Uncouth Craft Fest Behavior ~ Stories?

Don't have any colorful stories, …..just experiencing/seeing the same 'non-mindfull' behavior, over and over, and over, again. Namely, the dope at the front of the line who badgers the pourer as to the total IBU's or some other insipid question, when other patient, polite folks quietly wait their turn. Everyone and their brother knows the rules: get your pour, then move out of the way so people behind can then move up. Not rocket science.

Or folks who forget to bathe/shower/employ soap and hot water. And toothpaste and toothbrushes so everyone can enjoy their halitosis.

Have heard stories about ass-hats knocking the tasting glasses out of the hands of others at the GABF. They should be shot once in each eye and twice in each nostril, for starters.

Other than that they can be fun, if the organizers ordered enough Porta-pottys.

 

I've never been to a big beer fest either, but I just wanted to give you a "Cheers!" for joining in '03 and making your first post now. Welcome!

 

You're soft. Why ya letting 'em off easy?

 

I used to work the beer fests in Greensboro, NC...$25 for four hours. The venue was really close to a bunch of colleges, the young guys and girls would basically power drink through the event, near closing time they'd come up to my booth, I'd start on my description of the beers I was pouring, and I'd hear 'don't care dude, just pour"... I'd see them in the parking lot drinking Mich Ultra right after the fest was over

 

The one and only time I went to GABF saturday night session. What a shit show. When someone would drop their tasting glass people would let out a collaborative "whoooooooooooaaaaa", so some asshats decided to start intentionally knocking glasses out of peoples hands. This crap continued on to the restaurant afterwards. On my way out someone projectiled everywhere, and the floors of the combention center are slick cement. I had to tiptoe through the puke piles, and no sooner got to the other side when some poor sap went ass over tea kettle into the whole mess. Add in the fact that most of the desireable beers had run out by friday, and it was enough to ruin GABF for me for years to come. The only salvation was avery had tweak on deck, liquid ambrosia.

 

Interesting that you want to give a description of the beer etc and get irked that the power drinkers just want the beer and don't care, but a few posts earlier the complaint was that someone at the front of the lines would ask questions about the beer and hold others up from drinking for a few seconds

 

I think behaviors are determined by the type of festival..in that I don't think you'll see the same behaviors at say FOBAB as you would at a generic beers fest that pops up every other weekend now. There's one at Union Station that really is more about drinking as much as you can for 4 hours and jumping back on the train (and I"ve gone and had a great time, and yes I was drunk). A person that acts like a dick at a beer fest is the same person who acts like a dick at a bar and waves his money in the air because he's been at the bar for 3 minutes.

 

Other then my buddy throwing up on a chick in front of him (he had to leave) and seeing other guys get into a fight over who knows. Nothing to crazy.

 

I pour at, and go to, a lot of fests. What I got from the post you mention, isn't folks asking a quick question or two, then moving along. Answering those questions are part of the reason we're there. But, I think he was referring to the Uber-Enthusiast who will park at the front of the line with a prosecutor-like zeal. I once had a guy ask me at what temp do we mash in at. How am I supposed to know? I'll answer questions all day long, but, please, just step to the side so I can pour a beer for the next person while I'm answering those questions. Common courtesy ain't too common sometimes.

 

Yeah, I can see that.

 

I've been going to beer fests for about 15 years now, and with very few exceptions, the most I've seen is people being a bit too rowdy from having a couple too many samples. I've seen a couple people's drinking go into reverse, though it's usually into the trash cans. Most of the fests I go to have security keeping a pretty tight eye on things, so if someone is getting a bit too many sheets to the wind, they will have that person either sit down for a while or leave. Most of the big ones have at least one person getting escorted out. Usually this is without too much drama though.
If you (the OP) is worried about having a fest be ruined by a few people going nuts, don't. Even if there are a few folks over the top, in a crowd of a couple thousand, you probably won't even notice.
Even the Bro's Extreme Beer Fest, which sort of by definintion has a lot of high-abv beers (though they have tried to encourage lower ones too) it's very rare to have something happen that really goes beyond the pale. Even in the smaller facility it was at previously, you'd rarely notice something going on.

 

I think at any beer festival you are going to have some rowdy individuals and over-zealous "beer snobs".

The big ones in my city all use volunteers to serve, so that pushes away the silly questions, but you do get a lot of people who don't drink a lot of good beer who go in there and get sloshed.

To be fair, I tend to get pretty drunk too, but haven't had any major issues aside from a small misunderstanding with a friend.

 

Other than some typical stumbles, falls, loud talking typical of intoxication I haven't seen much that's too crazy.

The only thing that was particularly memorable was a semi-rude guy who would only ask the pourers what the ABV of their beer was and if nothing was high enough for his liking he wouldn't even take a sample and move to the next table. Alcoholic, maybe?

There's always some group of people at a beer fest that form a chat circle right in front of a table. I make a point to be "that guy" who pushes through the middle of their chat to get a sample. Very often the pourers at the table thank me!

 

Dark Lord Day. 10,000+ people. Some come, get their allotment, and leave. Others generally treat it as an adult picnic. But there are some, that start waaaaaaaaaaay to early on high ABV beers. Last year I saw a guy passed out outside of the grounds at 10.30a in the rain. There are people that I don't know how they get home, or how they make work before Wednesday. Truly the most effed up people I've ever seen. Like that courtyard scene in New Jack City. But I would put this at 1 in maybe 50 people at the fest. Others get obnoxious (the way that people do when their alter ego comes out after a certain BAC), and there have been fights. But overall, there is like one cop for every thousand people there, so that should tell you about how rowdy the crowd gets.

 

remember when that guy tried to stab that other guy at DLD last year? good times.

 

Yeah, we were walking to the grounds, and there was a dude just laying in a puddle wasted out of his mind, with his friend hovering over him, at around 11AM. There were also some hillbilly-bros that were allowing people to park at one of the neighboring businesses that were talking trash to people and trying to pick fights. I had to drag some wasted hippie away from three of these redneck dudes that were about to beat this dude's drunken ass. His girlfriend was crying and screaming as he was just talking shit right back to these guys. Ahh, liquid courage!

 

More of a funny story than a bad one, but: I went to Dark Lord Day in 2010. I stood in line to get a couple of specialty beers at a tent outside with some friends, and we were at a table passing them around and sharing. Then suddenly this guy materializes behind my shoulder and says something like "Hey what are you drinking?" He looked like a vampire made of leather and Lynyrd Skynyrd albums. Being neighborly I pointed out a couple beers I got and offered him one to try. He takes it and says "Thanks", then starts to wander off. I was a little taken aback and was just wondering if he was really going to leave with my beer or he was just going somewhere else to taste it for some reason. Before I could decide my friend says, half laughing, "Hey that's his beer!" The guy apologizes or something and brings it back, then wanders off again, as mysteriously as he came.

Really though, that was far from the worst thing about Dark Lord Day...

 

If you want to see some uncouth beer festival behavior, just google "Hunahpu Day 2014" and get your fill.

 

Couple guys got in a fight at the Big Philly Fest a couple weeks, with one putting the other on his back. That's about it