Bands, Brews, and Barbecue

I’ve lived in Manassas for over 5 years now and somehow «Bands, Brews, and Barbecue» had flown under my radar. I happened to see an advertisement for it on Facebook back in August and was surprised that I had completely missed this beer festival that was almost right in my backyard. I immediately ordered 2 VIP tickets to the 4^th Annual Bands, Brews, and Barbecue, at $ 60/​pop, for my father-​in-​law and myself. The festival was held Saturday Sept 13^th 2014 at the Manassas Museum Lawn in Old Town Manassas. The festival opened at 12N, but the VIP access allowed early 11AM entry, and also came with a $ 10 Old Town Manassas gift card, effectively knocking down the advance purchase fee to $ 50. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much else to warrant paying for the «VIP» access. The VIP tickets were $ 20 more than standard admission — $ 10 after the gift card — and the only other perk besides early entrance was access to their «VIP Tent».
And the VIP Tent was the big problem I had with this event. Yes, the tent came in handy when the rain came along, although shelter could also be found in the rain-​serving tents. The problem was that the VIP section started with just tall tables and no seats. No seats for VIPs??? They made a change and brought over two tables and about a dozen seats. The problem was that two rather rude and selfish groups completely hijacked the tables for the entire duration we were there. One group decided to treat the beer festival like it was another day out at BadWolf, set up camp, and play «Cards Against Humanity.» (Seriously, who does that at a beer festival?) The other group brought their teenage daughter and an EIGHT DAY OLD BABY and camped out at the table as others rotated to get beer and food. The «VIP Tent» was a complete failure, and I feel like I was totally cheated out of $ 20 for the two VIP tickets I bought.
The beer selection here was rather ho-​hum as well. Manassas showed strong, with BadWolf bringing two of their strongest and most complex brews (Oncoming Storm and You Will Not Like This IPA) and Heritage bringing a cask sour ale with some very complex funky notes. Old Busthead and Old Ox Breweries also represented well. But none of the beers featured here were new to me, and this was the first beer festival I left without having at least one beer that I hadn’t tried before that blew me away.
On a positive note, I did get to try some yummy barbecue from The Bone and Dyvine BBQ, although no food was included into the price. And I will admit that the rain did put a hamper on some of the potential fun. But given the poor planning and layout and lack of beer variety, I’m not sure if I’d come to Bands, Brews, and Barbecue next year. Especially when there are so many beer festivals around the same time that are competing for my dollar, and offering a much better value for the same price.