Hunapocolypse 2014

For those of us who got in early (I got there 10:20-ish), the event was FANTASTIC until about 1:15. Once the crowd that was wrapped around the block got in, things got so crowded we could not move, and all of the lines got out of control.

The biggest contributing factor to the ultimate failure at the end of the day was the number of people who were let in. The cap needed to be at 3500. I absolutely do not believe that 5000+ people used fraudulent tickets to gain entry to the event. I think CCB bit off more than they could chew thinking they could handle a larger crowd. IMO, they wanted to make as many people happy as possible by letting them participate in Huna Day, but in the end they could not accommodate everyone who wanted to be there.

 

One would have to think that the city of Tampa had more to do with canceling future events rather than it just being a knee-jerk reaction by Joey.

 

I'm thinking this might be closer to the truth but with the knee jerk reactions they've had this weekend who knows.

 

Ladies and Gentleman. Do Not feed the trolls.

 

I'm not sure 3,500 people in that small parking lot was ever a good idea. My advice is to stop with the special releases and just have a normal beer festival. Perhaps even a couple a year.

 

I'd say the only way to have it work is with a very strict ticketing system, a dedicated staff, roped off lines, and a limit of 2000 people.
Don't offer huna by the case either, distro that shit. Nobody needs a whole case.

 

Release a third of the bottles via Catador, put a bit in distribution for Tampa, and send the other half throughout the state. Just hold a festival at the brewery, no bottle sales, around 3k cap. That'd be a beautiful event.

 

I thought it was dont feed the trolls after 9.

 

The last one had a 3k cap too...

 

A hard 3k cap. Paper tickets. Fuck an Eventbrite. All hard tickets, if you're out of town you need a "trustee" just like you had for your bottles. The last one had a 3.5k theoretical cap, but by all accounts there was at least 6k on property if not more.

 

I would much rather attend several smaller, low key events throughout the year.

 

Maybe we'll get lucky and Hunahpu's Day will be dead as we knew it in its past format, but a newer version will be born where we can all enjoy it in the spirit of its original intent.

One can dream...

 

Really hate the fact that Huna Day has been cancelled but I would absolutely shocked if the City of Tampa would allow it to happen again. However I can get behind any efforts to try and save this event, as well as make it better.

 

Unless they hire some professionals it will never,ever, get better. Joe knows it will just get more hyped every year, and obviously does not want to pay for a event planner, so he decided to cut it. I love Cigar City beers (Tocabaga FTW!) and will continue to buy there product but event planning is not there forte so they said "Fuck it".

 

An outside perspective. I did not attend Huna Day, but read a lot about it. Feel bad for CCB as I do not believe they wanted it to turn out the way it did. Feel WORSE for those that did not get what was gauranteed them. That is inexcusable and while the refunds and free beer are a step in the right direction, they need to explain why it went wrong and what they can do to fix it.
I was at DLD last year. First time at a mega-release. Was prepared for the worst, yet I was very happy with the way FFF ran it. From what I can tell, they used an event organizer. Plenty of staff, Added extra space. Needed ID to get in with your ticket. Bottle share was great and though the line to get your DL took a while, we had fun in line. It helped that the weather was great (not a sure thing late April in the midwest). If CCB enacted these procedures, the massive mess that was Huna Day would not have happened. All of these things are simple to set up. Short of the city telling them no more, I don't know why CCB would not consult with FFF and others and make Huna Day a well organized and fun event for years to come.
Good luck South Atlantic BA's

 

A few pics of the crowd for those who weren't there. These pictures were taken at 1:00, right as the limited kegs were being tapped. What you can't see is the line of people still stretching down the street to get in.

This is toward the back of the lot facing the entrance. It's hard to see where the bottle lines are, but if you see the black CCB tent in the distance, the bottle sales were happening at the second warehouse just beside that tent. EDIT: The taller warehouse with the slanted roof at the edge of the picture.



The crowd toward the back corner of the brewery. This was the area used for carnival games in 2012. There are quite a few chairs set up in the middle of that crowd that are sort of hard to see.



This is the very back of the parking lot. If you looked any further right, you'd see the port-a-potty area.



Everything was going pretty smoothly until right around the time these pictures were taken. Shortly after this, the crowd became overbearing, and when it got to be crunch time for the bottles, things got ugly.

 

Yes, because Hunahpu should be relegated to a barrel aged bottle club only even though it's not even BA. You guys wonder where the entitlement arguments come from? Here is proof enough.

 

I'm thinking people are already setting up tents for KBS...even though its a 5 day - get a ticket to buy 2 4 packs - type of holiday weekend, in which you're only allowed to get one ticket to come in....I may even smell marshmellows roasting already... Guessing it's going to take a first born, or at the very least a set of Irish twins to land a bottle of Huna, eh? Too bad..I'll have to keep this on my bucket list for a while longer...

 

Well, I think the one mystery all these Hunahpu's threads and complaints solved is what new user name Kudos is posting under now since his old moniker was banned. So that's good.

 

No more Hunapu day. Sorry Floridians but this is why we can't have nice things.