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Michigan Winter Beer Festival moves to GR

GRDadof3

By GRDadof3
in Grand Rapids Coffee House

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Veloise City

Veloise

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...From the Michigan Brewer's Guild blog:

"...We are very excited about the ballpark and think it will add a little entertainment value of its own."

...

"The Festival is outdoors and will take place regardless of the weather so wear your hats, boots, gloves and long johns. ... the waiting line will extend outside the tent into the weather. ...If the weather cooperates, we will keep the side curtains to a minimum and enjoy the sunshine."...

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Veloise City

Veloise

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So let me get this straight. You're willing to stand outside in the cold and watch outhouse races, but not stand outside in the cold to drink some of the region's best beers? I guess it's all about your priorities.

Don't you ride your bicycle in the winter?

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GRCityPlanner Unincorporated Area

GRCityPlanner

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We went so far as to offer the MBG free tents, crowd fencing, and to help with obtaining outdoor heaters, if they would move their festival to Calder Plaza.

They wouldn't do it :dontknow: ... said they hadn't really considered other options, but maybe would for next year if there was enough interest.

I'm going to work on them for the Summer Festival, too, although that will be particularly difficult to wrench away from Ypsilanti.

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Veloise City

Veloise

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We went so far as to offer the MBG free tents, crowd fencing, and to help with obtaining outdoor heaters, if they would move their festival to Calder Plaza.

They wouldn't do it :dontknow: ... said they hadn't really considered other options, but maybe would for next year if there was enough interest.

I'm going to work on them for the Summer Festival, too, although that will be particularly difficult to wrench away from Ypsilanti.

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Par75 Whistle-Stop

Par75

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"The excitement" of a shuttered seasonal facility is not something I'm able to understand. Seems like the place would be winterized and the costs of opening it up several months early (and then closing down again) would be a factor.
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MuskeMI Whistle-Stop

MuskeMI

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Seems like the real question is: what happened in Old Town, and why would a thriving arts and entertainment district with an established schedule of special events not want this one to return? And why would they move it 60 miles? There are other venues in greater Lansing.
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fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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I can speculate, having attended nearly all of the Winter (and Summer) Beer Fests for the last 5+ years.

Summer Beer Fest usually runs exceptionally smooth. Big park on the river in Ypsi, acessable, overall all my experiences here have been good to great.

Winter is another story. The initial WBF in 2006 was a cluster. Too many tickets sold for the venue - it wasn't old town, it was a tent in Old Town with a plastic white picket fence around it. Freezing cold that first time with no heaters or side walls, everybody congregated in the tent and as a result, it was impossible to move from one brewery to another within the tent. Like this but worse:

407661950_0b3418bd3a.jpg

There were some facility planning issues (the 2 most popular breweries, Founders and Dark Horse, were right next to each other since they assigned booths in alphabetical order, causing even more crowding issues). Add to that the fact that 1200+ people doing nothing but drinking beers all day only had EIGHT port-a-johns and, well....

2007 was a little better but still much of the same.

Both festivals had a lot of public urination & public drunkeness. Not to be ageist but I think the fact that it's basically held in a college town had a lot to do with it. Summer fest is a lot of beer geeks; Winter seems to be a lot more "people looking to get drunk."

I don't know who wanted to move the fest, Lansing or the Guild or both. I would have loved to see it in the Calder plaza or in Easttown rather than 5/3 but at least it's close enough now I can get a DD volunteer rather than a cab. :thumbsup:

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GRDadof3 Ecumenopolis

GRDadof3

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I can't imagine they'll allow people to get away with much public urination at 5/3rd...plus there will be much nicer restroom accomodations. I think that's one of the major advantages of this facility over Calder Plaza or Eastown. It comes with clubhouse areas to warm up, in addition to the tents with sides and warming units. Also, I think they'll be able to have things a bit more spread out than they were in Lansing. As for the wind and shelter, the concourse area of the stadium is much more sheltered than even a downtown area with large buildings would be as it has a ceiling and a wall.

The tradeoff is that it's not near anything else, like places to eat or drink after 5pm, or places to stay. Although I think there is a Vitale's and a couple of other eateries just down the road on West River Dr, and there are a number of hotels up on Alpine. Not walkable by any means though, or accessible by public transit.

According to their website, it sounds like they routinely rent out the spaces at the 5/3rd Park for year round events and as such, they probably don't have everything completely shut down and winterized.

I'm very interested to see how the turnout is and how they have everything setup. I would love for this to become a regular event in GR (although hopefully not on the same weekend as the outhouse races every year, as those do actually sound like fun).

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fluffy Whistle-Stop

fluffy

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I went to the Beer Festival in Burlington, Vermont this past summer and had a blast! You definitely will need a DD if you attend this event.

We cabbed it back to the "city" after the event in Burlington.

I cannot wait for GR's beer fest! It sounds like a lot of fun to bundle up and hang out drinking some fine beers.

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  • 3 weeks later...
fotoman311 Burg

fotoman311

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Beer list:

Arbor Brewing

Super Snapper Imperial ESB

HXL Double IPA

Old Number 33 Imperial Alt

No Parking Pilsner

Arcadia Brewing Co.

Scotch Ale

Cocoa Loco Chocolate Stout

Hop Rocket Imperial IPA

Big Dick's Olde Ale

Russian Imperial Stout

Cereal Killer Barley Wine

Bourbon Barrel Aged Shipwreck Porter

/cut

:alc::cold::fun:

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