Darkness Day 2017

First time going to Darkness Day. I am planning on attending the bottle share Friday night. I'm wondering if they start doing wrist bands Friday or early Saturday morning?

 

You don't have to wait in line overnight for Darkness Day events on Saturday, you only line up if you want to buy bottles. You can just show up on Saturday and get pours, watch music, buy merch, whatevs.

As for waiting in line overnight, keep an eye on the weather. Fewer people show when it's cold/rainy, so there's a greater chance of still getting bottles if you get there early Saturday morning (3-6 am). Folks on here have reported that they were able to do this in the past.

Saturday morning, I think around 7 or 8 am. Everyone camps out overnight and then has to pack up quickly in the morning as the line starts to condense. Surly people come around on golf carts with megaphones yelling at you to wake up and put your shit away. It's great.

Bring beers, say hi to everyone, you'll have a blast!

 

Thanks for the info! I'm hoping to see a share spreadsheet on here so I know what might be desirable to bring.

 

I think there was one last year, but only about 3% of the beers will be noted on the spreadsheet. People generally hunker down with their friends early, then start to wander later. Say hi to your immediate neighbors & walk around with a decent bottle in your hand & you should have more friends on Saturday than you did on Friday night.

Assuming, of course, you don't get out of a white panel van with your avatar on a t-shirt...

 

Ha! I might have to get a t-shirt made now!

A brewery in my hometown used this as their first logo. It has been changed since due to a name change but I felt this art needed to be preserved.

 

Wristbands are given out saturday morning. They'll wake you up and start compacting the line some time after 7am.

 

Just a heads up, I reached out to them on Facebook and they said this logo is not dead.

 

Thanks Jake! I hope they aren't planning on using it for marketing...

 

2016 there were more wrist bands than people in line so we were just waiting for people to show up to give out the rest.

 

The main reason for showing up early Friday afternoon is so you don’t get stuck in the part of the line without streetlights.

 

Or if it's cold, so you aren't several blocks down HWY 100 where the sound barrier ends. That was a ridiculously cold evening.

 

So I was told by an employee at a local HyVee here in Des Moines that bottles of 2017 Darkness are supposed to be coming next Tuesday. Has anyone else heard this rumor? Is Surly releasing bottles for distro before actual Darkness Day this year?

 

That would be awfully stupid - they'd essentially be cutting into their own sales of Darkness straight from the brewery, so I'd be surprised if this was true.

I suspect your local might be getting some of the shipment of 2016 bottles that hit the Twin Cities over the past week or two. While logic doesn't always work, that would make a lot more sense.

 

Darkness is not sold directly from the brewery on Darkness Day. BC Liquor technically sets up a pop-up store, so Surly doesn’t gain anything from Darkness Day sales over sales the week after. It would put a damper on hype though.

 

Possible...but very doubtful. They're still waxing the bottles through early October so I'd be shocked if they let out bottles before they've got a full handle of their inventory. In the past few years when Surly releases something, they tend to go all-out and all at once so a Des Moines Hy-Vee getting it before even Surly is advertising it is available is against the grain here.

http://surlybrewing.com/news/time-embrace-darkness/

 

Last year I got one of the last tickets and I showed up at around 9:45 I think it was. This year I think I am going to try to show up at 6am or 7am.

 

Come the night before for the bottle share. We have candy.

 

Now I'm going to argue that it IS sold straight from the brewery - you walk into the brewery, you walk out with Darkness. Couldn't be any straighter. Bigly straight.

Do you have first-hand info that Surly doesn't "gain anything"? I doubt this is true. Even with the intervention of BC Liquor the last few years, breweries typically benefit from selling direct to the consumer in the form of a higher margins (& if you quibble with the word "direct" I'm going to find your candy on D-Day Eve & pitch it into a flaming dumpster).

 

...What kind of candy?

 

I have information from a very reliable beer speculator. You’re not touching my candy.