Big Texas Beer Fest

I was just about to post a thread here commenting on how well done the festival was. The initial line to get in to the building was far too long, but lines were surprisingly short once we got inside. There weren't too many rarities, but I did get to try WT3F?, Sour Black Metal and a bit of Beer Geek Rodeo... so I was happy with that.

The non-craft friends that I took along with me also had a great time. Fills were large and frequent of most everything we wanted to try and all of us left happy. I think I may have even converted a few of them into sour beer drinkers.

The Big Texas Beer Festival was excellently executed and I had a great time. Congrats to Chad and Nellie!

 

Initially the lines were not long at all and the well spaced layout kept people from bunching up too much. Not a ton of rare beers but we knew that going in so no problem. As the event wore on though the crowd became quite large and the lines for pours got to be really long. I am glad we got there early and left fairly early.

My only complaints were the boomingly loud music which seemed unneccessary (maybe move that outside or put some kind of damper in that cavernous space) and the fact that the food truck lines made it impossible to eat. There were literally 50 people in each line for the 3 food trucks.

 

I got there really early and was about the 20th person in the VIP line. For the first two hours, the lines were not bad except for Jester King. Later in the day the lines got really long, but that happens at every beer fest since more and more people keep showing up, with few people leaving. I thought the music was way too loud, and the acoustics in that building are so bad that it probably made it sound even worse. I heard there were supposed to be 6 food tucks, but three canceled late in the process. Even with six the lines would have been long, but they would have not been as bad. All in all, I think the fest was a success and I hope Chad and Nellie have it again next year.

 

What is sad is The O's (the second band that played) is a great band that I have seen in concert multiple times. I really like them, but yesterday they didn't sound near that good because of the acoustics. They must like craft beer because they also played at the Jester King/Mikkeller beer dinner and the DEBC Grand Opening.

 

Hello. Chad posted on Facebook about 4 things that he essentially felt were the biggest 'problems'. One was the wait for lines to get in, two was the lack of water for rinsing and just in general, three was the heat and four was the food trucks. I agree with him on all accounts, but I see those as solveable problems and otherwise thought the day went as well as it possibly could.

The food truck thing was not his problem really. 10 food trucks initially said they would attend; as the days got closer 5 trucks made deposits, but only 3 showed up. Two of them actually forfeited their deposit. I think for next year, food trucks will know what to expect and will show up in force. I think the water issue is also easily solved by both putting more water stations with bigger glasses and by providing rinsing water to the beer booths. I don't know what can be done about the heat at this venue, other than set up a butch of fans to circulate air.

As for the lines to get in, one way I think he can solve the VIP entry issue is by having the VIP's show up an hour before entry to 'pre register', 'check in' or whatever you want to call it. The issue was they needed to check a ticket from each person, an ID, and check for weapons then you could come in and get your VIP band, etc. If you do all that one hour before entry, then at 12:00 pm 90%-100% of VIP's can enter the room within 5 minutes.

The other thing that Chad sort of mentioned was the lack of tables. I would agree with that also. If you set up some of those really long cafeteria style tables, specially outside with the food trucks, then people can sit while they eat. I also agree that the music is sort of unnecessary, at least in this venue.

The fantastic success of this first installment bodes well for the future. I think more brewers will attend and/or bring special items. I think some of the kinks from this Saturday will get ironed out and this will be a great festival for years to come.

Thank you Chad and Nellie.

 

A successful beerfest in Texas... imagine that. Those issues Chad addressed on FB were mostly replies to a few complaints posted. Yeah, the lines for food were somewhat atrocious, but if that's the only hiccup in an event's debut(in my opinion, anyway), then I'd consider it as a success.

The wife and I had a blast! Arrived @ Fair Parks(where I about shat myself once I saw how long that line was) around 1:00 and it literally took no more than 30 mins. to walk through the doors. Everything was so well organized, and I could tell there was alot of thought put into making it an overall people friendly event. Music was abit loud, but I really didn't much care for the bands playing so I, for the most part, tuned them out.

We road in from Fort Worth on the TRE(train) that dropped us off right in front of the gate, so I was more than happy with the venue. My vote would be to keep it going there. The HEAT? PLEASE, this is Texas and it wasn't really even that hot inside. Can't really comment on any VIP issues, as we were GA, but I'm willing to bet the same people complaining about that were the ones crying about more water stations... which I saw 2 on each side of the venue placed where everyone could clearly see.

I guess bottom line is there's always gonna be people you can't please, but as far as the wife and I are concerned... there were no complaints and are looking forward to doing this again next year. Congrats Chad(and your wife) on debuting such a successful beerfest. I can't imagine how much hard work went into putting this together. I only know there were tons of people who reaped the benifits of your hard work.

Oh, btw... props to Jester King(and pretty much every brewery in the "Texas" section of the venue). My ass was in your line(which happened to be the longest line all day) for 4 of my 12 stamps. I enjoyed every one of the samples I had there. I should have sent the wife to go get me a t-shirt while waiting in those lines. I missed out on getting one, dammit!

 

Thanks so much for the positive feedback. We're working hard already to address all the issues people pointed out. Long lines to get in (longest all day we were told was 45 minutes) will be shortened by adding additional staff at the entry doors. We'll add places for people to sit down. We'll add lots more food vendors next year, as we're turning over that portion of the event planning to the concessionaire. They have 40 years experience doing it, and we obviously don't. We'll move the music outdoors, and hopefully add more booths that are even more spread out across the floor, and hope to double the amount of Texas representation at the festival next year. We'll have water at every booth for rinsing purposes, and we'll know how many shirts to order next year too.

Regarding the skull shirts though, we're ordering another 100 of those in the next week or so, so if you still want one we're going to throw them up on our website.

I'm sure I've forgotten some things we'll be improving for next year, but these are of course the highlights. Thanks again to everyone who came out, it made all the sleepless nights and hard work worth it when we heard the rolling cheers throughout the festival hall all day. The police told us no one got arrested all day, which they say is unheard of for an event our size. Further proof that beer people, are just good people

Cheers,
Chad

 

WAY TO GO CHAD! Props to you!

 

Hello. Chad, thanks again, and thank Nellie too. You guys rock!!! Hey, as I mentioned earlier, what do you think about the idea of registering the VIP's one hour previous to entry? If we take last Saturday as an example, if the VIP's had showed up at 11:00 am we would have all been checked in before noon. Then at noon the doors would have opened and all the VIP's would have been in the room by 12:10 at the latest. The same principle goes for the regular folks, check them in one hour before first entry. I think that will alleviate most line problems.

Thanks again.

 

Congrats CHAD! Wish i could have been there for you pal, but being in Ausitn and working for AT and T, im pretty much fucked for free time LOL

Although i knew you could do it man. Congrats again.

 

There were, it seems like, a handful of VIP ticket holders in the same line as I was wondering where to go. So what exactly were the issues with VIP? Other than people not getting there early enough to benifit from that "premium" ticket price. I'd assume there are all kinds of added expenses for the organizers by adding an extra hour to the start time just so they could get "registered". I thought that was what the 12:00PM check in time was for?

I'm asking because, initially, my intension was to get VIP's... but because of plans to attend another out of town event on the same day that fell through, I had to get my tickets last minute(at the event... $40 ea.). Plans for next year, however, will include VIP tickets. We walked around all day saturday jealous of all the people carrying their "brew caddy's" around their necks ... seriously!

 

The "Thanks" goes to you, Chad! And I absolutely DO still want a t-shirt. Have to have something, other than the program, to remember attending this inaugural event years from now. Just do us a favor and post here when they go up on your website. Otherwise I'll for sure miss out on 'em again.

 

I'm not really sure what you mean by registering. When we check people's ticket and ID and get them in the door, that's all the registering we're going to do Also, you've already written an article saying that you would not come back next year because you don't like festival atmospheres for your tastes, so I'm curious why you care how we do it?

Next year we will have a dedicated VIP entry (which we intended to this year, more on that in a second), and just like this year we will sell only a limited amount of them. Given the fact we'll have dedicated security folks for the VIP entry, and double our entry security for General Admission, we should be able to have everyone in within 10-15 minutes tops for the VIPs, and we're fairly confident of that.

This year we had the credentials table and VIP entry at the same spot. We asked all credentialed folks to show up before 11, which meant that almost everyone showed up right at 11. We continued to have people showing up well beyond 11 as well and that table had a line that felt pretty long. At around 11:45 we decided to move all VIPs to the main entry since credentialing was still so busy. This is part of what caused the issue of getting VIPs in early, because security didn't separate the lines for VIP and GA as quickly as we would have liked, but we accept some blame for changing our plans at the last minute too.

We already know how we will better deal with credentials next year, so having a separate VIP entry should alleviate concerns next year.

Cheers,
Chad

 

Hello. The issue with the VIP lines was that there were so many of them, I'll guess close to 1,000, that some VIP's didn't get in until about 1:00 pm or so. I myself got in about 12:35 pm so I lost 35 minutes. The idea of paying for VIP tickets is that you would get one hour before the rest of the masses to try to hit as many of the in demand beers. For those who paid VIP and only got 5 minutes there is no benefit. I could make the argument that losing 35 minutes of an hour is not worth. I personally didn't care that much, but you can see how that is a problem. So again, if last Saturday basically took one hour to check in all the people for VIP, then if they showed up at 11:00 am they would all have been ready at noon.

 

I don't suppose you have more than 1 program? We completely forgot to set aside a few just for us to have as keepsakes of the inaugural event.

 

Hello. Hey Chad, you are right that I wrote that I would not return, but I also went out of my way to praise the festival (and Nellie and you) and say that I would still support it. I literally said I would still buy VIP tickets but not attend. And if you think you can get VIP's within 15 minutes then that's good, but I sincerely doubt it. The reason I care, even if I don't go, is because I care about you and Nellie and all the other craft beer people and I want them to have the best possible experience.

The issue as I saw it was that you had to check people's tickets, check their ID, check their purses/bags, then give them their bands, lanyards, etc. That all takes time and when you have as many VIP's as you had last Saturday I really doubt you can take care of all those people in 15 minutes. If you do all that an hour ahead of time, then all your VIP's are good to go at the supposed entry time.

 

We had WAY less than 1,000 VIP, we actually had less than 600 VIPs in total. In any event, I think I've addressed how we will deal with this next year. If people showed up after 12pm, then they obviously didn't expect to get in at 12pm. Many VIPs showed up after 1pm even.

Last comment I'll make on this topic, but getting in early was not the only benefit or reason to buy VIP, you also got admittance to the after party, and a brew caddy. If you don't feel like you had a good time at the event, please contact me directly. My email is posted publicly for everyone to see on our website.

We will eliminate the wristbands next year. We will not "check people in" an hour early.

 

Hello. OK, so I overshot on the 1,000 but it was a lot. There was an entire line of VIP's that were there before noon and didn't get in until way after 12:00 pm. I got to Fair Park around 11:45 am and didn't get in until 12:35 pm. Some people got in to Fair Park right before noon and didn't make it into the place until 12:45 pm or later.

Chad I don't know why you think I had a bad time or anything like that. I have posted on this thread many times thanking you and Nellie and saying the event was a success. My Note on Facebook went out of its way to praise you and Nellie and say that the event was great. I have posted on your Facebook thanking you and praising you. I don't know what else I need to do for you to understand how much I appreciate everything you and your wife have done.

But you also know there were issues, and nothing that can't be solved. I am simply pointing out that one easy way to solve one of the biggest issues from last Saturday is to start processing VIP's an hour early.

I don't know why you feel I need my money back. Frankly, I have been one of your biggest supporters from day one, so your reaction is a little puzzling.