Extreme Beer Fest 2016: Feedback

Row 34 took care of my oyster fix after the saturday afternoon session, along with plenty of Trillium to wash them down.
Great job boys with the fest this year. I had no issues getting to tables, water stations, talking to reps/brewers, checking my coat, ID check, and so on.. EBF is the only fest I go to anymore... and theres a strong reason why. Thumbs up Todd/Jason!!

 

Thought the fest (Session 2) was awesome. Was in the building by 1:08 despite only getting in line 30min early. Was able to tick off 6 great beers very quickly before the venue filled up.

Just one idea that may or may not be feasible. Given that most booths have some combination of dark (stouts/bw/porters) and light colored beers (IPAs/Sours/saison) would it be possible to have two lines per booth. Perhaps left of booth for dark beers, right of booth for light beers. Lines might be more manageable this way and people are just waiting for what they want. Obviously not every booth has the same # of light/dark and some "rare barrel" don't have any dark. Still I think having more shorter lines would be better than single file long lines.

Just a thought.

 

I think the way to do this is to just sell souvenir glasses. Just whip up some pints with a 2oz fill line and a Bros-ie little slogan ("EBF 2016: Prepare for Epicness, 2oz at a time) and sell them for $5-10.

 

I'll be looking at all of the feedback tonight, it is very much appreciated. If you don't want to post feel free to send me a note personally. Thanks everyone! Cheers!!

 

As a volunteer, they told us that any breweries that were selling glass had to wrap/bag them. No glass was allowed by the venue. Drinking from glass just isn't going to happen at the seaport. I don't see the big deal, nothing wrong with the disposable plastic they use, it's not like they're making you use a 3oz paper Dixie cup.

 

Yeah--sorry, I wasn't clear. I meant for the souvenir glasses to be for off-site use only.

 

I appreciate the ticket checking while waiting on line. That definitely was better than last year.

Still, I showed up 40 minutes before doors opened and still didn't get in there until about 15 minutes past doors opening. I guess my analogy would be starting a basketball game or concert, and then letting people in so they miss anywhere from 15-40 minutes.

It is a possibility to let people into the convention center 10-15 minutes early, and then having all the breweries start pouring at the correct time? This way everyone actually gets in by start time.

Otherwise, this issue could also be fixed by preventing the huge bottle neck at the coat check/cup station. Coat check line caused a bottle neck and then people were really slow about grabbing cups. Maybe push the cup stations into convention center, past coat check, instead of right by the door.

 

Thanks for an epic event. The only beer festival I would drive from Niagara Falls Ontario to Boston overnight after our flight was cancelled at the last minute by JetBlue.

Love how fast your line moves as others have said. I didn't find session three overcrowded in fact I thought there was actually more space than last year. Agree about difficulty accessing the rinse stations and in fact had to ask many of the booths to dump for me. As always excellent selection - I had no trouble getting a sample and moving on. Only two issues: What is up with the rocking and rolling of the porta potties? lol. Second I found the attitude of the KO pie owner disrespectful of the event. He had ran out of forks and people kept coming up and asking for them obviously. Instead of saying more were on the way, he would point to his sign and say no forks only this sign which told you they are Aussie hand pies and you should use your hands. I then heard him call several guests who were in no way rude to him "f'n wankers" as they walked away. Maybe he assumed everyone was wasted, but either way I was not impressed.

 

For me, I thought everything worked great. Would I have liked a smaller crowd? Of course, but somebody has to pay for all those breweries and all that beer. Worth it for this great event.

The stamping/banding outside worked great. I was in less than ten minutes. Plastic cups? Don't care. Water stations? Buying bottles is the way to go for rinsing and hydration. The one thing that maybe could've been improved upon...you can somewhat predict which lines are going to be longest. Tree House, Wicked Weed, Kane, Rare Barrel, Grimm...seemed to be all in the back on down the one side while the front was empty. Maybe find a way to space it out a bit. I personally think it is beyond silly to stand in a line for 20 minutes to get a two ounce pour when there is so much good beer all around, but some good un-hyped breweries were getting boxed out.

 

Coat check is not common and this may be the first time it's been used (as it is clearly state they don't have coat check and an exception was made) . The only reason it existed was as a benefit of the snow storm.

Letting people actually in early is hard on the volunteers (speaking as one) as we're getting last minute things setup. I'm sure that is true for the brewers as well. This also would stretch security thin.

If you showed up 20 minutes "late" you walked right in the door. It took no one 40 minutes to get into the festival. It may have taken that long to get a pour if you immediately went to Tree House who had at times a 30-35 minute line and was consistently 20-25 minutes

 

Do the pouring stations not have rinse water? At most, if not all, fests around here, there's water pitchers at every brewery's booth. They just give a quick rinse, dump it in the bucket and give you a fresh pour.

 

Some did some didn't it was up to the brewer

 

So let the line in early, so they can start to form other lines and clog up the festival floor before the fest starts? Did you really not get enough beer in three hours and 15 minutes?

 

Everything was awesome except for the overcrowding. The beers were amazing, fast entry, plenty of toilets, happy people, etc. I've hit every EBF fest and you guys just keep tweeking to perfection. Great job, but with all that unused space on either side of the booths it's a shame to have zero elbow room and to have to constantly cut through lines to make your way through the venue. We found ourselves having to go to the front of the venue just to get some breathing room and chill out.

I'm surprised the venue won't allow glass with carpeted floors, it would be a big plus. A big part of flavor profile in beer is the aromatics, and those plastic cups got no game.