Vendor lot just up the street told me that lot was available to the public. No one was collecting money though. I got in line about 30 minutes before the event started and got my wristband with my group. The beer ticket system and direction of locations on where to get them was very unorganized, but that was my only complaint. In the hour for my VIP ticket, I had samples from all the "out of staters" with no wait at all. The $5 truffle cheese steak from Great Lost Bear was the deal of the day. Could the event have run better? Sure. But, anyone who is surprised at an event like this with the beer lineup that was brought who didn't expect it to be a little chaotic is fooling themselves. I'm sure there are plenty of people who had a similar experience like I did, and I do get why people are upset but calling the event a failure because of your personal experience isn't fair to the people who ran it. The real problem is that the event was oversold. 2000 tickets for that amount of beer in that space was never going to last long.
I rolled VIP as well. Got to try everything I wanted. I imagine one part of the problem was alot of the out of town breweries bringing bottles and not drafts. Not sure if that's how those beers are only being packaged but I feel like that didn't help. Overall, if you went VIP ticket than I think you came out loving the event, at least I can say that was the case for my group. Also, 16oz pours of FV13/Resurgam for $6 was incredible.
VIPs got everything they wanted. Everyone else general admission which were the bulk got royally screwed over. Overselling tickets is not an excuse for this as they had a cap limit and knew how many they were selling ahead of time. The expectation from a general admit person is that the announced beers were for the GA crowds and there were unlisted beers for the VIP crowd. Its not unreasonable for me to expect to get my GA beers and that did not happen. I wouldnt complain if VIPs paid to get in ahead of time and general admission people got in free, but we shelled out $20 a ticket for nothing.
Not all bad, but a few around here have run out of beer very early. Not naming any, but just research any event before you go. Thanks!
I rarely buy into VIP, but did this time to ensure JK and WW pours. Was dropped off so cannot speak to parking issues. Got all the beers I wanted as such, but the whole thing was extremely confusing. Handed a cup, but no map. Got in JK line for first pour - told I needed a blue ticket which you needed the map to locate where they were sold. Wasted 20 min. there. Got $20 of blue tix, only to find out that local pours only used yellow tix for a full pour - which I never want. Luckily they swapped out my 5 leftover blues for equivalent of yellow. Had to dump some because as stated, not up for full pours. Found out from friends who joined me at 2 that most of the food was gone. The snacks in the VIP tent got me through. Had a great time last year, but if I hadn't gone VIP this year, I would've been some bummed!
Sounds like an over complicated mess. Why can't this just be a local event. It is the Allagash Street Fair after all. Invite the local beers, one ticket type and trade in a certain amount for each pour size. Problem solved, why do things become overly complicated? I hope Bissell just does there own event to celebrate the new place soon.
