How to keep everybody happy at a beer festival

Disclaimer: I do not know how to keep everybody happy at a beer festival. If I did, I would be sitting in my Bishopscourt mansion counting my festival dollars and hiring a secretary to field all the tweets, email and phone calls from adoring brewers and festival-goers. So what do I mean by keeping everybody happy? I mean that at the end of the day/weekend, the brewer goes home with a few more rand than he started out with, the festival-goer feels sad to go to work on Monday morning because the festival was so awesome and the organiser has a Facebook page full of happy comments and a bank balance that’s in the black.

cape town festival of beer

Some of my beer besties at CTFOB

Some festivals get public acclaim for their low entry fees and abundance of free tasters, but brewers leave with a (hopefully non-literal) bad taste in their mouths. Others leave brewers and organisers rubbing their hands but leave customers wondering where their wages went. It’s been said that the current model of SA beerfests isn’t working and I’d love to hear what you think.

Those of you who avidly follow the South African beer scene might have spotted other posts on the topic of beer festivals lately. Matthew Hurst kicked off a couple of weeks back with this piece on his blog, then Ivor Swartz followed up with a controversial post that got a lot of attention. Ivor received heavy criticism from festival organisers, but to be fair, he was simply voicing irks that I’ve heard countless people mumble (not necessarily about those specific events, but about beer festivals in general). After the initial Facebook conversation that got everyone grumbling about festivals, the three of us decided to each write a post airing some concerns, ideas, likes and irritations when it comes to the beer festival culture that has exploded in recent years. I’m going to try and work out the perfect formula for a perfect beer festival.

 – You might also want to read Are there too many beerfests in South Africa?

The Organisers

These guys take a lot of flack at the fests. No, the events aren’t always flawless; yes, there is always someone who’s going to be unhappy but before we get into what can and does go wrong, let’s clear a few things up. Festival organisers are not paying their kids’ school fees with the proceeds from their events. If they’re lucky, they do make enough profit for a nice relaxing beach break and a couple of good beers. I’ve often heard festival organisers insist that year-after-year they make a loss and I must be honest, I have always been a little sceptical of this. “We do it out of sheer passion for the beer”, they say and to some extent I can understand this. I spend an unhealthy amount of hours each month in beer-related endeavours that don’t bring in any cash. But then there is a difference between writing blog posts or hosting beer pairing lunches and organising an annual beerfest.

You don't need a fancy tent to have an awesome fest

You don’t need a fancy tent to have an awesome fest

Putting on a beer festival is a colossal amount of work and if you’re going to end up with a little less rand in the bank than when you started, why keep doing it? Of course, I’m sure those that are lucky to break even would admit that they don’t do it just for the love of it. I don’t write my blog and host my tasting just for the love of beer. I love beer and I love writing. But I live in hope that someday someone will say “hey Lucy – thanks for your efforts, please let us give you a whopping great sponsorship deal so you can put your son through private school just from writing your blog”.

I digress. As I say, I’m not sure that the organisers are making a loss, but at the same time I’m fairly sure they’re not diving into piles of cash at the end of their respective events. As consumers, what we see is the takings – the entrance fee, the monies charged to brewers for a stand, the percentage (in many cases) of the brewers’ takings. These guys are making a killing, it seems. But consider the costs. As well as marketing and signage you have to think about fences and cleaners and toilets and door staff and security; think about the event licence, the stage, the bands, the tent. Those tents that you shelter under could set the organiser back anything from R10,000 to a whopping R130,000 (organisers – correct me if my research is wrong). From assisting with the SouthYeasters summer festival, I know that a toilet. A single toilet can set you back almost R4000. And I’m fairly sure Twitter would explode if a festival decided to save cash by only renting a single toilet…

Yep, organising a festival takes a lot of money and a lot of time. One organiser reported a profit of around R5000 following what he estimated as around 450 hours of work for him and his team. Work that out as an hourly rate and you’d be better off as a car guard.

And that's another thing. Please make sure drinking water is available somehow...

And that’s another thing. Please make sure drinking water is available somehow…

So what can festival organisers do to help keep the rest of us happy? First of all, don’t overcharge. Entrance fees are now reaching, or in some cases have reached the R150 mark. As Ivor pointed out in his post, once you’ve paid the entrance fee and the Uber there and back, you’ve forked our R300 without having a single sip of beer. In an age when many people can find a bar or restaurant with a few dozen beers on the menu, you have to give someone a great reason to pay that kind of cash just to get through the door. If you can’t do it for any less, consider cutting your costs. As one brewer put it, “find a location that doesn’t require a fancy tent. We don’t really care where they are as long as the beer tastes good.” A fine example of this is the Woodstock Autumn Beer Festival, where entrance was just R50. The festival was in a shopping centre, the free cup at the entrance was plastic and the band played short sets on a simple stage.

Just as important is to not oversell the event. Don’t imply that you can “taste over 200 beers” if tasting them involves a fee. Be honest with what the entrance fee includes – tell us if tasters are included or if they’re not, whether we get a plastic cup, a branded glass or no glass at all. The grumbles begin when people’s expectations are not met, so just let us know what we’re getting and we promise to try and keep our gripes off social media…

The Brewers

There is always a debate on what the point of a beer festival is for a brewer. Is it a marketing opportunity or is it a money-maker? I’ve been told time and time again that when it comes to wine events, exhibitors can expect to lose money, that it’s all about marketing and getting the name out there. Then someone made the point that expecting a brewer to exhibit for marketing is like expecting a writer to write “for exposure”. If you’ve ever worked at a beer festival, you’ll know it’s hard work. On your feet for a solid eight hours, giving the same spiel what seems like 5000 times in a row, dealing with increasingly drunk people, watching everyone have fun while you’re working. It ain’t a picnic, so why should anyone expect them to walk away without making a profit at the end of the fest?

That said, brewers shouldn’t treat the festivals solely as a money-maker. Perhaps that was possible when there were just 50 breweries around the country, but as the number rapidly approaches 200, marketing becomes more important. A festival is a great chance to get your brand into the hands of a wider public and hopefully they’ll remember you at the end and seek out your beers in bars and stores.

clarens special beerSo what can a brewer do to keep us happy at beer festivals? For a start, they can offer tastings. I totally agree with Matthew when it comes to tasters. I’ve never been to a beer festival where full pints were the only option, but I have to say that would suck. But I don’t expect brewers to give away their beer for free. Have a standard tasting fee so those who are here for the beers can taste it all. Make it worth your while to sell tasters and try not to be too annoyed if people just want to taste. I know pouring a full pint is preferable, but I know very few people – OK, nobody – who is going to walk around a festival drinking 200 pints over a weekend. I know many people however, who want to taste everything that is on offer and are very happy to pay for the privilege.

Brew something special. I can get your core range of four in my local Tops, so give me a reason to pay the entry fee and to visit your stand. And brew something good. Don’t try and bullshit festival-goers by selling that sour screw-up as a Berliner Weisse or insisting that your Irish Red Ale is “an acquired taste” when what you mean is “it’s a chlorophenolic mess that I wouldn’t dream of drinking myself but am happy to sell to less beer-savvy souls at a festival”. Peddling bad beer at a festival is a sure-fire way to damage the industry for all of us. And sell us glasses. I think Woodstock again had it right when they gave a plastic cup on entrance. Those who don’t mind drinking beer from plastic can spend the extra cash (the cash they saved on the entrance fee because the organiser saved on branded pint mugs and passed that saving on to the consumer) on an other pint. Those who shudder at the idea of sipping from a plastic cup can support their favourite brewery by buying a branded pint or taster glass.

Oh yeah, and if you’re going to hire hot girls to pour your beer, please make sure to teach them what they’re pouring. (This goes for staff in general of course, but there has been a bit of a trend of trying to sell more beers by having someone pretty and with big boobs pouring them).

The Customers

clarens beer festIt’s not just up to the organiser to keep the brewer happy or the brewer to keep the punters happy. We can also do our bit. Here’s a top tip to get you started: Craft beer festivals are not all-you-can-drink piss-ups. I’ve actually heard people ask whether their R80/100/120 entrance includes all the beer and all the food they want inside. Really? If that thought even occurs to you, you probably shouldn’t be anywhere near a beer fest. Even at events where all tasters are included, like CTFoB, the idea is not to go from stand to stand and taste every single beer on show, leaving drunk and without spending anything except your entry fee. Sadly, I’ve seen plenty of people doing exactly this and it’s ruining the festival. The brewers get increasingly pissed off and some don’t come back. I really hope a pay-to-taste policy is introduced this year having heard many stories of brewers giving away numerous kegs of beer over the weekend to drunk folk who have no idea what it is that they’re sampling.

Remember that the brewers are paying to be there (anything from R1000 to R3000 per day) and are paying their staff and possibly closing their tap rooms. They do this because they want to make a bit of cash but also because they want to meet the people drinking their beer. As Chris Spurdens from Apollo says, “For me, a festival has to be a balance between making some money, marketing our brand, and enjoying ourselves with patrons.” So ask questions, show an interest. OK, when the stands get busy it’s tough to talk to the brewers but if you can, ask them something about their beers. These guys are passionate about their brews and would love to tell you a little something about the process. And please, please don’t ever utter the words “what do you have that tastes most like Castle Lite?” If you do, you’ll hopefully receive the response I once witnessed – a brewer handing over a pint of water.

Passionate people and bandwagon-jumpers

Beer fests with passionate people. My favourite.

Beer fests with passionate people. My favourite.

If you’re still reading, thank you – I promise I’m almost done. Let it be said that there are some great festivals in South Africa, generally run by people passionate about beer. There are also a lot of bandwagon-jumpers whose goal is just to make money without caring whether the drinkers or the brewers are happy. If you’re in any doubt, take a look at this post regarding a dodgy festival. On the whole I have had some of my best days in South Africa at beer festivals. I love the annual pilgrimage to Clarens, perhaps my favourite weekend of the year is CTFoB, I found Jozi Craft to be an extremely well-organised festival and I applaud the team behind Woodstock Autumn Beer Fest for seemingly keeping everyone pretty damn happy. (I can’t speak for SA on Tap as I’ve never attended)

What I would love to see – and I think I’ve said this before – is a beer festival that is really all about the beer. Taster glasses, booklets to fill out tasting notes, live music replaced by background tunes (I get pretty irritated by music blaring so loud I can’t hear the brewer telling me how many IBUs are in my IPA), a smaller but more passionate crowd who are just about the beer. I think the closest we have in Cape Town is the SouthYeasters fest (Again, I’ve never been to the Worthogs event so can’t comment).

Our beer industry is young and has shown impressive growth in the past six years. We haven’t got everything right, but hopefully we’re heading in the right direction – let’s see the bandwagon-jumpers fall away and the passionate people – be they brewers, bar owners or festival organisers – rise and thrive.

 

Over to you – what irks you about festivals and what do you love? What can we all do to improve the model? Which festivals really hit the spot for you and which could use a little work?

 

17 Comments

  1. Clive

    To be absolutely honest, I would rather drive around to the various breweries (thankful for living in Cape Town!) and enjoy the beers they have to offer, than have to feel like I am being skinned at a festival! It is for this reason that I don’t attend festivals. It is much more fun being able to chat to the pourer (and hopefully brewer!) about the beer and the construct of the beer.
    Craft Beer festivals are not Oktober Festivals! It is about beer appreciation and whilst I am know sounding like a beer snob, you need to appreciate the ingredients and the efforts of the brewer.

    Reply
    • Lucy Corne

      I think you’d be in the queue for a true beer lovers fest, hey Clive? All about tasting and chatting, maybe with some educational sessions in separate areas?

      Reply
      • Clive

        Sounds fabulous …. see my comment below!
        Beer education sounds like fun … might think about it for CTFoB??

        Reply
  2. Jonathan

    When i go to a beer festival I want to test a range of different beers. I think that’s the key for me. I don’t want to have to drink 500ml, or even 300ml of a beer just to get a taste of it.

    A simple thing I think could work is the mug you get when you enter (whether plastic or glass) has a taster line (100ml), a 300ml line and a 500ml line. Your entry entry fee should include, say, 10 coupons for tasting. You should also be able to buy tasting coupons. These should be small change, like R5 or R10.

    The brewers should also be required to charge reasonable prices – like R20 for 300ml and R35 for 500ml.

    10 * 100ml tasters included in the entry would make me happy.

    Reply
    • Lucy Corne

      You’re somewhat describing the Clarens fest Jonathan. They have a tasting line and then a fill ber Ithink, which is 400ml if memory serves. And I think you get tokens to use on entry – you certainly used to… They also do taster coupons. I totally agree that this is the way to go and hope other festivals take heed. This way, those who want a big pint are happy, those who want to taste it all are happy. And the brewers should be happy as they’re not giving away beer for free. I really think it’s time for CTFOB to move away from free tasters. It was a great thing to so at the start I guess – to get people interested and away from their Black Label, but we’ve moved on now and I think it’s time they introduced tasters.

      Reply
  3. Clive

    Further to this , I asked a colleague (not an avid beer drinker but does drink beer!) what they would want from a craft beer festival – an surprise, surprise they came out with tasting beer as #1! They also included in their list, a good band but not intrusive; a place to sit; some food options; presentable toilets and a kids play area – she is a Mom and thinks of these things!
    Maybe this is a starter list for any organiser?

    Reply
    • Lucy Corne

      I would agree with everything on this list. And to be fair, many of the festivals offer most of this. Tasters are key, it seems!

      Reply
  4. Rod Buchanan

    I think the organisers have to decide what they are hoping to achieve by hosting a “beer festival”. If it is to expose the public to all the exciting variations of craft beer etc then they should have an “Expo” format like Winex where you would not only have breweries participating but also other beer orientated exhibits like homebrew supply outlets and glassware. Also interactive demo’s of beer and food pairings and beer based food dishes. At the retail prices being charged for craft beer it is essentially an aspirational premium product and our marketing of it should reflect this. On the other hand if they want to attract a mob for a pissup then by all means hire a big name band and get the bigger brands to sell beer by the pint. The average person going to one of these bashes is going to buy what he knows anyway.

    Reply
  5. Mark

    I come from a wine background. I have no problem giving tasters. I give a small splash as a taste. I don’t get what all the push back is about tasters. I think all fests should give as part of the entrance fee a tasting glass.breweries can supply plastic cups for pints. Then we all charge a fee for a taste like R5. If the customer wants a pint then we grab a cup and fill up. The tasting coupon idea will never fly. How do I as a brewer get my money from the organiser. What if the majority of the customers want to taste my beer. It just doesn’t work. This is my view.

    Reply
    • Lucy Corne

      Thanks Mark, great to get a brewer’s perspective on this. Have you done any of the fests that use plastic tokens instead of money? Have heard very mixed opinions from brewers on this…

      Reply
    • Jonathan

      Your comment about the coupon idea is a bit worrying – i would expect coupons to be a simple way for festival goers to get ‘complimentary’ tasters and the brewers to be refunded per coupon from the event organisers.

      Are event organisers not honest enough for something like this to work?

      Reply
  6. Craig Marson

    Very well put.

    Reply
    • Lucy Corne

      Thanks Craig. Well done on getting through all 2000 words of it!! 😉

      Reply
  7. jan

    Very interesting topic. As a visitor of numerous beer festivals (local and international) but only recently as an exhibitor (only twice so far) you really pointed out many arguements from all three angles. The “problem” with SA beer festivals in my opinion is: there are just too many and they all more or less have the same concept. In order to launch something successful a quite new concept would be needed.
    The idea of handing out a booklet with all the beers listed which are being poured is a great idea (including further info like brief story about the brewery, contact details and maybe even stockists). This would help me to make tasting notes and I could read up the next day, which beer really impressed me. Quite often I only remembered more than just one good beer but couldn’t match it anymore with the brewery or brewer (with so many new breweries and new beers from them it’s hard to keep up and I’m terrible with names).
    The ideal case from my point of view would be, if the brewers and the organiser would share the risk (cost) as well as the loss/profit at 50/50.
    Besides the discussion about tasters (I think tasters should be available at any beer festival – also fine, if they would cost R5 or R2) I think transport is an issue which should be tackled.
    It would be great, if the visitors of a festival would have the possibility to use a commuting shuttle bus to certain drop off points nearby the festival. Ideally this would be already included in the entrance fee, or at least there is the option to get transport from the festival to the next bar in town or maybe even already to a drop off nearby home (at a reasonable price)…

    Reply
    • Lucy Corne

      Thanks Jan. I totally agree with you that SA beer fests have a sameness about them. It’s time to come up with a new model to run alongside the old one I think and a great start would be a booklet with brewery info. Info on the beers and breweries is conspicuously absent. I mean, imagine at a beer festival people actually wanting to know about the beer!!

      You make an excellent point about the transport. Drinking and driving is a huge and in muy opinion urgent issue at all boozy festivals in South Africa. Festival organisers – time to step up!

      Reply
  8. Megan Gemmell

    Super article, plus all the others that linked to it! I’m on the organising committee for the Rosetta Beer Fest (it’s only our 2nd one!). This is obviously on another league to the ones you refer to. Very low key, intimate setting with local midlands bands, midlands foodies, primarily focusing on select KZN breweries (mainly the small guys you can’t get in stores) and KZN small businesses. Our aim is not to make money for the organisers, but bring people out to the midlands to experience something new and support local. You (Lucy, Kleurlingbierman, and Matthew) have made some great points that we will definitely be taking heed of, thank you! We are also thinking of limiting each brewer to a set number of beers they bring. We may get some flack back, but by limiting each brewer to 4 or 5 different beers, it gives the other brewers a chance, as well as forces the brewer to bring their tastiest 4 or 5 beers along. A brewery that brings 11 different taps, while their neighbour has 4, is just not cool. People will be at that stand all day and not experience anything else. I am also a big fan of the brewers bringing something unique along. Our fest will be on Heritage Day, so each brewer needs to be uniquely South African. It could be interesting 🙂 I love forcing big breweries to get back down to basics on their homebrew systems 🙂

    Reply
    • Lucy Corne

      Thanks Megan – glad you enjoyed the three posts. Please send me all the details of the festival so I can add it to the calendar 🙂

      Reply

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