2017 FOBAB

Yeah I plan on attempting to volunteer as well. Will monitor this thread and my email for sure

 

I believe they wait until general admission tickets go on sale to open up volunteering.

 

I emailed them a few weeks ago to ask about volunteers. They said that they're going to wait until tickets go on sale. They said that in the past, they've had too many people sign up to volunteer, but then bail because they actually scored a ticket during the sale.

 

https://www.guysdrinkingbeer.com/why-is-fobab-more-expensive-this-year/

This article sheds some light on the price increase.

 

Thanks for sharing the link. Raising the prices to be in line with other festivals is essentially saying "because we can". They did address some costs that I wasn't aware of. The article does not address (as far as I saw) why they made the cost to the brewers rise significantly.

 

I was hoping they had better reasons than this...

 

If they're following the other fests' models, maybe they could release a beer list ahead of time...

 

To follow up, this point, in particualr, I found completely ridiculous...

"Part of that was sort of ripping the band-aid of the price and putting it in line with some of the major festivals out there,” he said. “We thought it was a good time to reset everything and sort of move forward into next year — so the idea is that instead of taking a $10 increase this year and another $10 next year, it ended up being a $20 increase. My position on that is, yeah, take that hit this year and then we move on.”

Anyone else want to take bets on if other fests increase their price next year, that FOBAB will too?

 

The fees rolled into the face value excuse doesn't really make sense. Last year the ticket was $60 face value + like $4 in fees. This year is $85 + $2.55 in fees according to the article.

 

I am glad they are moving the food vendors out into the hallway. It was kind of ridiculous to give them that whole back wall.

 

Yeah, I didn't understand this at all either. I paid $60 face + $4 in fees. The overall price paid is $64 vs. $88.

That's almost a 40% increase.

 

The excuses in that article are complete shit. If i didnt always voluenteer for a free ticket i would 100% skip this year. Saying a price increase just because we can esentially while selling the same number of tickets is horseshit

 

G'day FOBAB vets. I'll be in Chicago on holidays and attending the Friday night session. I'm from Melbourne, Australia. Goose Island aside (because it's a given) what imperial stouts should I be queuing for?

 

If you want to try "the best" beers, look for the longest lines (besides Goose Island, they'll be long all night) and try those first because they'll be gone fast. Of course, if you do not have access to Bourbon County, you definitely need to be in the Goose Island line throughout the night to try all the Bourbon County variants, though regular is hard to beat.

Alternatively, there are too many beers to try them all. You want stouts? They're all in 1 section. Hang out there awhile and try them all.

 

Because it's a judged competition, they can't/won't release the beer list ahead of time. They want the judges to go in as blind as possible.

I know in the past, they've told volunteers to not tweet/post anything on social media that could have beer or brewery names before the doors open for session 1, or you risk being blacklisted from receiving your free ticket/volunteering in the future.

 

As a blow-in from Australia on his first and last FOBAB, I guess that's not such a problem for me.

 

I'm going to assume their hands are tied and they have to use UIC forum contracted vendors. But it would make for a much cooler experience if they were able to bring in, you know, good food options

 

A $40 cumulative increase over two years ($20 + $20)) instead of a $30 cumulative increase over two years ($10 + ($10 + $10))? Sorry, you have to take the hit this year, guys.