End Of The Line: Brew Fest Goes Bust

Microbrew Festival Silver Mountain, Saturday, Aug. 5

Here’s the idea: Relax in a grassy mountaintop amphitheater under in brilliant August sunshine while sipping Northwest microbrews and listening to an afternoon of cool reggae. For diversion, gaze at the vast amounts of stunning scenery all around.

This is what I imagined the Silver Mountain Microbrew and Reggae Fest last Saturday would be.

Here’s reality: The microbrew/reggae fest I had attended was something completely different. It was a disorganized, overcrowded mess.

I spent more time standing in lines - a lot of them - than I did watching the show.

The afternoon began at the Silver Mountain Resort parking lot. After parking the car, I was greeted by a monster of a line for the gondola up the mountain. No problem, I thought, the line will move pretty fast.

Was I wrong. It took nearly 30 minutes to work my way to the front and board the gondola.

Once on the gondola, I figured the worst was over. My companion and I will take a nice scenic and relaxing ride up the mountain.

Not so.

It’s tough to enjoy the scenery while crammed into a suspended tin can for 20 minutes with four other people; the last thing you want to do is look around.

I was relieved when we finally made it to the top. At last we were here. Let the party begin!

We left the lodge, figuring we’d just march right in the front gate, grab a couple of brews, kick back on the grass and soak in sounds of the 8750 Band.

Not quite.

Again, I had to wait in a line. This time, it was the ID check line, for us young-looking ticketholders planning to sample the microbrew. After 15 minutes, we reached the front only to see that only three people were checking IDs and putting bracelets on people’s arms. Three people for hundreds of beer drinkers!

Since we were already in the routine of standing in lines, we jumped right into the one to get into the gate.

At this point, I was ready to jump over the edge of the mountain.

Once we got into the actual venue, we were dismayed to find that what was originally a nice grassy amphitheater had transformed into a parking lot of people. There was no room to sit anywhere. Even the aisles were jammed at an event organizers said would be of the kind you could just walk around at.

When a group of people left for a while, we moved their beach chairs over so we could squeeze in.

We got settled and it was time to buy a beer. There was a special Thomas Kemper Honey Wheat brew on tap, so I hopped in line. Yes, another line. And this one took about 10 minutes. For some reason, the Thomas Kemper station was clustered with the Pyramid station. So, the line consisted of all the people wanting Pyramid’s selections and Thomas Kemper’s blends. This wasn’t a big deal except for the fact that if you wanted a Thomas Kemper, you couldn’t order it at the Pyramid station and vice versa. Further, to move up in line, you had to wait for Pyramid samplers and they had to wait for the Thomas Kemper buyers.

When I neared the front of the line, I pulled out some cash to buy a cup of microbrew but I began to notice that other people in line were holding red tickets. So, I asked the guy behind me if you could buy beer with cash. He said no, I had to have tickets. He had already made the same mistake. I’d have to get out of this line and go wait in the long line to buy tickets.

So I said to the heck with this, forget the beer.

And, with more than two hours left to go in the microbrew fest, kegs began to go dry. The lines at the stations that still had microbrew flowing quadrupled. Well before the festival ended, the 42 kegs were dry.

The two reggae bands - the 8750 Band and Clinton Fearon and the Boogey Brown Band - were great, but not even the peaceful, positive reggae music could smooth over this experience.

The idea of staging a microbrew/reggae fest on a hot summer’s day is a brilliant one. After all, we live in microbrew country.

And, though the Silver Mountain Microbrew/Reggae Festival sold out at 2,000 people, it was not, in its present form, worth waiting in line for.

It was simply way understaffed.

And, instead of grouping a couple of breweries together, organizers should have separated the individual breweries. This would have meant shorter lines.

And, order enough microbrew for a crowd that size. Or, sell fewer tickets so there is, indeed, room to roam and enjoy the music and ambience.

It was great idea; let’s hope the folks at Silver Mountain don’t stop at one. Rather, it would be nice to see an improved version of this event next year, and to watch it will grow into an annual tradition.