Poor Planning = Bad Beer Festival

As you may or may not have noticed via the comments on my original post announcing the Long Island Beer Festival, it did not go well.

Not well at all. It was tremendously oversold, lots of people were turned away at the door and apparently even if you got in, the food was gone almost immediately and it was too backed to move. Then, to top it all off, I've heard that the fire department shut down the event.

I've sent several emails to the organizers, Shoreline Beverage, trying to get an official statement and asking how I can direct people about getting refunds. As soon as I hear anything, I'll pass it along.

It's really a shame. There were some great breweries in attendance and it was for a great cause. I guess they just got in over their head in terms of planning an event of this size. There's really no excuse for turning people away at the door who have bought tickets way in advance.

Hopefully next year, if they do it again, they'll either sell far fewer tickets or find a bigger venue.

Comments

[Donavan Hall]

I prefer to think that the organizer got in over his head. Victims of the incompetence can claim their refund by calling 888-695-0888. You'll need your ticket numbers handy. When I called I was told that a credit would be issued to my card, but I've been unable to verify that the credit has been applied yet. I assume these things take a few days.

[Paul]

It seems no one knows how to run a beer fest in NY these days. Couple festivals were held in NYC over the past couple years (at various piers) and all suffered from the same problem.... way oversold.

Shame.

[Donavan Hall]

Paul- The NYC festivals you refer to are probably the Brewtopia craft beer festivals. The reason they were way oversold also is that it's the same "production" company organizing these events. The culprit in all cases is Andy Calimano of Starfish Junction Productions. My advice is that you should check the Starfish Junction Productions web site before buying any tickets to an event. If your event is listed there, you might just want to stay home.

[David Carr]

Hi Paul, just wanted to say that Brewtopia World Beer Festivals were actually quite well run and not oversold. The only problem last time was the layout coulc have been more spread out. I think the organizers, who I know a little, expected people to move around and check out the area where the band was as well as the outside areas which were quite large. Instead, people clustered around the brewery tables so it was just an error. I went to the evening session and it was a little crowded in that area, and there should have been more restrooms, but it in no way resembled the disaster I witnessed at the LI beer festival. Also, while that festival was indeed organized by Andy Calimano and Starfish Productions, who incidentally are non beer people, he has since split with his partners who run the Brewtopia festivals in Manhattan. Actually, from what I know he was disingenuous and planned the LI festival without even telling his partners while he was still with them. They are a little pissed off as you might guess. And, the oversold festivals you are probably thinking of were called beer on the pier and are run by a completely different group who happened to oversell their event and also had very, very bad luck in that it rained during both of their outside events in NYC.