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It appears that registering for the opportunity to have your beers represented at the Great American Beer Festival has now become as difficult for brewers as it is for fans seeking admission tickets. Hosted by the Brewers Association and held every October in Denver, GABF is without question one of craft beer’s biggest events. Last year’s tickets sold out in mere minutes, leaving many a disgruntled patron disappointed and frustrated with the online process. And now that frustration with the process seems to be spreading to the industry’s side of things…
The official GABF brewer registration, allowing breweries the opportunity to have their beer showcased at this year’s festival, opened online yesterday and the response was overwhelming. Last year’s event, which featured 580 breweries, took two days to fill up – but this year’s 600 slots filled in less than two hours, leaving more than 170 breweries on the waiting list as of Tuesday afternoon. Some brewers complained that the servers became overloaded, forcing some of them to refresh and reload pages and to lose their place in the registration process.
We contacted the Brewers Association for clarification and received a statement from Barbara Fusco, the Sales and Marketing Director for the BA, and here’s some of what she had to say:
Unfortunately, during yesterday’s brewery registration, some users encountered technical issues. We are still investigating those, as there was not a universal impact. During the time that some users encountered the error, around 600 breweries were able to successfully register for the competition. Regrettably, even if there had been no technical issues, it seems that GABF brewery slots would have filled up in a matter of hours due to the high demand.
A wait list is available for breweries that still wish to participate; some breweries will come off the wait list, but not nearly all, unfortunately, as the competition is very close to capacity. The process now is for our staff to review all current registrations for duplicate and ineligible entries, and then we will begin contacting breweries on the wait list, hopefully by the end of this week. Based on current numbers, we do expect to be able to offer some form of participation as an option to some companies on the wait list.
(See entire statement below)
American Craft Beer echoes the Brewers Association’s sentiments and frankly, given the incredible number of new breweries that are announcing plans and coming on-line almost daily, we’re surprised that things like this haven’t happened sooner…
Yesterday’s problems happened because craft beer and events like GABF are now as important to the industry as they are to its fans. Brewers know this and wanted to be in Denver so badly that they over-loaded the system. Could things have been handled better? We don’t know, but we’re confident that the Brewers Association will take a hard look at what problems did occur and do their best to minimize them going forward.
The bottom line is that yesterday’s overwhelming response and the problems that occurred due to the sheer volume of brewers hoping to attend this year’s GABF are a reflection of our industry’s success and just how enormous craft beer is today…
We at American Craft Beer think that that’s a great thing and expect you do too!
From: Barbara Fusco / Sales & Marketing Director/ Brewers Association:
Great American Beer Festival (GABF) brewery registration filled up in under two hours yesterday; last year, brewery registration filled up in under two days. Interest from Brewers Association (BA) brewery members participating in the competition and the festival has been skyrocketing in parallel with the explosive growth of the craft brewing industry.
Just like public interest in attending the festival, right now brewery registration is a matter of supply and demand, where more breweries would like to participate than we have the capacity to accept. In setting caps for beers to be judged in the competition, and likewise for the number of attendees at the festival, the BA is always seeking to balance the high level of interest from our members and fans with the imperative to conduct a world-class competition and to host a fun, safe event for the public.
Unfortunately, during yesterday’s brewery registration, some users encountered technical issues. We are still investigating those, as there was not a universal impact. During the time that some users encountered the error, around 600 breweries were able to successfully register for the competition. Regrettably, even if there had been no technical issues, it seems that GABF brewery slots would have filled up in a matter of hours due to the high demand.
A wait list is available for breweries that still wish to participate; some breweries will come off the wait list, but not nearly all, unfortunately, as the competition is very close to capacity. The process now is for our staff to review all current registrations for duplicate and ineligible entries, and then we will begin contacting breweries on the wait list, hopefully by the end of this week. Based on current numbers, we do expect to be able to offer some form of participation as an option to some companies on the wait list.
We’re proud of the success of our industry and the GABF, and also recognize the need to look at ways to amend the competition process/model. Of course, adapting an event of the scale of the GABF is no small feat. The Brewers Association staff, along with our Event Committee, will of course be looking at possible changes for future years.
