Here’s a nice response from the Minnesota Craft Brewer’s Guild regarding Winterfest. They’re a stand-up, non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Minnesota’s great local beer. I sincerely hope that your experience at the event won’t turn you off of their other great events.
Dear Winterfest 2008 Patrons,
We wanted to send our apologies to those of you that were in the line outside of Landmark Center in the cold on Friday night waiting to get entrance into Winterfest. We increased the amount of attendees this year and our old ticketing method along with adding identifying wrist bands did not work for the new sized crowd. As soon as the event planners were informed of the slow-moving line we quickly added 5 additional staff members to help the group move along more quickly. We then announced and added an extra half hour onto the tail end of the festival (ending at 10:30 p.m.) to make up for the time at the front where you were not enjoying the delicious Minnesota craft beer! Please accept our sincerest apologies and we will be working out a much better system for our future brewing events.
We hope you enjoyed the festival despite the line-up snag. All sixteen MN Craft Brewer’s Guild brewery members were present and enjoyed sharing their Winter brews with each of you – many of which were only available to this festival! Congratulations to the Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery and brewer’s Mike Hoops, Josh Bischoff, and Adam Theis for winning the great Snowshoe award for their delicious Chocolate Raspberry Bourbon Stout! Winterfest along with Autumn Brew Review are fundraisers for the MN Craft Brewer’s Guild whose non-profit work promotes local, craft brewing in the state. We thank you for your patronage and understanding and hope to see you at our next event!
Save The Dates:
Autumn Brew Review 2008– September 27
Winterfest 2009 – January 23
Our apologies again, please forward this on to your friends and family that attended with you and thank you for your continued support!
Laura with the Minnesota Craft Brewer’s Guild
I appreciate they have addressed the faux pas at least. I had not realized the event was extended due to the line situation. When we got in the door there were only 2 ticket takers and 1 wristband person, this was about a quarter to 8. I am surprised the problem went undetected for so long. Shouldn’t an empty hall have been a sign people were not getting in?
Nonetheless, it was enjoyable, there was good beer, lessons learned, and I look forward to a much improved Winterfest next Jan.
I appreciate the apology as well. The huge wait in line was pretty horrendous.
Otherwise, the beer was good, though the venue a bit cramped with people.
Yea there was a little wait to get in but overall I think that the Guild did a fantastic job. People do not realize what it takes to put an event together and I’m sure that Guild members volunteered many, many hours for this event. I only hope some of the MNBeer posters will step up and volunteer next year.
The nonprofit brewers guild was established to promote Minnesota beer and I must say that this mission was well accomplished! Also, thanks to Ryan for capturing the event via photographs (and the back of my head at Great Waters after the event)
cheers!
I had a blast and I thought the beer was fantastic. This was my first one and I can’t wait until next year. These deals always have a bump or two but I thought they recovered nicely.
P.S. Even if it only lasted 2.5 hours, thats a long time to be drinking 10% beers (Not that I would complain about it being long).