GABF 2015 Discussion & Info

Is ticketmaster's website totally down for anyone else?

 

Yes. Saturday evening is thin beer wise, thick people wise. the afternoon session is way better, but the brewers will mostly be at the award ceremony, if that makes any difference to y'all

 

no sir

 

Bah. Probably my work firewall or something. I keep getting 403's, but I can get to the mobile version just fine.

 

You won't be able to buy tickets from Ticketmaster for the early session without being an AHA member prior to July 19th. You can buy them after the sale off of someone else though. This will be my third year and I've been to both Saturday sessions and will be attending the afternoon. It's definitely much less crowded, you get a real glass, and it didn't seem like half the breweries were gone already like it did at the evening session the year prior. Get in line early and have a few must try beers to wait in line for once you get in. After that, just try everything. There are plenty of awesome beers to drink that don't require waiting in line for 20 minutes.

 

Thanks for the info! I am a member of the AHA so I will be able to get the afternoon session tickets myself. If a lot of brewers are at the award ceremony, are volunteers pouring their beer or are their booths shut down. We just want to be sure we get to try beers from breweries we typically don't have access to.

 

Yikes! Go big or go home.

 

Volunteers still pour. They are the only ones who are suppose to pour anyway. Brewers are there to talk, answer questions, yada yada yada. So the story goes. The booths are open...to answer your question

 

The Toppling Goliath guys poured their beer last year. I also think that most of the endcaps have brewery staff pouring. This year will be interesting with the 100 meet the brewers thing. Also, don't forget to eat the cheese and sit in on one or 2 of the seminars in the middle.

 

Has anyone volunteered previously??

I signed up for 2 shifts. Seems like I would gain free entry to one of the sessions at least.

Was wondering what, if any, perks would be available to volunteers?

 

Yes, I've poured since 04 (I think), and set-up before that. Set-up, tear-down, and all other positions are more "relaxed" on the free ticket thing. Pouring is different: I think you have to do 3 or 4 sessions for one ticket (for the next year).
Other perks are chatting up brewers, sampling (limited?), free t-shirt and the fun!

 

I'm not sure what I'd be doing, but appreciate the insight!

 

This will be my first year volunteering and I am really excited about it. Along with Zwanze day the Saturday before, WTF on Wednesday and Rare Beer on Friday afternoon, I'll be pouring Thursday and Friday nights at the fest. Should be a great week!

 

Got 'em. Even using my phone thanks to my work firewall. No issues.

 

Got Members session Saturday on the desktop and the Thursday session on the phone. The phone app moved much faster than doing it on the computer.

 

kind of annoying, but 4 for Thursday acquired

 

I wonder how many people are going to accidentally buy DD tickets because mine kept defaulting to those. Yeesh. But Saturday members tix acquired!

 

Got my Friday tix, no issues, but was weird they defaulted to 2 DD tickets. First GABF!

 

Wouldn't work from my laptop at all. Got through on the first try from my phone so others may want to try that as well

 

Got our tickets...2 for Thurs and Sat afternoon. 10th year to GABF...I can't wait