Successful Beer Fests Have to Be About More Than Beer
As we approached the Fort George Brewery in Astoria, Oregon a Saturday ago, the roar of thrash metal rattled windowpanes. It was the band Help!, who describe themselves as practitioners of “noise punk”—but the guttural vocals and slashing guitars sounded more like the arrival of Asmodeus and his demonic entourage. This was Fort George’s—and possibly the Pacific Northwest’s—signature event, the Festival of Dark Arts, and it struck a fittingly black note. We olds decided it was a nice time to duck into a fest venue called The Ruins instead of proceeding, and discovered an indie duo playing in a ballroom that had once fallen into decay, before being preserved as an atmospheric, gothic venue. We grabbed a pour of barrel-aged stout and soaked in the environment. Just ten minutes in, and already we were getting a sense of how FoDA is a different kind of beer fest.
This year’s event sold out in less than five minutes. A lot of people were turned away, and those who managed to get in the queue early enough crowed about their golden tickets. (Full disclosure: I paid full freight and received no perks.) This was 2015-level enthusiasm, and it contrasted sharply with earlier announcements that the Oregon Brewers Fest and Holiday Ale Fest—two decades-old stalwarts on the annual calendar—were canceling. Possibly for good.
How do we reconcile these conflicting data points? Why are some fests dying or dead, while the Festival of Dark Arts was the hottest ticket in the state? Let’s look at what FoDA gets right.
An Arts Festival With Beer
The Oregon Brewers Fest, Holiday Ale Fest, and FoDA represent a wonderful little history of beer festival evolution in three acts. When the Oregon Brewers Fest (est. 1988) first launched, it was enough to say “we have beer!” Offering pours from obscure craft breweries you couldn’t find anywhere else made it a marquee event. The Holdiay Ale Fest (est. 1998) began as a winter version of the OBF, but organizers quickly realized that wasn’t enough. After a decade and a half, the novelty of “hey look, beer!” had worn off and people needed to be lured by something special. HAF started encouraging breweries to send special or fest-only offerings, and it grew into an event with pretty amazing, experimental beer. But even that started to seem a little tame once breweries began their own barrel programs and started to release very special stuff throughout the year. By the end of the last decade, we were overwhelmed by choice and “rare” and “special” didn’t seem so special anymore.
The Festival of Dark Arts had iterations starting as early as 2002, when it was an arts fest that had beer. Jack Harris kept the vision alive until after he’d co-founded Fort George, and the modern incarnation of a beer and arts fest debuted in 2012. It was something different, or rather more, than the earlier beer-focused fests.
The DNA of the FoDA, with the arts and entertainment components, is a big part of why people go. Fort George’s Brad Blaser described the fest’s unique appeal this way:
In my opinion, having gone to dozens of festivals on the brewery side, I think a lot of the popularity is in the art, music, and entertainment. We try to overwhelm the senses with all sorts of sights, sounds, and tastes. There are three stages and then a couple dozen artisans & roaming entertainers. And a lot of the regular attendees come out in costume. Even if you're not drinking stout, you really can't be bored here.
Supernova the Strongwoman
I agree, but there’s even more to it than that: the focus, having a theme, the venue itself, and the season are all integral elements.
The venue is perfect for an arts fest. The various buildings and spaces the brewery has assembled creates a warren for the fest-goer. Just as when we dipped into The Ruins and found a concert happening, you might stop into the barrel room and find a strongwoman, or watch as stilt-walkers passed by the fire pit outside, or even gawk at the fest-goers themselves, some dressed for the occasion. (My brothers-in-law wore steampunk hats, the purpose of which I didn’t gather until we arrived. They were a big hit.)
The worst month to hold a semi-outdoor beer fest in Astoria is February, but this, too, is a big part of the fun. Fort George chose the winter because they could 1) highlight stouts, always a fave at the brewery, and 2) bring people to Astoria in the dismal month no one wanted to visit. It became a feature of the fest, rather than a bug, like when the Packers play in Lambeau Field in a blizzard. You want to drink stout because the weather’s dismal. Plus, all the entertainment is a real boost of dopamine we all need at winter’s bleak tail end. Trekking out to Astoria in the gray season gives you a reason to celebrate.
It’s Not About the Beer; It’s About the Beer
The great American philosopher Don Younger’s most famous thesis was a simple if gnomic one: “It’s not about the beer; it’s about the beer.” That is to say, don’t miss the forest for the trees. FoDA isn’t just about the beer, but it is definitely about the beer. This year’s fest featured 83 stouts, some simple and low-strength, many giant, barrel-aged boomers. I don’t know how many people consider stout their favorite beer, but that’s beside the point. The laser focus on one family of beers gives the event shape. You know you’re going to try some weird, wild stuff, and, whether stouts fall in your wheelhouse or not, it’s going to be fun. It’s like chile season in New Mexico—you don’t complain it’s not peach season, you surrender and indulge.
As I was considering the question of fest success, another example came to mind—Munich’s Oktoberfest. This ancient gathering differs from FoDA in so many ways—except maybe the important ones. It’s a beer fest, sort of, though the beer is almost entirely of one style (festbier), and made by just six breweries. You don’t go there for the beer exclusively, but you definitely go for the beer. It’s a big party, with food and entertainment. A classic harvest festival, the season is also a central feature. Finally, the location, the Theresienwiese where the crown prince and princess married 213 years ago, has become almost sacred space. So while it’s more properly a volksfest than a beer fest, the similarities to FoDA are striking.
If we take all the elements together, it looks like a successful beer festival needs to have a reason for being that goes well beyond the beer itself. It should have additional entertainment, a thematic thrust, probably a seasonal element, and the beer should fit within that larger context rather than vice-versa. In other words, beer fests need to be about a lot more than beer. The good news, based on my observations of the Festival of Dark Arts, is that when these pieces are in place, people are very excited to attend.
I will pass along a single Beer Sherpa recommendation from the festival. If you subscribe to my newsletter (see below), you’d get these kinds of heads up weekly. Subscribers may well hear about other beers I enjoyed as well. It’s free.
Fort George Tide Land
I could easily name a dozen beers I enjoyed at FoDA, but the cleverest and most interesting was Tide Land. The brewers whipped up a full-bodied, low-ABV stout and then blended in 15-month-old barrel-aged stout as a flavor component. The beer was just 5%, but was rich and full of barrel-aged flavor. Blending young and old beer used to be a thing—for this exact effect. You get the flavor of age (and in this case, bourbon), but in a sessionable package. It was a fantastic idea and Fort George executed it perfectly.