The Bar Towel

Details released: http://www.sessiontoronto.com/tickets.html

Interesting development this year. Yonge & Dundas Square? VIP passes with private bathrooms, and VIP only beers? This is getting kind ridiculous....

Y&D square is an interesting venue. Has there ever been a beer event there before?

ercousin wrote:This is getting kind ridiculous....

Enh. Good luck to them with the format. If they think they can make money doing that, well, more power to them. They lost me two years ago (as documented here in another thread.)

Pretty much the only guaranteed attendance events nowadays we do is Cask Days and C'est What's Summer & Fall festivals. Everything else I have to seriously think about.

I just find it ridiculous that they are creating two tiers of festival goers.

ercousin wrote:I just find it ridiculous that they are creating two tiers of festival goers.

That exists already with the Toronto Beer Festival and even Cask Days to some extent. I don't see a problem with it if people want to pay more to get more. If I feel the $$$ is well spent on the higher priced ticket I'll buy it. If at any point that I feel I'm getting severely short changed as the lesser patron then I'll simply stop going.

lister wrote:

ercousin wrote:I just find it ridiculous that they are creating two tiers of festival goers.

That exists already with the Toronto Beer Festival and even Cask Days to some extent. I don't see a problem with it if people want to pay more to get more. If I feel the $$$ is well spent on the higher priced ticket I'll buy it. If at any point that I feel I'm getting severely short changed as the lesser patron then I'll simply stop going.

It does happen with those, but it's usually a early entrance thing, or short lines in the entrance. This is extra benefits during the festival. VIP only unique beers, VIP only bathrooms, VIP only food, VIP entertainment (avert your ears peasants!).

I can imagine the best beers will be VIP only....

lister wrote:

ercousin wrote:I just find it ridiculous that they are creating two tiers of festival goers.

That exists already with the Toronto Beer Festival and even Cask Days to some extent. I don't see a problem with it if people want to pay more to get more. If I feel the $$$ is well spent on the higher priced ticket I'll buy it. If at any point that I feel I'm getting severely short changed as the lesser patron then I'll simply stop going.

Pretty much all the festivals have VIP tickets that get you in earlier these days. Heck, even the very laid-back festivals at the Rhino have early access that comes with a breakfast and they don't even charge admission at all for most attendees! I think the tiered bathrooms are a first though...

So much for the multi-year deal I heard they signed at Wychwood. Wonder what happened...

Interesting venue. But with fencing that will be required and all the breweries tents, food trucks and music setup, there's not going to be a ton of room in there. And no relief from the sunshine if it's a hot June.

Best of luck to them - they certainly give it their best in the face of the challenges that have arisen over the past few years.

I guess we'll find out next year if this higher tier is successful or not.

It's really no different than first class versus cattle class with the airlines. Want more and better? Pay more. Free market baby!*

* For non-essential goods and services.

We all bitch about the nanny state Ontario and Canada is. Well... Shit or get off the pot.

Cass wrote:So much for the multi-year deal I heard they signed at Wychwood. Wonder what happened...

Any chance your events will go back to Wychwood? I'm really not a fan of Brickworks and while Wychwood isn't a favourite of ours at least it gives us an easy opportunity to hit up Stockyards.

Interesting venue. But with fencing that will be required and all the breweries tents, food trucks and music setup, there's not going to be a ton of room in there. And no relief from the sunshine if it's a hot June.

It'll be damn noisy too, not to mention the car traffic. I'm assuming traffic won't be blocked. That can't be cheap to have happen.

My take on the VIP pass situation:

"we know we are never going to be able to get our shit together, but if you pay more you won't have to deal with it."

Unlikely we'll be back at Wychwood. Long story but The Stop (who manages the space that we did the Brewery Market in) probably wouldn't want us back. They (unsurprisingly) stopped hosting their own version of it last year.

I couldn't imagine they'd block traffic, especially for a daytime event.

I'll be going, but it's interesting to note that the Michigan Craft Brewers Guild Festival (in Ann Arbor last summer) featured 800+ beers from a wide selection of Michigan Brewers Guild breweries.

Ticket cost? $40.
Port-a-potty count? At least 75-80.
Samples? 1 per token, 15 tokens included. Not a single brewery took tokens (so it's all you can drink for $40).
Location? Riverside Park. A gorgeous park on a river.
Food is extra.

http://www.mibeer.com/summer-festival

We have A LONG way to go, Ontario.

If last year's event provided potable water as a VIP extra ($15 extra at the door even!) I would have paid for it. No place to rinse yer glass and maybe being able to get a bottle of water from a food vendor is no way to run a beer event. Water and Washrooms are the key to make a good beer event, regardless of how great, abundant, and even free the beer might be. If they couldn't work that at a smaller venue why (a) change to yet another format (b) move to a bigger and more public venue? I probably also would have upgraded to the VIP to get rid of the live music taking up a bunch of space and drowning out good conversations. But I'm a curmudgeon.

Also, princess pass? I'm glad they can construct whatever cockamamie scheme they think will work and I hope it works out for them and the brewers that attend. Sounds like a blast if it actually goes off like they are billing it, but I wound't want to take a $100 bet on that happening based on past experience.

Pretty much done with this event as well. Mistakes in planning are one thing, but the fact that they said they would make the necessary changes to make the event more enjoyable and then didn't...well...that's it for me...

The tiered bathrooms is also pretty laughable since that's been a big problem with them before.

Love cask days, but I think my favourite event right now is Greg and Chris' seasonal events at the Rhino...

Laid back, great beer, not too expensive.