This edition of The Session is sponsored by Geistbear Brew Blog.

Session #16: Beer Festivals

As Summer approaches we are in full swing of beer festival season, so it seemed the perfect topic for the June Session. Do you have a favorite beer festival you like to attend or a particular memory of inspirational moment at a festival? Or perhaps talk about what you would like to see out of festivals or perhaps the future of them.

Sadly, I haven’t been to all that many Beer Fests. I’ve done the Garden State Craft Brewers‘ Festival a couple of times while it was still in Waterloo Village and did the Maryland Brewers Springfest once. And my Dad and I went to the Great Brews of America festival a couple of times.

When one’s weekends are chock full of soccer games, birthday parties, and home improvement projects, it’s tough to find the time. (Priorities, I know.)

If you’re looking for a Festival to go to, though, there are a few resources that can help you find one. If you’re not averse to traveling, you can find a beerfest somewhere every week.

My favorite is The Beer Festivals Calendar. I don’t know how they do it, but they have listings of hundreds of festivals from around the world organized by month. For instance, this weekend you could go to a beerfest in:

• Aberdeen, Scotland
• Grays, England
• Owosso, Michigan
• Southampton, England
• Keswick, England
• Novi Ligure, Italy
• Bitton, England
• Woodchurch, England
• St. Louis, Missouri
• Snowmass Village, Colorado
• New Richmond, Wisconsin
• Crete, Illinois
• Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
• Phoenix, Arizona
• Fayetteville, North Carolina
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• Vichte, Belgium
• Albany, New York
• Idaho Falls, Idaho
• Coral Gables, Florida
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Eugene, Oregon
• Chico, California
• Santa Rosa, California
• Macungie, Pennsylvania

Another really good resource is the Beer Advocate Beer Events & Festivals calendar. The data is entered by members of Beer Advocate, but it has the added attraction of being able to filter the list by location and/or type. The coolest feature of all is the ability for members to indicate that they are going to a particular festival, giving all kinds of opportunities to meet up with fellow beer fans.

The Open Directory Project also has a category for beer events. It is organized by country and only lists websites, so if a favorite fest doesn’t have an online presence it won’t be listed here.

What do you use to find beer fests?

Related posts

• Session #16 announced: Beer festivals (0)

The Session is a monthly one-day event held by beer bloggers around the world, where they each post their thoughts on a unified theme.

That theme, for June, is Beer Festivals hosted by Geistbear Brewing Blog.

As Summer approaches we are in full swing of beer festival season, so it seemed the perfect topic for the June Session. Do you have a favorite beer festival you like to attend or a particular memory of inspirational moment at a festival? Or perhaps talk about what you would like to see out of festivals or perhaps the future of them.

This episode of the Session will take place on June 6, 2008. Details here: Announcing the Session #16 – Beer Festivals

Related posts

• The Session #16: Finding a beer festival or three (0)