This year's festival was a huge success. It will take a while to sort through everything to arrive at final numbers on attendance, and even longer to receive all the invoices and calculate how much money we raised this year. But anyone who got one look at the crowd this weekend knows the numbers were big... very big. Free The Hops thanks every single person who bought a ticket and came out to support our efforts to reform Alabama's beer laws. We hope you had a great time and I'm already getting a lot of feedback that nearly everyone did.

All of the music was incredible. We in FTH continue to be amazed by HoneyBaked. I was so busy I barely had a chance to enjoy that part of the event, but I did catch their cover of the Hendrix classic "Red House". Jaime Isobe might be possessed by Hendrix's ghost. My jaw dropped watching him tear it up. I can't help but think he could hold his own with just about any of the all time great guitar heroes. A big thanks goes to Blue Moon and Highwater, too. They all rocked the house.

The food was fantastic. Everybody obviously loved it and no one had to wait in the food court. Outside the food court I also had some of Fat Stuff's barbecue chicken on a stick late Saturday night, and was surprised by how good it was. Really good. Which would explain why I saw so many people walking around enjoying hand dipped corn dogs and other artery-clogging delights...

We were treated to a long list of beers this year that are new to Alabama, including Saranac, Yazoo, Dominion, Fordham, Hook & Ladder and others. I had a great time getting my first sip of many of those excellent craft brews, as did thousands of patrons. We owe a huge thank-you to all of the beer wholesalers and breweries who made the event possible. I hope many of you were turned on to new favorite beers and will be seeking them out in the coming weeks and months at retailers around town.

As mentioned in my late night post after Saturday's session (see below), the overwhelming response to this event continues to present us with surprises and challenges. This year we fixed the biggest problem from last year--the food area--only to encounter a new problem: a massive number of advance sales in the 24 hours leading up to the start of the event. All of those had to go to Will Call and frankly, we were not prepared to handle that many people at Will Call Saturday night, as many of you are painfully aware. Please accept our sincere apologies for your long wait, and believe us when we promise it won't happen again next year. Although the crowd on Sunday was smaller and so wasn't a truly accurate test, it is clear the improvements we implemented in response to Saturday's problems at the gate were effective. There was virtually no wait time at all at the gate on Sunday. Rest assured we will incorporate those improvements at both sessions next year.

There were other glitches that rightfully drew some complaints. I would like to acknowledge these valid complaints and give you my pledge that all these issues will be fixed for MCBF 2009, just as last year's problems with the food area were fixed this year:

The free soft drinks and bottled water for designated drivers did not arrive until a couple hours into the Saturday session. But the vitamin water was widely available and Primavera Coffee was being served up, so I hope that helped.

A serious error of judgment was made when placing the order for portolets this year, and we did not have nearly enough to handle the Saturday crowd. Portolets should be tripled next year.

No one in Free The Hops was told in advance that popular brands like Samuel Smith's and Lindemans lambics would only be available to patrons who had purchased the higher priced Food & Beer tickets. That was a decision made by the wholesaler and it wasn't communicated to us. Since we weren't aware of this placement, there was no mention of it on the event website, and some folks were understandably upset that several beers they expected to have access to when they bought a ticket were not available to them at the event. Anyone familiar with those brands knows they are the most expensive beers sold in Alabama (retail $6+ per bottle for Lindemans... that would be $36 if you could buy them in six packs!) so the wholesaler was justifiably trying to control costs. But without a doubt, everyone should have known that before buying tickets.

And while I personally did not have direct control over the issues listed above, there is one in particular that I must confess rests squarely on my shoulders. Many designated drivers were under the impression that they would be able to buy food from the restaurant partners listed on this website, such as The J. Clyde and Area 41 Pizza. Unfortunately, none of those restaurants come to the event prepared to sell their wares; they are only setup to provide unlimited food to people who bought Food & Beer tickets.

The only food available for sale on site was at a single, separate food vendor in the beer area, featuring cheese steaks and corn dogs instead of fried green tomatoes and alligator. There is only one explanation for this confusion--I didn't make it very clear when I wrote the text for this website. Please accept my apology. I am happy to tell you we have already started developing a plan for designated drivers to get access to the full list of restaurant partners next year, probably in the form of a $10 unlimited food ticket for DDs.

So there you have it. It's virtually impossible to host an event of this magnitude without encountering problems. We will continue to refine and improve the MCBF every year. I hope most people agree that the problems were greatly overshadowed by the quality of the event, and all the great beer that we all got to enjoy.

Thank you again for your support.

Danner Kline
MCBF Coordinator

UPDATE: June 1st - 2:25 PM

Rain or Shine, Sunday's Session will go on as planned so come on out. It looks like the little bit of rain that we've had at Sloss has moved out and will not be returning, but bring a poncho if you like. We doubt you'll need it. Weather.com shows all of the rain to be South and East of downtown Birmingham.

Also note that Ticketmaster sales have ended, but tickets will be available for sale at the gate.

Danner Kline
MCBF Coordinator

UPDATE: June 1st - 1:00AM

What a night. We were happily overwhelmed with people wanting to sample Alabama's best beers and support Free The Hops in the process... and we thank you very, very much. Thank you to everyone who came out tonight for the first session.

And a special thanks to our restaurant partners who fed such a huge number of people. I think anyone who bought "Food + Beer" tickets and got to enjoy the East End Food Court tonight would tell you we got it right. No one had to wait more than a minute or two for any food item in the food court, period. We promised we'd fix that after the problems last year, and I am happy to report to all of you planning on coming out Sunday afternoon that the proof is in the pudding. You'll really enjoy the food this year.

Of course, we are still a very young event (only in our second year!) and we are still experiencing growing pains. The MCBF is a one of a kind event in Alabama, and even people involved with it who have many years of experience with large scale events have been surprised by the issues that have tripped us up. Tonight, the snafu was the Will Call window.

We had unheard of advance TicketMaster sales from noon on Friday through 3pm Saturday, and all of those had to go to will call. No one involved had ever seen that sort of will call tsunami for an event like this. It caught us off guard, so much so that some people walked away rather than continue to wait in line to get in. We are very sorry for the long wait some experienced to get in the gate.

But good news: we already have a plan to fix things for tomorrow. That's a big reason why we split the event between two days this year instead of packing it all into one day. It gives us time to identify issues and fix them right away.

For all of you planning on making it out to the Sunday session, here's what you can expect:

Tonight we only had one gate open most of the night. On Sunday we will have 3 gates in operation.

We are consolidating multiple Will Call lists that confused and slowed down that window into one Will Call list, and will triple the personnel handling Will Call tickets.

If you have not bought tickets yet, be aware that tickets will go on sale at the gate at 1:30pm. We strongly recommend you arrive at 1:30, at which time you will be able to get your tickets and enter Sloss. You still won't be able to start tasting beer until 3:00, but you'll be ideally positioned to get in to start enjoying the beer right at 3:00.

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A HARD COPY TICKET, please go to the gate immediately to the right of the main gate. That gate will be reserved for patrons who have printed tickets, and you will get immediate access. You should not have to wait at all if you already have your tickets in hand.

In addition to all of this we are going to reduce the total number of tickets sold for the Sunday session by 20% over what we sold for Saturday. That will allow us to run a smoother operation overall. For those of you who endured a long wait at the event any point on Saturday, please accept our sincere apologies. We really are doing our best and learning some important lessons as we continue to evolve this one-of-a-kind event. Every time we spot an issue, we fix it as soon as we can. We believe we will have the kinks ironed out for the Sunday session, and we can take those lessons and apply them next year as well.

THANK YOU AGAIN to everyone who made the Saturday Session such an amazing event. Free The Hops appreciates your support. Now I need to get some sleep before tomorrow's session...

Danner Kline
MCBF Coordinator

When: Saturday, May 31 - 7PM - 11PM
Where: Sloss Furnaces


FINISHED

When: Sunday June 1, 2008 - 3PM - 7PM
Where: Sloss Furnaces

Tickets: Buy Now

Beer Tasting Only
($22 Advance / $30 At the Gate)

Beer and Food
($32 Advance / $40 At the Gate)