Buffalo Brewfest 2006 - Sept 16th

Cass · Post by **Cass** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:31 pm

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.

The reason I suspected this is because on the site their contact for promotional and sponsorship is from the Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center. I presumed this person's actual job was at the Hearing Center and therefore was helping the BrewFest in her spare time.

I was working with another event in the GTA and the same position (sponsorship) was held by someone who had a full-time job elsewhere. The event (which was organized by a charity) financially supported her organization in part, which (I believe) allowed her to dedicate her time to helping out.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the same set up, but certainly I could be wrong!

Publican · Post by **Publican** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:21 pm

I am also planning to complain to the brewfest people as it was extremely diificult to get to the brewers. I will not be going unless they find a new location. They also have to have more port a potties. The area was the worst ghetto that I've ever seen in Buffalo and it was great to get to Cole's on Elmwood where I had two pints of Stone Arrogant Bastard and some great ribs!

There were two Canadian breweries present: Moosehead and Unibroue and I tried the Chambly Noire which I thought was pleasant but I would not buy this beer if it was avalible at the LCBO. Talked to some Otter Creek reps and they knew of the hassles of getting beer listed at the LCBO. Talked to some Consumers Beverage people and they told me that they are planning to open a store in Niagara Falls, NY in a couple of months.
If this store has as good a selection as the one on Transit Rd. in Williamsville, I'll be a happy man.

Just like when we came back from the Cole's IPA Fest we had to pay duty and tax on our beer. All of us had around 30 bottles and even on this small amount they wanted thier cut. The federal portion was not too bad (duty: $3.19, GST: $4.22) The provincial portion was the worst of the two (PST: $9.27, LCBO markup: $6.92) My friends and I thought that the Beer Store and LCBO have talked to Customs and asked them to charge duty and taxes
on any amount of beer. They may do that because the CDN dollar is stronger now. Thank god I will be able to bring beer back duty and tax free back from my brother's place in Michigan when I visit him next month, I will be staying 48 hours. If you have any friends that like Molson beers Consumers has 28 packs of Molson
( don't know the brand) for $13.89 US.

If any bartowelers want to go to the brewfest next year I sugest you head down to Buffalo on another weekend and buy your tickets then. My friends and I bought ours at the Pizza Plant before the Cole's IPA fest in August.

detritus · Post by **detritus** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:22 pm

rudolf wrote: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.

Actually, that's easy to fix: don't print more tickets than the venue can handle.

-Josh

JerCraigs · Post by **JerCraigs** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:10 am

Publican wrote:If you have any friends that like Molson beers Consumers has 28 packs of Molson
( don't know the brand) for $13.89 US.

You just answered your own question about taxes and duties. Its not us the taxes are *really* designed for, its people trying to buy cheap beer and bring it back.

Steve-E · Post by **Steve-E** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:10 am

About the fest: Personally, I liked the building itself. It was in a bad area, but the building I thought was cool. We were fortunate to get in. We went to Consumers to buy tickets. I stroll in, buy 2 tickets and glassware, no ID request, and wait for the rest of the group. The young kid that was working cash leaves and is replaced by an older man. JWalter arrives and grabs some beer, I'm at the counter trying to purchase beer, the old guy asks for ID and refuses to sell it to me because I did not have NY state ID. Unbelievable eh? And of coarse they wouldn't sell us anymore tickets without NY State ID. So we have 2 of the 6 tickets we needed and headed to the fest. We get there and Dave (one of the organizers) tells us that they may be sold out. We tell him our story, tell him were from Toronto, and he tells us he will get us in. Then we realize someone forgot their ID at the hotel. We tell Dave and he once again he said he would help us out, and he did. We got in, drank some great beers. Yes it was overcrowded in the main hall, but we found a small area with some chairs down the hallway and camped out for the day. We had a great time, only dealing with crowds during beer runs. Actually, there seemed to be a mass exodus around 5, as the crowd seemed smaller.

As for customs it went like this:
"how long have you been away?"
"since yesterday morning"
"anything to declare?"
"about 20 beers"
"have a nice day"

I don't think JWalter had to pay anything either. I guess it was bad luck for Publican, or maybe it was just too many beers to let pass.

Oh yeah, Dave told us we should e-mail and complain about Consumers and anything else we didn't like to the organizers. I think I'll do that.

JWalter · Post by **JWalter** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 11:12 pm

Hello Gents... I finally got around to completing my 'story' of our weekend away, including some pics and plenty of hyperlinks... If you're interested... http://geekybeer.blogspot.com/2006/09/b ... eview.html