Darkness Day 2018

6 dollars a ticket. 1 Ticket per beer straight up as far as I was ever asked for.

 

In addition, you were given 4 tickets with the package (not sure on all the packages).

The beers did come in different sizes, but the Darkness I got was the big size.

 

Any idea how financially successful Darkness Dark was in the new location?

I heard instead of thousands of people there were only hundreds of people. Surly was really pushing hard the past week to get people to go so I'm curious if people think DD will remain in the same location/format.

Since Darkness is so easy to buy the past few years at liquor stores I have no real interest in DD any longer (yes I know the bottle share is the reason why many people go).

 

I thought it was a pretty decent time. I just bought the GA ticket and really enjoyed the guest breweries. If not for guest taps the day would not have been as good for me — I can’t complain about a 5 minute wait for Mornin’ Delight.

I can’t imagine that it was a profitable event for Surly however. There were possibly less people than attended other Darkness Days at the brewery.

 

I had a fantastic experience this year! I guess I can only speak for Saturday as I didn't attend Friday evening. But couldn't have asked for much more out of Saturday.

For one, there was PLENTY of room to spread out! I'm the type that enjoys live music, but the volume level at the old brewery made it less enjoyable at times during the live performances. This event, if you didn't care for the music there was plenty of places to resort to away from the stage and at adequate volume levels. There was a tap truck stage left that was pouring vintage anniversary beers and later on, earlier vintages of Darkness. Everything leftover from the Friday night casks was still pouring. A HUGE assortment of guest taps throughout the day which I thought was fantastic! And if you were really interested in a pour, you got it as long as you were around the guest tap area when they tapped your specific target beer. Several previous Darkness artists in booths to chat with, check out some of their art, and watch them recreate their Surly subject art live! Plenty of food choices as well, by vendor and random campers you ran into while visiting the campground.

To me, this reminded me of how Darkness Day used to be. Raw, gray, cold, metal, "real" beer people... Felt like it kinda kept the riff raff away like you'd see at the old location. Riff raff in a very light sense. Moreso the weeding out of the folks just doing the beer thing because it's cool and hip or happened to be their convenient get drunk fix.

I honestly wouldn't have done anything differently. Got to see the Murder City Devils (still baffles me they played there), drink some healthy pours of great beers (mostly guest taps, sorry Surly), talk to some great folks, eat some great food (thanks campers!). Hope they do things exactly the same next year!

 

Glad to see so many that had a good experience on Saturday. I had a blast.