San Diego Beer & Music Festival brings big beers and bands

Beer festivals are a great way to try new and exciting beers. However, not a lot of beer festivals are new and exciting anymore. San Diego Beer and Music Festival, taking place on Saturday, July 30, seeks to shake up the usual beer fest routine.

“When you go to a regular beer fest, you’re going around tasting beer to beer. There’s not much else going on,” says Ryan Wieczorek of Rockstarbeer Productions, the company behind the festival. “For ours, we like to focus a lot on the entertainment and to entertain people the whole time. So they’re not just getting beer, they’re partying with their friends.”

Since 2013, Las Vegas based Rockstarbeer Productions has hosted this beer festival in San Diego. They tried out a couple venues, finally settled on Liberty Station NTC as it proved to be the best option for the fest.

“It’s a beautiful venue that overlooks the bay,” says Wieczorek. “It’s central to Mission Beach, Downtown and Mission Valley, Ocean Beach... It’s easy to get there.” In addition, parking is free and abundant.

Collaborating with radio station FM 94.9, San Diego Beer and Music Festival will offer over 100 beers to sample plus food and live entertainment to keep you busy the entire fest duration from 7-10 p.m. Beer lovers can snack on hot dogs, pizza, gourmet tacos and more from food trucks. Try out unique activities like the 360 Degree Moving Photo Experience and life size games like a gigantic Connect Four, life size beer pong and more. Throughout the evening, enjoy music from DJ Buddy Nielson, alt rock band Gone Avery and headliner Hawthorne Heights who will be taking festival goers back with their emo music made popular in the early 2000s.

More breweries are joining the festival this year. Being in beer centric San Diego, the local brews are plentiful. In fact, 70 percent of breweries present will be from America’s Finest City. Count on all your San Diego favorites to be there: Stone Brewing, Societe, Ballast Point and more. There’s also a special San Diego brew making its debut at the festival. Rockstar Beer Productions collaborated with local brewery Belching Beaver on a macadamia nut vanilla milk stout aptly named “How About These Mac Nuts.”

“We’ve been working on it for a couple months now and I think that we’ll finally be done for the festival,” says Wieczorek.

Besides offering the best live entertainment, food and beers, ticket sales will go towards a good cause: the San Diego 501c3 Non-Profit, Chef Celebration Foundation. General admission tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door. VIP tickets are $50 in advance and $60 at the door.

For information, visit sandiego-beerfestival.com.

Source: DiscoverSD