Session Toronto 2014 - Jun 13/14

[Craig]

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.

Always on Sundays though. I need a day to recover after a good festival.

[groulxsome]

I'm all for the free market on beer, but isn't it a little morally sketchy to offer:

PRIVATE BATHROOMS

Like, it's a beer event. You're going to need those. And you'd have to pay extra to get them. Stating that is essentially saying there will be a line for the pleb bathroom, so you'd better pay more if you think you'll have to pee? It's a dick move to advertise bathrooms - even if they are inside bathrooms opposed to port-a-potties - as a feature. I can only imagine an hour or two in once a line forms at the pleb bathroom and the princesses start rubbing in their "no line" bathroom, how some drunk-ish folks who sweated for half an hour to get in are going to like it. Beer, the drink of the masses subjected to bathroom-based class conflict.

Hyperbole, I know. But if you're suggesting I pay almost double for a ticket to have a better/easier/quicker/more private/whatever access to a bathroom, you might want to rethink a few things.

[JerCraigs]

In fairness the Princess pass *IS* cheaper than the public urination fine.

[JeffPorter]

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.

Always on Sundays though. I need a day to recover after a good festival.

That's true - it's a win win for me, though, as I tend to be more....tempered? with my drinking, which my wife thoroughly appreciates...

[velovampire]

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.

Shhhh, we don't want this perfectly balanced gem to get blown out!

[northyorksammy]

I have my own bathroom up the street. When is it ?

[Lubiere]

I noted this was at the same as the Mondial (June 11-15)...oh well, I kinda liked the Session last year, but my vote goes to Mondial.

[The Mick]

I think as far as the bathrooms go, they are just saying that both sides of the fest will have bathrooms, but obviously only VIPs can use the ones on the VIP side . Also the higher ticket sounds like it includes a catered buffet, not to mention 25 more tasting tokens, which are a buck a piece.

It sounds to me more like they are saying, 'Hey, beer geeks, we have this new venue that is bigger and more central than we've ever dealt with, but all those that will come to just get wasted at a beer fest will go on the standard side and you can geek out in relative peace on the princess side with fellow geeks, because only the geeks will pay that price, not the frat boys who just want to chug some beers and puke on your shoes.

And with the extra people, the unique beers on the princess side will make sure the geeks on that side don't miss out on tasting them because a group of college kids just wanted to pound glass after glass of the 14% barley wine.

So factoring the 25 extra tokens the difference is $35. So, $35 for more bathrooms, free food (possibly), access to all the beers, and not having to deal with wasted d-bags? Sign me up.

[El Pinguino]

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.

That seems a bit misleading. I was at that Summer Fest last year as well. Great location. There was a terribly long line, but people got it at a decent pace.

However, everyone was taking tokens, often multiple/beer. I only had 1 fill where the guy didn't care about tokens, and didn't see many freebies being given out, definitely not all-you-can-drink for admission fee. Pretty sure it was only 10 tokens received last year as well.

I went on the Saturday, perhaps you went on Friday and it was some kind of free for all? Anyhow....it was a great event, with lots of space once inside...no "crowded" feelings at all, except during a brief rain downpour late Saturday afternoon!

[liamt07]

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.

That seems a bit misleading. I was at that Summer Fest last year as well. Great location. There was a terribly long line, but people got it at a decent pace.

However, everyone was taking tokens, often multiple/beer. I only had 1 fill where the guy didn't care about tokens, and didn't see many freebies being given out, definitely not all-you-can-drink for admission fee. Pretty sure it was only 10 tokens received last year as well.

I went on the Saturday, perhaps you went on Friday and it was some kind of free for all? Anyhow....it was a great event, with lots of space once inside...no "crowded" feelings at all, except during a brief rain downpour late Saturday afternoon!

Funny, I still have all 15 of my tokens from the festival. I was there all day Saturday, and for having several thousand people get into the festival, they got EVERYONE in in under 15 minutes. Not aware of a single beer that was multiple tokens - if you simply chat up the people serving, it's not difficult to get free pours. And that's the story of how I drank perhaps close to a liter of BA Plead the 5th, folks.

But this is all besides the point. This festival is MILES AND MILES AND MILES beyond anything that could ever be put on in Ontario. And why? The format is so incredibly simple.

[FEUO]

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.

That seems a bit misleading. I was at that Summer Fest last year as well. Great location. There was a terribly long line, but people got it at a decent pace.

However, everyone was taking tokens, often multiple/beer. I only had 1 fill where the guy didn't care about tokens, and didn't see many freebies being given out, definitely not all-you-can-drink for admission fee. Pretty sure it was only 10 tokens received last year as well.

I went on the Saturday, perhaps you went on Friday and it was some kind of free for all? Anyhow....it was a great event, with lots of space once inside...no "crowded" feelings at all, except during a brief rain downpour late Saturday afternoon!

Funny, I still have all 15 of my tokens from the festival. I was there all day Saturday, and for having several thousand people get into the festival, they got EVERYONE in in under 15 minutes. Not aware of a single beer that was multiple tokens - if you simply chat up the people serving, it's not difficult to get free pours. And that's the story of how I drank perhaps close to a liter of BA Plead the 5th, folks.

But this is all besides the point. This festival is MILES AND MILES AND MILES beyond anything that could ever be put on in Ontario. And why? The format is so incredibly simple.

Liam is spot on.
Sorry if anyone is helping run this T.O. event, but it seems ridiculous considering what I have attended (MI summer, fall and winter beer fests).
Even $35 for 5 tokens is laughable. Tiered tickets, joke.
If there were lines longer than 5 minutes at the MI fests I went and grabbed another amazing beer from someone else.

Reading about events like this, and ones at Cigar City, makes me very happy to have the MI beer scene in my backyard. They do most things right. Even Kuhnhenn, right Liam?

[liamt07]

That seems a bit misleading. I was at that Summer Fest last year as well. Great location. There was a terribly long line, but people got it at a decent pace.

However, everyone was taking tokens, often multiple/beer. I only had 1 fill where the guy didn't care about tokens, and didn't see many freebies being given out, definitely not all-you-can-drink for admission fee. Pretty sure it was only 10 tokens received last year as well.

I went on the Saturday, perhaps you went on Friday and it was some kind of free for all? Anyhow....it was a great event, with lots of space once inside...no "crowded" feelings at all, except during a brief rain downpour late Saturday afternoon!

Funny, I still have all 15 of my tokens from the festival. I was there all day Saturday, and for having several thousand people get into the festival, they got EVERYONE in in under 15 minutes. Not aware of a single beer that was multiple tokens - if you simply chat up the people serving, it's not difficult to get free pours. And that's the story of how I drank perhaps close to a liter of BA Plead the 5th, folks.

But this is all besides the point. This festival is MILES AND MILES AND MILES beyond anything that could ever be put on in Ontario. And why? The format is so incredibly simple.

Liam is spot on.
Sorry if anyone is helping run this T.O. event, but it seems ridiculous considering what I have attended (MI summer, fall and winter beer fests).
Even $35 for 5 tokens is laughable. Tiered tickets, joke.
If there were lines longer than 5 minutes at the MI fests I went and grabbed another amazing beer from someone else.

Reading about events like this, and ones at Cigar City, makes me very happy to have the MI beer scene in my backyard. They do most things right. Even Kuhnhenn, right Liam?

Kuhnhenn does it right, except when they do it wrong

[FEUO]

Kuhnhenn does it right, except when they do it wrong

Part of their charm, man.
They can get away with it. Only dealing with a few hundred people who have very low expectations for organization and only want to have a good time. They execute that plan well.

[El Pinguino]

The MI fest was definitely great fun and a fantastic, open location. I think I sampled about 30 beers that day, good times. I think the first time I ever went to the Toronto Beer Festival many years ago at Fort York, it had a similar vibe, but on a smaller scale. Friendly people, beer co's were happy to serve you up full samples and didn't worry about tokens so much...wasn't even very crowded. That's a long time ago now though!

[JProulx]

Does anybody know what the deal is with Bryden's and the "Local 7" beer thing tomorrow?They keep posting it in relation to this event. Are they just putting a special beer on tap to promote Session?