It's on the events page of their website. I guess the great BCTC festival has taken its last breath. It was great fun while it lasted.
I’m having sentimental flashbacks to that first year of the event. Original owners Don and Wendy were so psyched to show off their brewery and toast Belgian culture. I covered the event for the Brewing News and got incredibly trashed—my notes ended after my second tasting and I had to resort to browsing the event web site to fill out my feature. Good times!
i guess i went through the grief of it being over when it ended the first time, but it's still sad news. this and boonville were the absolute best fest experiences i've ever had. all of brewing is sad news right now
Having not had a paid for event cancelled in the past, I am curious how long it takes for the ticket agency to return the payment to the charged account and if they refund the processing fee.
For anybody who is interested, I contacted Showclix, the ticket agency Ommegang used. They told me their records show a refund to me being processed and I was told it may take 3-5 days to be reflected in my credit card account. Here we are, less than five days before the event was scheduled to start and I have received no notification of its cancellation from anybody. The only reference I see online seems to be on sites where I posted the news of the cancellation. I hope a few hundred people don't show up with cars full of camping equipment.
I just tried doing a search for the fest and the first thing that comes up is the fest website which states that it is cancelled and that all ticket holders were notified. Ticket holders who show proof of purchase can get a free beer/flight at the brewery that weekend.
Having gone every year but the first one or two, other than the years they did not have BCTC, I was looking forward to this year. I hoped it would grow some from last year, but I guess it just was not to be. Just for the hell of it, I and a friend who always went with me, drove up and spent about three hours at the brewery taphouse for a late lunch. It was an absolutely gorgeous day in the Cooperstown area, being 80 degrees and sunny. There were a lot customers while we were there. It was the first time I had ever seen the large, mowed lawn area empty. Every year we went, we hit rain on our way south to the wider Philly suburbs. This year was no exception. There did not seem to be much buzz about BCTC this year, so maybe a lot of people did not realize it was scheduled. I fear Ommegang may be gun shy about attempting the festival again in the future. That's a shame. The good friars of St Crispus donned our monk's robes this year, just in case it's the last time we venture three and a half hours to Cooperstown. As the old song taken from the book of Ecclesiastes goes ....... To everything - turn, turn, turn There is a season - turn, turn, turn And a time for every purpose under heaven A time to be born, a time to die A time to plant, a time to reap A time to kill, a time to heal A time to laugh, a time to weep To everything - turn, turn, turn There is a season - turn, turn, turn
