Festivals: city vs. country

I never ended up posting about the SF International Beer Festival.  Obviously I meant to all along, since I’ve been looking forward to it enough to have put a reminder to buy tickets in my Outlook calendar weeks in advance.  It went off 15 minutes before tickets went on sale, reminding me to get online and buy them.  I feel like I’ve let my less obsessive beer loving friends down by not posting this since the tickets are now sold out. 

However, I think I have a way to make it up to you all, provided you can find yourself a designated driver (Or $10 and camping gear).  Anderson Valley Brewing Company is holding their 12th Annual Boonville Beer Festival on Saturday, May 10th, from 1:00 to 5:00pm.  And you know what?  I’m pretty sure this is going to be the better festival.  Sure, there will be fewer brewers represented but I’ll give you a few reasons why:

(1) Beer Festivals were meant to be held outside in the sunshine.  This is one of my biggest problems with the SFIBF, that it is held at night in the Fort Mason Pavilion.  There is nothing better in this world than sitting outside on a sunny day with a good beer in your hand, and that’s what the BBF will be like.  Plus, all that country air is good for us city folk.

(2) It costs about half the price.  It’s getting harder and harder for me to justify going to the SFIBF now that it’s $60 per ticket plus $6.25 in fees. That’s the cost of 10 - 12 pints right there, and I can’t possibly drink that volume of beer in the short amount of time (just 3 hours! what a rip!) that the SFIBF lasts.  The BBF, on the other hand, is $35 in advance (plus $3 in online fees), or $50 at the door.  Plan ahead and you’ve saved yourself a chunk of change. 

(3) We can finally settle the Boontling question.  I have long suspected that the Boontling language is entirely made up by AVBC as a PR stunt, as I have never seen references to it anywhere else, including the multiple times I’ve been up to Boonville.  I so badly want it to be real (how cool would that be?), but I sincerely doubt that it is.  On May 10th, I plan to put this issue to rest once and for all.

I’ll be at both, but I have to admit I’m looking forward to the BBF more!