Hunahpu's Day 2017

Fun little Huna day thing that happened to me last year, you may not want to hitch your wagon to this idea though.

I made the mistake of tightening my wristband a little before putting it on and it ended up not fitting over my thumb to get on the wrist itself. When I got to the front of the line they insisted it had to be fully on my wrist, and told me I had to go over to will call. They replaced the wrist band there, and here I am thinking I had to go get back in line, but no, the guy at will call scanned and let me in. Now you might be thinking the same thing I was; shit, how do I get my food vouchers and tasting glass? Turns out I just went to where the line was coming into the festival and told one of the volunteers I came in through will call. No problem at all, she handed me all the stuff and I was on my way.

Immediately after I regretted standing in line for an hour plus when apparently I could have just sauntered up to will call at 11 and said "yeah sorry, fucked my wrist band up."

 

Oh that is some serious BS but I noticed that happening as we were standing in line finally nearing the gate. If they do it like they did last year, I'm heading straight to Will Call because that line to get your fucking hand stamped to confirm you were of-age was some serious miles long bullshit.

 

we waited maybe 30 minutes to get in. They had a team of people walking the line and doing the age check with the stamps. Not a big deal.

I bet those of you bitching about the line to get in didnt bitch about waiting an hour for a pour of some overhyped beer.

 

I never waited more than 5 minutes for any beer the entire day. What beer had more than a 5 minute wait? Really?

What time did you arrive to the fest? Were you one of those that arrived very early even though CCB warned everyone they'd be escorted off premises by police if they did? I'll definitely not be listening to that this year as I saw pictures of people lining up hours early, and obviously they had the right idea.

We got there 5 minutes after "open" and the line to get your hand stamped (which makes no sense as you had to be 21 to purchase the tickets) stretched all the way down the block, past the park, wrapped around the curb, and onto the highway. It literally took ten minutes to walk from the opening of the fest to the end of that line, and we sat still at the end of that line for 30 minutes. The line slowly started moving and it wasn't until an hour later that we were inside.

A good 20 hyped beers were kicked by the time we stepped foot into the festival, and you could see those breweries only seemed to have brought miniature kegs/casks of those beers. The good thing is there were some breweries that knew what to expect, other nice surprises from relative unknowns, CCB had an awesome lineup all day, the weather didn't suck and the people were cool.

If you had a great experience with the entrance line that's great for you--but it does not jive with my experience or anyone else I know that I met in person. Condescending to people that had a negative experience with that aspect does nothing to solve the problem. The line to leave, when they brought in security to force everyone out of the festival 15 minutes early, was instantly inflated to a ridiculous length all at once, turning it into a cluster and a bottleneck which also could have been done way better. No one was stopping people from cutting either, even with the entire line of patrons yelling about it.

These things were so glaringly obvious that I'm looking forward to drastic improvements next year.

 

Our group had a good line experience, but we got there 1 hour before doors. Even at that we were all the way back in front of the museum.

Unfortunately the line moved so slow that there absolutely were folks that didn't get in until an hour after doors opened. When you're paying $200+ for a festival(yeah yeah I know, bottles included), missing an hour due to understaffing & poor logistics is unacceptable.

 

I'm not sure where that was in relation to the big parking lot that the line snaked around, but my wife and I got there around an hour early and were on the sidewalk almost near the intersection of Old Water and Channelside. We were inside with our first beer no later than 25 minutes after the fest started.

 

You missed 25 minutes and you were there about hour early like our group. I imagine we missed about the same amount of time inside. People that got there closer to doors opening(as requested by CCB) missed significantly more time.

 

It didn't really feel like I missed 25 minutes in the end, as we never waited longer than 5 minutes for a beer (CCB line). Also no matter what they do, it's complete unreasonable to assume that you can get 3,000+ people inside the gates right at the start. Considering how far back we were and the amount of people, I feel that 25 minutes wasn't bad, but obviously that's just my opinion.

 

I didn't feel like 25 minutes was bad either. Especially not compared to what others had to wait. Like I said above, I personally had a great experience.

 

I don't understand why they don't open the gates early but just not pour beer. There would still be lines at the popular beer tents by the time the beers started pouring, but at least you'd be inside with a chance to go to one of the smaller lines. Or start going down the line wristbanding people an hour early? Or maybe ask breweries to hold back the whales for a couple hours. Gotta be some better solution. I didn't go last year, but I was 45 minutes late getting in in 2015 and an hour and a half late in 2014, despite being early or on time both years. It really is pretty frustrating to be stuck outside when you're basically paying 20 bucks an hour to be there, especially if good beers are getting kicked.

 

i think huna day has become such a huge event, they should have multiple times for entering or sessions, similar to dark lord day. i have not been to many festivals outside florida (none actually), but the best beer event I have been to was Angry Chair's 1 year anniversary last year. Limited to 75 people for each session (or maybe 100) and it was very chill atmosphere, never had to wait in a line to get beers, and had some very good beers available. Obviously, Huna Day is on an exponentially larger level and sessions may not be possible due to certain logistics, but 3-4K people in such a confined space is always going to have some people upset.

 

All I know is I am going to get my F5 finger in shape in hopes they offer the early entry lottery again this year.

 

Last years AC Anniversary was the best beer event I've ever been to.

 

Having done DLD this year, I'm looking towards to Huna day once Im local to tampa again providing I can score tickets. My biggest gripe is that my girl doesn't drink so it would be nice if there was a companion ticket at maybe half cost(100.00) without a bottle allocation. While I have no issues ending with 8 Hunas, its way more than I need. Aside from that, I'm excited to see what 2017 looks like.

 

They have done this in years past. 2013, I think.

 

With how massive Huna Day has become, I feel like this would be a recipe for disaster. 3000 people all congregating at the same 5 breweries with a non-moving line. If the beers aren't pouring, there's absolutely no incentive to not wait in line for a whale. Whereas, beers pouring pouring from the start at least motivates *some* of the participants to go visit 20 *under the radar* brewers with no line instead waiting 30 minutes for whalez bro.

Your second suggestion of randomly tapped whales did occur last year. While MD and FO were pouring at the start, SP held back 2 candles until like 45 minutes in, and Cigar City held back ABVMZ DB Hunapoopoo, etc. as well for randomly timed tappings. I also was randomly offered a bottle pour of Coconut ANTEAD at the Kane tent about 2/3 of the way through the event.

I feel like efficient wristband pre-scanning is definitely the way to go.

 

This doesn't make any sense. The line isn't going to move until the beers start pouring, so when that happens all the booths with no line still have no line, and the whalezbro lines don't move any quicker or magically get shorter.

 

Two things with the whole "pre-check and let everyone in early idea":

1. VIP early entry.
2. You are just trading line to get in time for standing in line time (kind of).

Either way, once 11am hit it was a fast steady walk to get in. Took us 15 mins and we were way back to the corner after the line had snaked through the parking lot.

3.5 hrs of drinking awesome beer is plenty, as long as you don't show up for 5 whales that you have to stand in long lines for...but that's your call.

 

Oh, I totally agree with you. I was replying to the idea that letting people in early would somehow lead to more people lining up for the hyped beers.

And yeah, it obviously wouldn't work with VIP.

 

El Cat members are allowed to purchase their Huna Day tix from now through noon on 11/30.