Funk n Line Fest

I think I was probably the last person to show up to the festival because I had a race that I didn't get to leave until 5:15 from Northeast Austin. It seems like I missed the bulk of the carnage. I showed up at 6:05, they were still doing a great job pouring beers because people were still in line. The line for bottles to go was not quick, but I got to chat with some good beer people and walked away having tasted a number of very good beers.

I am confident that in the future, Jeff and Ron will work through things and figure it out.

 

Playing Robin Hood by dangling beers over peoples' heads in line, worshiping graveyard pictures... people masturbate to this hobby in some strange ways.

 

I used to collect beer bottles. Then I realized how freakin dumb of a hobby that can be (I was obsessive about it). Some people need to realize that 95% of the other people there probably took a look at the bottles and moved on without a second thought to them. To whoever did not want it cleaned up clearly had a "look at me" attitude about it and for some reason made him think that people cared about what he drank. Get over yourself.

 

People were definitely holding on to the "lineup" way too long.

I will agree with cfh64 though. I should have done a better job of helping. I think we should have told the people worried about the bottles to chill and help clean up.

I'll try to be more helpful at future shares.

 

I took 3 bottles for home brew purposes before I left, trying to do my part I didn't participate in the bottle share knowing I would be drinking a lot at the festival. Glad I made that decision.

Overall I had a great experience. Yes it sucked to wait in line to check-in, but that's what we wanted to guarantee there would be no mules and yes it really sucked to have to stand in line again to pick up bottles, but it stopped mules so we win right? Standing in line for bottles was not so bad for me. When my wife and I checked in we immediately went straight to the tent and tried all of the beers we wanted to make sure to get a taste of at the festival. Then we went to the bottle line. While waiting in the line we met some nice people and took turns leaving the line to get samples. I chose to mostly avoid the longer sample lines and go straight to the shorter line. At the end of the day most of the samples were still left and the lines had died down. I think JK did a really good job with providing enough beer so that not everything ran out during the festival. Sure some things did quickly but that is to be expected. But I was still able to at the end of the festival get double pours of all the fruited sours except the apricot sour. I took time during the middle of the festival after we finally got our bottles to sit and have some food and enjoy being at JK. I'm glad I did since the lines were pretty hectic at that time. As soon as they died down I was ready to drink again anyways.

It seems like to me a lot of the problems people had, and not specifically BAs but people in general is that they had planned to pick up their bottles, have a couple of samples and leave. My wife and I planned to take the whole day to enjoy the festival, so there was no rush and no worry about standing in line. If you were in a hurry I could see how it would be a problem for you, but if you were in a hurry then you were at the festival for the wrong reasons. Sure there could have a better festival layout and sure other things could have been different to mitigate some line time, but overall if you were planning on being there for a few hours you could have still had a good time.

My only suggestion to JK is next time to not combine a bottle release and a festival. I think the point of the festival was lost in the bottle release. Sure combining them saved me a second trip, but I would rather make two trips if it means things will be smoother in the future. I had a great time so there really is no complaining from me.

 

I ended up cleaning some of the bottles around 6 o'clock ish while the gf was waiting in line. Ended up taking around 2 or 3 cases worth of bottles to the back. I was going to keep going but I kept getting this look of death from this big guy. I had to go back in the line as it was our turn. but that was about as much cleaning I was able to get done.

But yeah, I seriously don't understand the obsession with collecting bottles. If anything I would take them home with me for homebrewing, but I have plenty of empties atm.

 

I've started only collecting the nice bottles for my sours. I prefer to have the thicker Belgian style for them to help possible prevent explosions :/ Other then that I recycle pretty much any bottles I open ever since I started kegging.

 

Yeah. Seeing those bottles bugged me. I was the closer at a resturaunt for about 2 years so I learned to "clean as you go" and it would have bugged me more if I cared but I didn't have to worry about cleaning them myself because it wasn't my mess. Still feel bad if volunteers had to clean this. I did even participate in the bottle share but really wanted to clean 'em. Everything has it's place and those belonged in the trash.

 

Sadly I planned to stay the whole day. Just didn't expect it to be until 7pm.

We stood in line for an Hour or so. My friend had 2 beers, got in line for bottles at about 2:00. At 6:00 he was still waiting.

We planned on enjoying the festival all day, but didn't expect that to in lines the whole time.

If it was 2 hours in line that would have been fine, but 4 was a bit much and I felt bad I invited 2 people to this.

All in all we had fun, but it would have been a bit more fun had it not been 2 lines that took literally all day to get through.

I do think the people that wanted to just grab bottles and run were a bit misguided though.

The beauty of a release festival is the festival. The bottles are just a bonus.

 

I agree with this. I got a Stanley's pizza and used most of my yellow tickets in just two hours, and we didn't optimize standing in line.
My problem was that my DD told me once we got to JK at noon that he had to leave at 3

Prevented me from ever sitting or saying hey to some of you I saw around (except for a few I saw in line, Levi ext1rpate, Decadence- thanks for the beer!). And then Joel, Nic and Jen at the bottle/merch booth.
I plan to be out at JK in two weeks introducing some people to farmhouse and sour ales, and will sit down, relax, and enjoy the view.

 

Exactly why I like going out to JK.

 

I was there LAST Sunday, for my father-in-laws birthday party, and it looked like this:








I had a lot more fun that day. What's great about Jester King is the awesome nature of the location, and the ability to relax and enjoy people's company in an awesome space. The festivals are fine, but this is what makes this place great to me.

 

JK has always been a laid back relaxing place, maybe that was part of what bugged me about FnS...I had different expectations. And I am kicking myself for not buying Viking Metal. What a nice beer!

 

i just keep all the jester king bottles

 

Fortunately for me, showing up late paid off. I had an awesome time. Never stood in any line longer than 10 mins.

 

Didn't go, but how practical would a number system be? Like, when you check-in at the entrance gate you show you have a "bottles allocation"(presumably printed on your ticket already), and they hand you a number(like at your grocery deli). Then as your number group(1-50, 51-100..ect) is called you go stand in line for 20 minutes get your bottles and go back to your table. I think Freetaiil did something similar, or maybe it was just suggested for the next go around. But basically when your number is called you go up and stand in a small line to retrieve your bottles. In the mean time waiting for your number group you can enjoy pours from the other tents without standing in a line for 2hrs. Obviously, if you show up late you'll have a higher number, but realistically a person isn't showing up just to buy bottles and bounce.

 

Just put the freaking bottles at the front when you check in. They could have handed out the bottle packs with your tasting glass and tickets. I'm glad we went to the Merch line to buy my g/f a tshirt and ended up getting our bottles that way. Only like a 20 minute wait instead of 4 hours.

 

Was the bottle share outside of the festival? If so, this would be the best suggestion considering most of the people upset were at the bottle share prior to entering. So, in your scenario it would let these people pop bottles while the line dies down.

 

The only bottle share I saw was inside the fest at a couple of the picnic tables.

 

Which would have been a disaster since people with DD tickets got a glass and tickets for beer.