My first beer festival came along in 2012. I was freshly 21, living in a college town where the leaves turned perfectly red and orange every fall and craft breweries were just beginning to make a name for themselves.
As a server at a busy student bar, I’d slowly learned the names of increasingly popular local brews from spots that still thrive today — Devil’s Backbone, Starr Hill, Blue Mountain. My favorite beer back then came from slightly further afield — Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch. (It’s still a fave today, and I’d pay big money for someone to bring me a six-pack.)
Sure, nostalgia makes me miss those days. But if you were a beer drinker in the 2010s, you know that those days felt special: exciting, fresh, unknowable.
Craft beer was making a mark and we — those intrepid college kids slugging through wind, sleet and snow to make it to our local pint night — did not want to miss out on the fun.
While craft beer and beer festivals are inextricably linked, festivals are a more fragile entity, existing only as long as enthusiasm for the experience remains.
Keeping the fire burnin’
That first beer festival, held on a balmy September day on Charlottesville’s downtown mall, was a revelation.
Drinking tiny samples of tasty beer with my other of-age pals (we’d waited a long time and gone through a lot of questionable IDs for this) felt like a very grown-up thing to do. Chatting with beer vendors and brewers themselves, I felt the passion for the product. It was incredible to drink something that tasted good and wasn’t, well, a handle of ‘crat.
Sitting in my too-small bedroom that night and eating Chinese food while my head bumped the ceiling from atop my shaky bunkbed, I knew I would want to attend some more of these festivals. And soon.
The next year I’d moved to Charleston and was attending every fest I could, from muddy affairs at Brittlebank Park to Charleston Beer Festival’s first shindig at Patriots Point.
I am merely a beer lover — sure, I married a homebrewer (who actually placed in Charleston Beer Fest’s home brew competition years ago), but I don’t claim to be a beer expert.
That’s the thing about beer festivals — amateurs and pros alike are welcomed with open arms. What do you like? What can I get you? Should we be best friends?
Charleston’s beer fest landscape
Charleston has a rich history of beer festivals. Just ask any local about Coast’s Brewvival (which sadly ended its epic run of fests in 2018) and watch their eyes glaze over as they reminisce on the heyday of local beer fests. For years, folks flocked to the popular parking lot fest, Famulari’s Chucktown Brewdown: Homebrew Festival. And, of course, Charleston Beer Fest has been going strong for more than a decade.
With the rise of alternative beverages and a generation that is simply drinking less, the craft beer industry has seen a decline in recent years. Naturally, festivals have felt the pain, too.
In 2024, Forbes wrote “many local, smaller beer festivals have ceased as that trend has waned in the past few years.” In 2023, Axios took an even stronger stance in its article: “The death of the beer festival is jolting the craft brewing industry.”
And yet. Charleston Beer Fest, a fundraising festival that raises moneys for Palmetto Community Care, remains.
Palmetto Community Care’s director of development and marketing, Richard Reams, said that almost 5,000 people attended last year’s festival, with more than 30% of attendees traveling from outside of the Tri-county area.
The festival tries to offer something new and exciting for consumers including tap-room only brews, so people can sip on stuff they can’t simply buy in local stores. And, of course, folks can sip on non-beer offerings — it’s what the people want. In addition to brews, attendees can enjoy offerings from a liquor garden, NA beers, kombuchas, ciders, meads and CBD-based bevs.
Times have changed. Those college kids racing to pint night are mommies trying to write beer-centric essays with two kids underfoot. Craft beer is far more accessible than it once was, and the allure of a craft beer festival isn’t quite as exciting for beer lovers.
I’m not saying we have to recreate the excitement of the past, but I don’t think we should buy into the doomsday narrative that craft beer and its accompanying festivals are any less appealing than they once were.
So, fellow millennial beer lovers, hear me out: Grab a babysitter, acquire a designated driver and get ye to the Charleston Beer Fest next month. The fun ain’t over yet.
Connelly Hardaway, who is a former City Paper editor, is a writer who lives in Park Circle.
Know before you go to the Charleston Beer Fest
- The Charleston Beer Fest will be held at Riverfront Park Oct. 25.
- General admission tickets are currently on sale for $69 and include a commemorative mug for beer tastings, fest admission and live entertainment.
- VIP tickets are currently on sale for $139 and include expedited entrance to the fest, a tap trailer for VIP-only beers, catered hors d’oeuvres and more.
- The event is rain or shine and guests must be 21+. Full beer pour tickets are available for $5 each.
- More than 60 craft breweries are participating, including Allagash Brewing Company, Bird Song Brewing Co., Angry Fish Brewing Co., Commonhouse Aleworks, Charles Towne Fermentory, Magnetic South Brewery, Kite Hill Brewing Co., The Veil Brewing Co. and more.
- Proceeds from the Charleston Beer Fest is Palmetto Community Care’s primary fundraiser and helps those living with HIV/AIDS receive medical care, everyday resources and emotional support.
- Learn more at chsbeerfest.org.
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