Craft beer festivals are really the pinnacle of a beer fan’s experience. All your favorite breweries are there, serving up their freshest and best ales, and you’re surrounded by people who share the same passion as you. With the weather getting nicer, craft beer fest season is already underway. Lots of good festivals are coming to town, and with the growing popularity of craft beer, there are an increasing amount of options to choose from.
However, beer fests can get pricey. I have seen them range anywhere from $20 to $200. That can really wreak havoc on the finances. I recently found a great way to attend beer fests for free and thought I’d share!
Volunteering. Most of these brew fests do not have the adequate amount of personnel to handle such large crowds and depend on volunteers to come forward and help out at the event. They will post on their event website with a tab for volunteers and you simply fill out the online form and show up when you are assigned.
You usually get choices: work the front gate, wristband people and check ID’s, hand out tickets and festival guides. This is my favorite job and the one I picked. I worked the door for 2.5-3 hours and I was let go to enjoy the fest afterwards and had time to enjoy all the brews I wanted. I got a festival hat and free lunch as well. I got backstage access and got to meet a lot of the brewers. My friend who came and volunteered abused his power a little, and was just going right to the taps, skipping the line and pouring for himself!
There is also working the taps as most breweries just send kegs but don’t always have an employee to go and tap, volunteers usually take this role on. Yes, you get to enjoy some beer yourself while you tap for others, but you usually end up working the whole duration of the fest. The festival managers were offering a free ticket to the next festival in exchange for this. Pretty sweet deal!
A disclaimer: This is not going to be great for everyone. If you are an introvert or aren’t super outgoing, I suggest not volunteering. You have to deal with a lot of thirty and drunk people, and they can be unruly. Working the fest involves responsibility, so it’s not going to be all enjoyment. But the rewards do pay off if you love people like I do.
Even if you don’t enjoy it, you will experience a brewery festival in a different way that you’ve never before. I won’t volunteer for all the fests this summer, but probably a couple to save myself a little money. I love beer, but I also love a lot of other things so you need to be savvy and see where you can cut corners without losing out on all the fun!
I do apologize for the low amount of pictures...the fest got busy and then afterwards I was racing around to sample!
Get out there and try something different, you will be thankful later. I hope you enjoyed this post! Cheers everyone! Please follow and/or upvote the post!
Another insightful beer blog by Brad! I have volunteered at brew vests in the past pouring beers, and you are correct in that you pretty much get stuck at that booth until it’s over or the beer runs out but you can usually swap with neighboring booths .
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