Lititz Craft Beer Fest?

With the explosion in beer fests there is an easy answer. If the organizers are this disorganized before the event I have no interest in attending their event. I have heard some horror stories lately with all the new organizations getting into the business. My favorite was the beer fest with exactly 4 toilets for a few thousand people. My brother was there and told me the very inventive and unique ways people avoided the 30 minute line.

 

I was going to go, but I decided to wait too long to get tickets, and they were sold out. Oh well. If it's good they'll probably do it again next year.

 

Sounds like a good time if you live within walking distance. Two thousand people swarming the area with no plan for parking is a shit-show waiting to happen.

 

I thought the festival was great for a first time. Since I have family who live there, parking wasn't an issue. I was able to try all the beers and breweries that I wanted and never waited in line for more than a few minutes. If anything, I would make it an hour longer.

 

I'm on vacation so unfortunately I couldn't make it to my hometown's first fest. Hopefully they do it again.

I'm surprised by the grumbling about parking. Lititz is a small town that handles special events MUCH bigger than this several times a year. It's a small town that does not have parking permits or large scale parking infrastructure, most people seem to able to just drive around until they find a space. What kind of help were you guys looking for?

 

I was pouring the Ommegang with the Burley Oak shirt with No Tent coverage. Yes Ice and lack of tubs for kegs was a major issue and hence my foamy beer. Since I was part of the set up and there at 10:30 am Parking was a non issue. Hay bales were to free up lines, which were Very long at first and amazingly quite short by 4 PM. Event was 2 - 5. Plenty of beers was left from what I noticed. I agree the event should have been at least 3.5 hours, not 3. In my 18 years of being a Volunteer / Rep at Beer Fest it was great for a 1st show and yes 2,000 tickets should be the limit unless the area is increased.

 

I was there and parking was no problem at all. I think they did a great job for a first time event. As beirman2000 noted, some pours were pretty foamy and another hour would have been good but overall I thought it went very well.
My wife was 1 of the first to drop her class and staff were there right away to clean it up and handed her another glass.

 

Cool, so where did you park? Some random business?

 

Dry hay in bales will absorb a lot of liquid that evaporates relatively quickly rather than just drain through. Then the hay bales can be re-used for their original purpose. Move em into place, forget them, come back later, move them back to the farm. etc.

Seems a clever idea if there were enough of them around the area.

 

The hay bales were to avoid dumping beer on the street, well that happened anyway. It was a solid event for 1st year. I heard maybe 5 total glasses break and much better then plastic. Parking well since I was there early, Volunteer setting it up at 10:30 am. The spot I parked at was near Appalachian / Susquehanna Bank, that also was near an entrance.
I'm glad many enjoyed and yours truly reache d out to get some of the beers there that you don't see everywhere else. Weyerbacher plained email and phone tag, Dogfish Head had an event same day in Rehobeth and Carton Brewery did not have Boatman or 077XX in stock,

 

They couldn't have done this when I lived half a mile away?

*grumble grumble*

Happy to see my old town continuing to get more involved with that community though. Attended a number of great events at Bulls Head while I lived there, and there seemed to be a strong demand for good beer. A festival seems like the next natural step, and by the sounds of it, they didn't do too bad for their first time.

 

We were not from the area, so we drove around the block but there were plenty of spots where we parked and we got there about 10 minutes before it started. We parked on Main Street opposite side of Broad street close to 'G' about a block from the entrance. Also, walking down main to the entrance there was a church or something with a parking lot that alot of people were parking at.