It’s hard to keep covering beer festivals that sell out so fast that even their most plugged-in fans have a difficult time getting tickets. It’s hard to highlight hot craft beer events where demand far outpaces availability. People get pissed at us when we bring up these seemingly unattainable hot ticket events…And that’s probably why we shouldn’t mention the Michigan Brewers Guild Winter Beer Festival, which took place in Grand Rapids over the weekend.

We knew better than to make the Winter Beer Festival a Weekend Pick last Friday -why bother? Those of you lucky enough to have secured a ticket or two need no reminder. You’ve been bragging that you’re going for months now – and most of your friends probably hate you for it. And all of you who did it right – who were right there online the day that tickets went on sale – you don’t need to be reminded that once again, you’ve come up empty-handed. Another year and you’re not going. Sucks to be you…but maybe next year?

Do you want the Bad News – or the Bad News?

So what does the future hold for these in-demand craft beer events, such as last weekend’s Winter Beer Festival, or the Firestone Walker Invitational (which sold out in like twenty minutes), or the GABF for that matter? Well, you’re not going to like our answer…

IT’S NOT GOING TO GET ANY BETTER, (at least not any time soon).

And even more importantly,

IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.

Let’s get back to last weekend’s Winter Beer Festival. When its 6,000 general admission tickets went on sale for the 2014 event on February 22, they officially sold out just before 1 pm. The prior year, it took 13 hours, which is still only slightly less amazing.

So what could the Michigan Brewers Guild have done to make this year’s almost immediate sellout more equitable? The answer is NOTHING! And what can the Brewers Association do to ensure that next fall’s GABF will have room for all the craft beer fans that want to attend? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! With the interest in craft beer growing at the incredible velocity that it is, the best they can hope for is to manage the chaos.

Where We Are Now

Craft beer is a hot ticket right now, with millions of fans that can’t get enough of it. But unlike its fans, craft beer events and festivals have very real limitations. A venue can only accommodate so many before risking become unsafe. Even open-air festivals can’t handle everybody. Sure, Woodstock is now legendary, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a total mess! And please don’t hit us back suggesting ticket lotteries, which at least for now have proven to be costly, problematic, and unpredictable.

Bottom Line

Although it can be a sometimes frustrating experience, we think it’s a great thing that some American craft beer events have become as hot as they have. Their immense popularity speaks to craft beer’s emergence – its growth and pop-cultural impact nowadays.

And that, in itself, is an important and remarkable thing…