California Beer Fest revelers enjoy craft beer offerings.
Craft beer has become impossible to ignore. For the past five years, the once-single-digit percentage of the overall beer market has grown into a titan, with craft varieties taking over sports and entertainment venue taps and large-scale beer-focused events cropping up across the country. Long-established events such as the Brewers Association’s 33-year-old Great American Beer Festival are booming, with tickets selling out quicker than ever before, while new, smaller festivals are created what feels like daily.
Townsquare Media began the America on Tap series with just two events in 2010, and has grown to encompass 80 events this year across the country, with plans for even more expansion in 2016. Additionally, Tapped craft beer festival will debut at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center this October, produced by IMG. Even more event producers are now navigating this trend, whether they are attempting to stand out from the crowd or offer new and exciting options for wider audiences.
BEHIND THE FESTS
Beer festivals target the growing demographic of young to middle-aged consumers who now are choosing craft over mass-produced varieties. Stock analysis services company Trefis recently reported that major beer labels like Budweiser have experienced a significant drop in sales in the U.S. over the past five years, and craft beers have grown about 14 percent over the same period. And the trend isn’t limited to the United States: Professional services network Deloitte last year reported that although overall Australian beer consumption is at a 65-year low, the craft beer market in particular is burgeoning.
Nancy Johnson, event director at the Brewers Association, explains that the craft beer boom has been reflected in both the festival’s participating breweries and attendees. The first event was staged in Boulder, Colo., in 1982 inside a hotel. “I think there were 20 breweries at it,” she said. In 2009, the event saw 457 breweries. This year’s sold-out event, which takes place Sept. 24-26 at Colorado Convention Center in Denver, will have 750 breweries pouring. The association also added 90,000 additional square feet of space this year; the entire festival spans a total of 360,000 square feet. That extra space allowed the association to sell 8,000 more tickets than its usual 49,000.
Although attendance has remained at a sold-out 49,000 attendees since 2009, the demand for tickets has indicated the event’s growing popularity. “In 2007, the festival sold out the week of the event,” Johnson added. “Last year, the event sold out in 32 minutes.”
Organizers of the Atlantic City Beer and Music Fest, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary this past March, witness a similar phenomenon. The event takes place inside the Atlantic City Convention Center and sees about 25,000 to 26,000 attendees spread over the course of 12 hours, divided up into three sessions. “When I first put the idea out there [to start a beer festival], there were very few people who thought it was a great idea,” explained Jon Henderson, CEO of Goodtime Tricycle Productions, which organizes an array of events in addition to the Atlantic City Beer and Music Fest.
Henderson adds that with each year, the event adds bigger and better entertainment and activities to satisfy its growing fan base. “Our festival is a true festival. It’s all these different experiences that revolve around beer, and a celebration around the people who create it. … [We’ve seen an] increase in bodies, increase in ticket price. We started off at $35 [per ticket]. We are now at $55 presale, and $65 at the door—but we don’t sell tickets at the door anymore. … We’re usually sold out two to three weeks before the event.”
A relative newcomer to the arena, Vincenzo Giammanco started California Beer Festival in Ventura in 2009. “We were expecting about 700 people; 2,500 showed up,” he said. “We turned away 1,000 at the door. ... There was a lot that we needed to learn. We only had four bathrooms, so the lines for the bathrooms were longer than the lines for the beer. ... But something happened, and people really enjoyed the community aspect of it, and ... we were able to come back next year, double the venue ... and now we have 80 to 100 bathrooms.” In addition to the bathrooms, Giammanco has added three more beer festivals to his lineup: Marin County, Santa Cruz and San Dimas.
“I think the timing was spot on,” he added. “When we first started, people thought, ‘Why would I pay that kind of money to sample beer when I could just go drink a Bud Light or a Coors Light?’” The Ventura festival now sees about 4,500 attendees over the course of a two-day weekend. Although the venue, Ventura’s Mission Park, could potentially fit more capacity, Giammanco explained that he wants to keep the experience enjoyable for all attendees.
Especially being on the West Coast, home to craft meccas like San Diego, San Francisco and Portland, Giammanco said that the rise of the beer festival has led to increased interest in his events, but also increased competition. “I would say that it’s been pretty consistent, with a slow ... gain each year,” he said of the festivals’ popularity. “That levels out with more and more competition. ... We used to be one of the only beer festivals in the state, and now there are probably hundreds.”
SHIFTING DEMOGRAPHICS
Along with a changing industry landscape come different types of attendees. What was once a boys’ club is being infiltrated by female beer fans, as witnessed by Henderson, Giammanco and Johnson. The Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival draws crowds that are about 64 percent male, according to Henderson, who added, “If you go back to our first years, we were [approximately] 90 percent male.”
“More women buy tickets than men,” Giammanco said of his events.
The Great American Beer Festival sees 76 percent male attendees and 24 percent female, “higher than it used to be,” remarked Johnson. “About 10 years ago, my guess would have been [that attendees] would have been 90 [percent male], 10 [percent female].”
All three festivals reach a similar age demographic as well. While they aim to reach the widest audience possible, attendees typically range from 25 years old to their mid-30s. They also tend to be educated and affluent, often traveling to these festivals from out of town. “People go to these now as vacations,” Giammanco said. “We create a huge economic boom in every city we go to, drawing about 70 percent of the attendance from outside the city we’re holding the event in.”
STAYING POWER
The increased competition in the beer festival arena is made up of both large, established fests like the Great American Beer Festival and new event producers looking to ride the beer wave. It isn’t easy, however. Just as Giammanco experienced, the learning curve is high for novices, not only because of the financial investment and extensive planning required, but also because there is science behind craft beer and a tightknit community that can make or break a festival.
Because California Beer Festivals are held in parks, they range from about $100,000 to $200,000 in production costs. “All we get is the park,” he said. “From there, we need the fencing, the bathrooms, the security and staff, the infrastructure, tables, tents, and it goes on and on.” He notes that festival organizers also must be knowledgeable about things like correct temperatures for beer, how CO2 taps work and other details.
“There’s got to be a love for the industry; there’s got to be an understanding of the industry,” said Henderson, who added that the Atlantic City Beer and Music Fest costs roughly $1.2 million to put on each year. “What some people are doing is they’re looking at these festivals as specifically cash cows—the opportunity to make a quick buck. It’s blowing up in their faces. The breweries know ultimately what a lot of the producers’ endgames and goals are. We’re fortunate that our beer festival is responsible for the growth of craft beer in our market. ... We’re always communicating with our breweries, helping them get placement in restaurants. ... We’re invested in the industry, not just as festival producers, but as beer lovers as well.”
Even as a newer producer, Giammanco echoed Henderson’s sentiments, explaining that newer festivals that have proven successful are from producers who are truly passionate about the industry. “The Firestone Walker Invitational [organized by the namesake brewery and hosted at the California Mid-State Fairgrounds] just popped up a couple years ago and it’s insane,” he said. “It sells out within ... minutes. That’s a good example of producers doing it for the love of beer and doing it right.”
Penetrating the craft beer community and knowing the industry landscape are foregone conclusions for the Brewers Association, whose annual expenses add up to about $3.6 million for its festival. With 750 participating breweries this year, the event has become a destination for beer lovers and brewers across the country. It acts as its own marketing vehicle, drawing more and different crowds each year, with the end goal of promoting craft beer and the Brewer Association’s member breweries. “We put on an event that’s fun and educational; there are beers from all over the country,” Johnson said. “It’s stood the test of time.
“We think it’s great when there are more festivals, as long as they’re well run,” she added. “... As the association for small and independent breweries, we do want to see more festivals because that’s great for the breweries, and we want to promote them. What’s more important, though, is the quality, and that those festivals are giving craft brewers a good name.”
Interviewed for this story: Nancy Johnson, (720) 473-7670; Jon Henderson, (609) 412-9056; Vincenzo Giammanco, (323) 785-2404