Brewvival 9 hrs · We would like to thank everyone for 8 years of Brewvival. You took our idea of the best beer celebration and made it a reality. When we started Brewvival, similar events were few and far between, which made it both a challenge and extremely rewarding that we could pull it off. 2 years ago we sensed a shift in it all and we knew it needed to evolve to stay relevant and meaningful, both for you all and us folks who put it on. After all, Brewvival is the beer festival we ourselves want, so it’s got to be good! This was not an easy decision but the reality is: there will not be a Brewvival 2018. We want to take some time to see if there are changes that can be made that we all would want to see. All good things must come to an end, or so they say ??? Well CRAP!!
RIP Brewvival Having a lot of local breweries being butt hurt last year they weren't invited and the subsiquent bitching probably had a little to do with it.
Last year was great. Seems like it would be super easy to fill the beer festie void. Just rename it BeerLeston and the folks come in droves.
As someone that hasn't been before, but was hoping to go at some point in the near future, it seemed like Brewvival seemed to go through an identity crisis. It started as a really cool local brewery festival and then morphed into something with more of a wider audience and left the people behind looking for that local festival. Neither good nor bad, but that seems where some of the angst came from.
Its a damn shame. Having moved from Charleston just a few months ago, we had planned for Brewvival to be the center of a yearly trip back to the low country. We will need to find another excuse now, but more importantly its a sad day to see that such a great event is done. I went the last 3 years, and loved every year. I haven't been to a ton of beer festivals, but any year of Brewvival has been better than any other beer fest I have ever been to. And last year was the best of the 3, can't imagine any attendants complaining about Brewvival 2017. In regards to angst, I didn't sense any from attendees. Heard rumblings of angst from non-invited breweries. And not that this is angst, but I will say it was a really weird vibe not seeing COAST pouring their own brews last year, and an even weirder vibe a couple days after the fest when I asked COAST staff why they didn't pour (and got a fairly ambiguous PC response, that seemed like a mix of disappointment and actual sadness). My opinion (which is all speculation) is that as the CHS and SC craft beer market became saturated with breweries who were putting out lower quality/average beer, the concept of highlighting every SC brewery while still featuring elite beers was just no longer achievable. The choice arose whether or not to continue with the all-SC breweries included theme, or continue to feature the best beers obtainable. They chose the latter, then took heat from those who thought it should include all the locals, felt bad and decided to not even pour themselves. Of course, this is all speculation, but it makes sense. And if my speculation is true, its a damn shame that the saturation of mediocrity and accompanying entitlement bythose producing it, killed what was a really great thing.
