Yes, this photo is the go-to Internets' choice to affix to any even tangentially beer-related blog post, and yes, I'm doing it too.
If you’re much over the age of 21, I do hope you’ve had the opportunity to attend at least one beer festival in your life. If you have — not to get ahead of myself here, but — L.A. Beer Festival! If you haven’t, here’s the deal:
Generally admission is handled in one of two ways. Either you pay a nominal entry fee, and then buy little tickets, like at a fair, which you exchange for cups of beer and food. Or you pay a larger entry fee in exchange for unlimited beer. Sounds good right?
So okay, yes, L.A. is the second-biggest “city” in the U.S., but is anyone really surprised it has taken this long — until now — for us to get our own beer fest? I know, right? But we can put all that behind us now because we DO have a beer fest, and it’s going down in Culver City (good choice, easily accessible and relatively ample parking) on April 4 and 5.
$40 gets you entry and unlimited 4 oz. beers. Will you have to drink a lot of beer to get your money’s worth? Yes. But that’s kind of the point. You can check them out here. Click on the sponsors link and notice the large, attractive Scene logo.
According to the organizer, about 60 breweries will be in attendance, pouring some 120 beers. Generally, aside from offering some or all of their commercially available beers, the beercos will bring special limited edition brews for the exclusive pleasure of fest attendees, so you got that goin’ for you.
So come on down to Culver City and get lit on the Sony Pictures lot — no klieg lights necessary!
Hey! Speaking of bad puns, a special shout-out to the Saturday performers, Petty Cash. Now, if there’s one thing I love more than a good pun its a bad pun, and calling your Tom Petty/Johnny Cash cover band Petty Cash just warms the cockles of my heart.
(Sunday performer is “Hollywood U2,” a name ALMOST as clever as U2.)
Also, another note for those of you who’ve been to beer fests before: coffee WILL be available on the premises. Nothing worse that hitting a rough patch in hour 4 and getting told by security guards that if you leave to get coffee you can’t get back in. Boo.
-PETE
Update: Evidently, Saturday is sold out. Which doesn’t matter because no one reads this blog yet! Ha HA!
Update 2: Oh, so evidently the beer fest only lasts from 2 p.m.-5 p.m. each day. Three hours is not a lot of time to drink $40 worth of beer, even at L.A. prices. I think when i go on Saturday I’m going to bring this up — repeatedly — with the organizers.
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