Maryland Craft Beer Festival

This was the first time I have attended this beer festival and I thought it was terrible!!! I can promise you I will never be back unless some things change. I have never ever been to a beer festival (and I have been to MANY) where I needed to purchase tokens in order to get a beer. Every beer festival that I have ever been to you purchase your ticket and try as many beers as you would like, NO TOKENS!!! The venue was nice but there were too many kids and especially people with large strollers. It is a beer festival, why are you bringing your kids? Find a baby sitter for the love of god! I have children of my own and this is an adult thing, not a kid thing. The kids took over a cup washing station and there really weren’t any to wash your glass except that one so you couldn’t get water or rinse your mug. The bands were pretty good but the port-​o-​potties were inadequate and only at one end of the venue rather than each end. The port-​o-​potties also lacked a shred of toilet paper. The hand washing staton ran out of water and paper towels quickly. Normally, I could live with that but these are nasty port-​o-​potties being used by drunk men peeing all over. Washing my hands is a must. Apparently 30% of the cost of each token went back to each brewer. 70% went to the Maryland Brewer’s association. I would have been ok with paying for tokens if part of the cost of each token went back to the park the event was held in or to fight some disease. Get it together MD Craft Brewer’s Festival!!!

This was the first year that we went to the festival, so I can’t comment on past venues, but I was pleasantly surprised by the location along the creek. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we walked up since the line was wrapped around the block and all the way back to the library, but there was a surprising amount of room and everybody was very chill (unlike some of the local winery festivals that we’ve been to).
I’m very happy that none of the breweries followed the VIP only beers rule and that additional tokens could be purchased. I wasn’t sure what to expect since MD breweries are only allowed to give out a small amount of samples and can’t sell additional beer. I also loved that kids were allowed, but there was no entertainment for them. We saw a few new parents who were relieved to get out of the house and some embarrassed teenage dd’s, but it was a pleasant change to go to a Frederick festival for adults that didn’t have a bouncy house and rug rats with face paint running around.
My only wish is that there were more food vendors selling drunk food. Get some appetizer-​sized grease and bread stuff involved and you would have had to drag me out of there. Instead we headed out for and early dinner because we needed something in our stomachs (besides beer).