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We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
Buffalo Brewfest 2006 - Sept 16th
Bit the bullet, we're booked into the Comfort Suites Downtown, more per night, but I'm sure worth it - better room, closer to the fest...
Bored Silly? Check out my blog... http://geeksjournal.blogspot.com
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Jon Walker
- Seasoned Drinker
- Posts: 1899
- Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2001 8:00 pm
- Location: Wherever you go there you are
I'm not having much luck with fests this summer. I missed both Toronto events while working in Vancouver. When I recently returned here to Van from Italy I was too late to buy a ticket for the recent beerfest in Victoria, I'll be away during the Buffalo event (which I was going to go to) and then I return to Toronto the very day of the Vancouver brewing fest. Still not certain that I'll be in town for Caskfest and by the time I find out there'll probably be no tickets.
The only upside is that I'll be in Philadelphia for a week later in September where I'll certainly enjoy the local scene.
Have a great time in Buffalo!
The only upside is that I'll be in Philadelphia for a week later in September where I'll certainly enjoy the local scene.
Have a great time in Buffalo!
Hey Jon - Don't worry I'll try all the big IPA's and post a mouth-watering review 
Drop me a line when you're back in town and have some time - let's get together for a lunch at C'est What or Beer Bistro or something...
Drop me a line when you're back in town and have some time - let's get together for a lunch at C'est What or Beer Bistro or something...
Bored Silly? Check out my blog... http://geeksjournal.blogspot.com
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Jon Walker
- Seasoned Drinker
- Posts: 1899
- Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2001 8:00 pm
- Location: Wherever you go there you are
Yes I will be going with two friends. First stop in Western NewJWalter wrote:Yup, it looks like we're going, just finalizing plans now and booking a room - we're going real upscale - MOTEL 6 baby! Ha! BTW - I called Consumer Beverages in Buffalo he still has tickets left, doesn't figure he'll sell out, so if you haven't got tix yet, maybe plan to head there (they open at 9am), and get them $20 instead of $25 at the door.
http://www.consumersbeverages.com/
FYI - I think Publican is going too...
York will be the Consumer Beverages on Transit Rd.
Well I got back from Buffalo yesterday after a weekend of beer-festing. Here's a couple of thoughts...
First, the location. It was held at the "Central Terminal" which was an incredible place. There's really nothing like it in Toronto. Imagine Union Station if it was in the middle of a residential neighbourhood instead of downtown and it was left uninhabited for decades. This place was literally a timepiece of another age - when Buffalo was more prosperous than today. Yet in Buffalo buildings (I suppose) aren't torn down - they are left to die. I wasn't sure whether to be in awe of the fact that this was being held in an abandoned historic building or worry if a ceiling tile was going to fall on my head.
If that sounded negative it really wasn't meant to be - it was quite cool seeing old remains of the station - signs like "TO STREET AND BUSES", "TO OFFICES", "TICKETS" where none of that actually exists anymore. A restoration society has formed to try to do something with the building - but don't be fooled, nothing has been restored yet, except the clocktower which now works.
All this is meant to say that was probably the most unique location I've ever been to for a beer festival. The fest was held in the main hall of the building, with all the brewers lining the walls of the hall.
Now I have to say that the fest was TOO busy. I have to think that it was oversold - I don't think there was a fixed number of tickets available prior to the fest. I arrived shortly after open and it filled up quite quickly. It was very difficult to move around or get beers. It was virtually impossible to talk to the brewers or representatives at the booths, which is something I always enjoy doing. The guys working the taps had to serve like an assembly line there were so many people. And on a sour note, a bunch of friends of mine were denied access for about 90 minutes due to capacity, even though their site said tickets would be available at the door.
There were lots of beers available, mostly from Northeastern U.S. states. Southern Tier had a few beers, including a new one, Heavy Weizen which was very good. Ommegang had their lineup there, as did Flying Bison. We also tried beers from Custom Brewcrafters and the local brewpubs and a handful of other brewers. Consumers Beverage, a local beer store, brought bottles of various brewers to serve. I tried a "Vintage Lager" from Cisco which was good.
The fest was brought to an abrupt end about 20 minutes before it was supposed to close, evidently because the "crowd was screaming". It seemed like everyone was just doing mass-"cheers-ing" but I suppose the organizers didn't see it that way.
After it was over, we reconvened at Cole's for some more excellent beers and dinner. I had never been to Cole's before and I recommend it highly - great draught and bottled beer selections, all reasonably priced. On Sunday we finished off the weekend at Pizza Plant and made a purchase at Consumers - Victory Festbier, Smuttynose Pumpkin, some Southern Tier and the lineup from Cisco which I'm looking forward to trying.
All I can say is that it certainly was an interesting and memorable fest. It was nice to see John Walter and Publican down there as well. The Buffalo Brewfest certainly proved to be very successful this year, but I think the organizers need to work on some of the details moving forward.
First, the location. It was held at the "Central Terminal" which was an incredible place. There's really nothing like it in Toronto. Imagine Union Station if it was in the middle of a residential neighbourhood instead of downtown and it was left uninhabited for decades. This place was literally a timepiece of another age - when Buffalo was more prosperous than today. Yet in Buffalo buildings (I suppose) aren't torn down - they are left to die. I wasn't sure whether to be in awe of the fact that this was being held in an abandoned historic building or worry if a ceiling tile was going to fall on my head.
If that sounded negative it really wasn't meant to be - it was quite cool seeing old remains of the station - signs like "TO STREET AND BUSES", "TO OFFICES", "TICKETS" where none of that actually exists anymore. A restoration society has formed to try to do something with the building - but don't be fooled, nothing has been restored yet, except the clocktower which now works.
All this is meant to say that was probably the most unique location I've ever been to for a beer festival. The fest was held in the main hall of the building, with all the brewers lining the walls of the hall.
Now I have to say that the fest was TOO busy. I have to think that it was oversold - I don't think there was a fixed number of tickets available prior to the fest. I arrived shortly after open and it filled up quite quickly. It was very difficult to move around or get beers. It was virtually impossible to talk to the brewers or representatives at the booths, which is something I always enjoy doing. The guys working the taps had to serve like an assembly line there were so many people. And on a sour note, a bunch of friends of mine were denied access for about 90 minutes due to capacity, even though their site said tickets would be available at the door.
There were lots of beers available, mostly from Northeastern U.S. states. Southern Tier had a few beers, including a new one, Heavy Weizen which was very good. Ommegang had their lineup there, as did Flying Bison. We also tried beers from Custom Brewcrafters and the local brewpubs and a handful of other brewers. Consumers Beverage, a local beer store, brought bottles of various brewers to serve. I tried a "Vintage Lager" from Cisco which was good.
The fest was brought to an abrupt end about 20 minutes before it was supposed to close, evidently because the "crowd was screaming". It seemed like everyone was just doing mass-"cheers-ing" but I suppose the organizers didn't see it that way.
After it was over, we reconvened at Cole's for some more excellent beers and dinner. I had never been to Cole's before and I recommend it highly - great draught and bottled beer selections, all reasonably priced. On Sunday we finished off the weekend at Pizza Plant and made a purchase at Consumers - Victory Festbier, Smuttynose Pumpkin, some Southern Tier and the lineup from Cisco which I'm looking forward to trying.
All I can say is that it certainly was an interesting and memorable fest. It was nice to see John Walter and Publican down there as well. The Buffalo Brewfest certainly proved to be very successful this year, but I think the organizers need to work on some of the details moving forward.
My friends and I went down for this as well, but never got in due to the event being oversold. We arrived about 40 minutes after the event started only to be told that they "didn't know how many tickets they'd sold" and we might get in if we waited in line outside. We got tired of that after about an hour and left. (Does anybody know if they ever let people in from this line?)
Now, props to them for selling out the event. We were pretty disappointed though, as we'd come down based on (a) the website information that there would be tickets at the door AND (b) having e-mailed the people in change of the fest with the concern that we might come a long way only to get to a sold-out event and being told to come down and buy tickets at the door.
Needless to say, we won't be going again unless advance tickets are available over the internets.
-Josh
Now, props to them for selling out the event. We were pretty disappointed though, as we'd come down based on (a) the website information that there would be tickets at the door AND (b) having e-mailed the people in change of the fest with the concern that we might come a long way only to get to a sold-out event and being told to come down and buy tickets at the door.
Needless to say, we won't be going again unless advance tickets are available over the internets.
-Josh
Cellar List: http://josh.infinitepigeons.org/beer.html
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BeerMonger
- Posts: 193
- Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 4:04 pm
Event Planning 101:
1) know the capacity of your venue.
2) print a date on the ticket (i.e. valid-Friday)
3) be honest with your exhibitors regarding attendance expectations so they may plan appropriately.
4) communicate with your customer (i.e. update website)
I suggest you complain, complain, complain to the promoters...and don't go back until the event is properly run. THATS how you may effect change.
1) know the capacity of your venue.
2) print a date on the ticket (i.e. valid-Friday)
3) be honest with your exhibitors regarding attendance expectations so they may plan appropriately.
4) communicate with your customer (i.e. update website)
I suggest you complain, complain, complain to the promoters...and don't go back until the event is properly run. THATS how you may effect change.
If by incredible you mean "not credible" then I agree with youCass wrote:First, the location. It was held at the "Central Terminal" which was an incredible place.
Lets be honest, this was a bombed-out building in the ghetto-iest area of Buffalo. I was fearful for my life getting there. The percentage of non-broken windows in the surrounding buildings was less than 1%. Add to this no 'facilities' except 8 port-o-potties for a group of maybe 1000 people and thats what it was like.The waterfront location where the fest was held last year was much better in every single way, and I hope they return to that format next year (if I decide to return after the ticketting fiasco, which BTW detritus they never did let anyone else in - we had to get scalped tickets!)
In my experience any event that is organized by a charity has the potential to suffer greatly, usually due to the fact that its not for profit and they rely on volunteer help to get everything done. I think the Terminal probably offered its space for free, so the organizers took it. It would certainly seem that the Buff Brewfest has outgrown being effectively managed by volunteers.
By "incredible" I mean it was unlike anywhere I've ever been. If I feared getting shot I wouldn't have gone back to Buffalo after the 2000 fest.
By "incredible" I mean it was unlike anywhere I've ever been. If I feared getting shot I wouldn't have gone back to Buffalo after the 2000 fest.
Just FYI, I emailed the organizers and very quickly got this response:
Thank you for the feedback.
The "success" of this BrewFest was a mixed blessing. As of Thursday, we had only sold approx. 800 tickets. On Saturday morning, we discovered that several major news outlets in the City of Buffalo had run stories about us on Friday and ticket sales shot through the roof. They completely ignored us in the past but the articles were about our using the Terminal which has not been open to the public in 30 years. We were shocked to find we had sold 2,400 tickets before the doors opened! We literally went from being a relatively small beer tasting to a large event overnight.
Because we had advertised tickets available at the door we ended up letting in close to 3,200 people. This is twice last year's attendance and we still ended up turning away HUNDREDS of people. You should read the emails I am getting from those we did not let in. Ouch.
The consequences of all this was the event felt cramped and the bathroom facilities were undersized. I think you would have had a better impression of the Terminal and the event if it was not so massively attended. We are taking steps to address this and I guarantee that you will not feel cramped or have facilities issues at the next BrewFest.
We hope you understand the situation and can be patient with our growing pains. Please consider attending again next year.
Cheers,
Brian Mahoney
Buffalo BrewFest
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BeerMonger
- Posts: 193
- Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 4:04 pm
Cass, I am not so certain that this event was organized by a charity (I read the website link)...it is not uncommon for a promoter of a show or event to donate a (small) portion of the proceeds to charity to enhance the image of their event.
Often, this is done to appease municipal authorities regarding permits, venues, policing, etc. I am speaking in general terms here and not specifically about this event (maybe all the proceeds did go to the charity!).
I read the apology as posted and my best suggestion to Brian Mahoney is to hire someone competent and experienced in co-ordinating events.
I am curious...can anyone advise as to the extent of security at this event. Was it volunteers, private security and/or police? Often the security component or lack thereof is a direct indicator of how well (or not) the event may have been planned...
Often, this is done to appease municipal authorities regarding permits, venues, policing, etc. I am speaking in general terms here and not specifically about this event (maybe all the proceeds did go to the charity!).
I read the apology as posted and my best suggestion to Brian Mahoney is to hire someone competent and experienced in co-ordinating events.
I am curious...can anyone advise as to the extent of security at this event. Was it volunteers, private security and/or police? Often the security component or lack thereof is a direct indicator of how well (or not) the event may have been planned...
While I'm not positive, I doubt that the charity donations in this case are done to appease authorities. This has always been a local event run by local people focusing on local products. I'm not associated with the event, but I get the feeling that a good portion of the profit is going to the Hearing & Speech Language program & the central terminal restoration fund.BeerMonger wrote:Cass, I am not so certain that this event was organized by a charity (I read the website link)...it is not uncommon for a promoter of a show or event to donate a (small) portion of the proceeds to charity to enhance the image of their event.
Often, this is done to appease municipal authorities regarding permits, venues, policing, etc. I am speaking in general terms here and not specifically about this event (maybe all the proceeds did go to the charity!).
I'm sure that they will in future years. There has been an explosion in 'craft beer' in Buffalo in the last year but I don't think anyone could have expected this.BeerMonger wrote: I read the apology as posted and my best suggestion to Brian Mahoney is to hire someone competent and experienced in co-ordinating events.
The previous venue (the pier) was bulldozed earlier this year. They had to find something new and, as you'll probably agree, the 1600 people from last year could have fit into that hall very comfortably.
As the response said they sold 1,600 tickets 'overnight.' Its hard to plan for that - tickets had been on sale for 2 months and only 800 had sold.
Not sure, I saw a few off duty police officers, but as in past years, security wasn't really necessary. Everyone I saw was very well behaved.BeerMonger wrote: I am curious...can anyone advise as to the extent of security at this event. Was it volunteers, private security and/or police? Often the security component or lack thereof is a direct indicator of how well (or not) the event may have been planned...
Anyhow, I don't know why I'm being defensive.. There were things that needed to be changed and I'm sure it'll all be worked out by next year.
-rudy
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BeerMonger
- Posts: 193
- Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 4:04 pm
Rudolf...someone posted that they shut down early because of "screaming"? Sounds to me like there was a problem. As for not being prepared for 1600 tickets sold overnight...there is no excuse for that...a good coordinator checks his/her numbers first thing in the A.M. and has contingency plans...i.e. more toilets, more security, etc.
I'm not trying to run down the Beerfest but it sounds to me like it was put together poorly. I hope it wasn't a case of someone maximizing profits at the expense of you, the consumer. I know I won't be attending until others start posting about the good times they had in future years.
I'm not trying to run down the Beerfest but it sounds to me like it was put together poorly. I hope it wasn't a case of someone maximizing profits at the expense of you, the consumer. I know I won't be attending until others start posting about the good times they had in future years.