By Jesse Wood and Jessica Isaacs
One of the region’s most sought-after craft beer events will return to Boone on Saturday. Don’t put off getting your tickets if you want to go, because there are only close to 100 left!
Charles Bateman, marketing coordinator for the event, said there were approximately 200 online tickets for the High Country Beer Fest available this morning, and about 100 of those have been sold in the past few hours.
Some paper tickets are still available at Peabody’s in Boone and at local breweries, but with ongoing tasting events leading up to the festival, even those are expected to quickly sell out.
“This is a one-of-a-kind event that people travel from all over the state and the region to come to. We have breweries from far and away, and so many in North Carolina,” Bateman said. “Some travel from Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham and Apex and their beer isn’t served anywhere around here, so you can’t get it anywhere else. If you are a fan of craft beer and trying new things, this is the ticket of the year to get.”
Go online to get your ticket now or stop by Peabody’s, Appalachian Mountain Brewery or Lost Province Brewing Co. before they run out. If you’re lucky enough to get a ticket at the door on Saturday, it will cost you an extra $10.
“There aren’t going to be many left, if any,” Bateman said.
ABOUT THE HIGH COUNTRY BEER FEST
The eight annual festival takes place on Saturday, Aug. 29 at the High Country Fairgrounds off of Roby Greene Road from 3-7 p.m. Tickets cost $40 for general admission, $80 for VIP admission and $10 for designated drivers.
In addition to the 50 craft breweries, most of which are based in North Carolina, and nine local food vendors, the festival will offer plenty of educational seminars and four hours of live music from Cha Wa, Grayson Capps and The Worthless Son-in-Laws.
In the early years of the festival, organizers were happy to sell 200 tickets. Eventually, the capacity was capped at 1,500 because its prior home, the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center, couldn’t handle any more people. Now that it’s at the spacious outdoor venue on Roby Greene Road, festival marketing coordinator Charles Bateman said that the venue will sell up to 2,500 tickets.
While this feels “really big” for the nonprofit festival, Bateman said that in the grand scheme of these craft beer festivals, High Country Beer Festival is considered more of a “boutique” event. He also said that the prices are competitive to other festivals that don’t offer as much product or have quite the beautiful setting, surrounded by mountains.
The High Country Beer Festival is more centered around showcasing local craft beers and holding education seminars with professors and graduate students speaking on the science behind craft beer and food pairings.
“We really want this to be an event [as opposed to a] drunk festival,” Bateman said.
The High Country Beer Fest is a part of Ivory Tower Science, a research based non-profit that directly supports student scholarships and academic research in Fermentation Sciences at Appalachian State University. Bateman said that tens of thousands of dollars have been donated to the program over the years.
In addition, High Country Beer Fest support local nonprofits like High Country Local First, High Country Mommies, Blue Ridge Conservancy-Middle Fork Greenway Association, The Mountain Alliance and Ivory Tower, Inc.
This year, the festival will support Quiet Givers, which helps to put on the back to school festival in Watauga County and also coordinates donors to folks in need in an anonymous manner. For each ticket sold, High Country Beer Festival will donate $1 to Quiet Givers.
For more information, click to http://hcbeerfest.com/
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