Darkness Day 2015

We did - we walked up as they were finishing passing out wristbands to the main group (7:00 a.m.? somewhere in there).

 

I thought 2 years ago people got bands up to around 11?

 

Sorry, I meant that they finished passing out wristbands to the people already there (the overnight throngs and the early-morning arrivals) around 7:00 a.m. There were definitely people arriving and getting them after then, too.

 

we showed up at 530am last year. we missed the wristbands but got bottles during the open allotment.

i believe the consensus was 2/2:30am was about the cutoff for those who did and didnt get wristbands.

 

Between the reformation of the line in the morning and the unusually pleasant weather, last year isn't a good gauge for how early to show up. Two years ago there were some walk-in bands right at opening time.

 

There is a big difference between >2 and 10. And when you see someone walking out with bags, you don't know how they acquired them. I'm sure I carried my wife's allocation on my way out. That doesn't mean I had more than one Darkness wristband.

I was one of the final 10 people to get wristbands last year, so I have a good sense of how many people were still in line. Supposing someone found a way to get a wristband and cut back in line, I can't imagine it working more than once. There's no way you saw someone acquire 10 wristbands.

As mentioned by others, it depends on the weather. But I'll add this -- each of the last two years, I picked up @feloniousmonk around 3 AM (because he had to close the night before, meaning we ended up in line around 4 AM). Both times, we got wristbands. This past year, my wife got the last wristband that Omar handed out, and @feloniousmonk & I got two of the final wristbands from the other person handing them out. So, 4 AM is cutting it close when the weather is nice.

Midnight has worked every year, and the line ought to be in full swing at that time.

 

Darkness day 2014: 55 degrees at 1am. Darkness day 2013: wind chill in low 20s at 7am. You can work out how folks could walk up for wristbands at open 2 years ago but not last year. Last year was definitely an outlier in terms of weather.

 

I do believe last year had more hype due to it being barrel aged. Probably not as much pull as the weather, but it seemed like more people were interested in it just due to the BA.

 

Seemed like the line was really dying down by midnight last year. Me and the fella next to me went for a walk down to the front a bit after midnight and there were onlyl a handful of groups still awake.

 

Hoping it'll be more like Dave said - Really hoping to participate in the share. Thanks to everyone for all the answers!

 

What I left off was that the optimal time to walk the line is probably 7 PM. Most of the people who are planning to camp out have arrived by then, and there's amazing beer and friendly people everywhere you look. The earlier you can make it, the more you will enjoy it.

Again, depending on the weather. We have been really lucky that it hasn't rained the last 6 Darkness Days (despite forecasted rain a couple of times), but it's not nearly as lively at night when it's cold.

 

Last year at 5am we were around 700-750
When the gates opened we were 1300.... Moral of the story, get there early and you don't get bottles

 

Two possibilities: one is that the "700-750" didn't include hundreds of people (like me) who were 'sleeping' in their cars/tents. Second is the much-discussed (back then) 'line collapse' where a bunch of people were really slow putting their shit away, the line moved up a looooong ways in front of them, & a large quantity of people across the street simply abandoned their places way back in line & cut. I suspect the latter is what caused a lot of people who arrived in the morning not to get bottles.

Either way: before last year, the very earliest cut-off for bottles was around 7:30 AM on Saturday morning. Last year because of the line stupidity & barrel-aging, things got weird.

 

Yea this....
The stupid line collapse has almost ruined camping out for me at this event. First time I camped out was the last time they didn't do the collapse, it was nice, just waited there chatting away sharing a morning beer while they walked around and gave me a wristband. Then the collapse the following year...lost about 200 or so spots in line as people from across the way or who just walked up jumped in front, those who started sprinting, etc. Total BS. I swing by Friday night for the share and usually do some trades, pour some homebrew and others from my cellar and go sleep in my bed. But we'll see, maybe I can convince myself to stay this year since my buddy in NC wants some and he's been coming through with some great beer from there for me.

 

I have never hit a Darkness Day early enough to even hope to get a wristband, and I don't have any plans to (not a judgment on those who do, just my own reality). Yet I keep coming back to read this thread, just to intentionally depress myself over how many assholes we have in our midst.
Why do I do this?

 

I retain hope that for each asshole there is at least one decent person out there. Really in my experience, I have met far more great beer folks than assholes. The line collapse sucks and is stupid, and people are assholes, but the night before is one of the best beer events out there.

 

That just goes to show that even cool bearded hipsters one night can turn into asshats the very next morning.

 

This.... the a**hole factor is anecdotal at best in my opinion. They exist obviously, but are not the majority. In fact the darkness day eve fest is something I look forward to more than any other beer fest. The amount of people willing to share amazing beers for nothing other than just to be nice is one of the coolest things I have been a part of.

 

We have 2015 bottle art!

 

I don't see anything about it on the label. Is this year's going to be barrel aged?