Over the weekend, several of us in the Crew were able to enjoy the annual Cask Festival at Sidetrack Brewing. During the course of our day, we discussed more than just the tasty beers at hand, but also in how this was a model small-scale festival.

That brought us back to a story that we ran last November that delved into the future of the craft beer festival. At the time, we mainly discussed the options that were present for breweries and festival organizers, allowing both the brewery folks to share their views, and later for our readers to respond with their own comments and suggestions.

Well, after Cask Festival and a few other recent winter events, we have come to a few conclusions about the future of festivals. Now, these are just our opinions/suggestions, but we think these should make up the proper road map for how fests can evolve, survive, and even thrive in the months and years ahead.

Limit the sampling

As Steel Bender recently told us in their Look Back/Look Ahead Series entry, the unlimited sampling festival is a no-go for them. They are far from alone.

The Cask Festival, similar to WinterBrew and past events at Ex Novo, featured a limited number of tokens for each sample. How breweries and event organizers choose the number (Sidetrack handed each person 13 tokens, or one for each cask) is up to them. Ex Novo has even done it where customers can even purchase extra tokens for $1 apiece, in case they want more samples. This helps the breweries make more money from these events, and in an era of tightened budgets, it will help keep more places participating in festivals.

The limited sampling typically comes with one free pour of beer. Further pours can be purchased. Again, this helps put more money back in the pockets of the participating breweries.

At the end, this discourages over-consumption, too, and that is always a good thing.

It does not have to be big and it can be specialized

While it can be cool to enter a large space and gaze upon brewery tent canopies as far as the eye can see, there are some things to be said for something more intimate and contained. While not all the brewery folks that we interviewed last fall agreed, we really do believe that more specialized festivals have a place and a future, if they are kept to a certain capacity.

Competition events, like the IPA Challenge or Stout Invitational, are one thing, but we are definitely seeing good crowds for events like the Cask Festival and the lager-centered festivals in years past at Ex Novo and Canteen. Certain beer styles, especially when making it fairly broad, do hold a lot of appeal. The same goes for collaboration events like the upcoming United in Beer, or even fests that celebrate brand-new brews like Beer Premier.

A big test of this will be the upcoming Fete de la Funk at Rowley Farmhouse Ales (get tickets here), which will feature a broad mix of sours, saisons, wild ales, and more. We are convinced that there will be an audience, especially on a smaller scale in a place like RFA, which is already known for those styles. You know, kind of like how people expect cask beers at Sidetrack, thus making it a perfect place for a Cask Festival.

Involve the Brewers Guild

Not every event has to benefit or be organized by the NM Brewers Guild, but it does not hurt to at least make sure they are visible and represented. For the Cask Festival, the Guild had a table set up by the door between the taproom and the patio, offering up merchandise, information on future event(s), and giving folks a chance to meet a member of the Board of Directors.

Hey, it never hurts a festival to have actual brewers present, or even mixed in among the crowd. With the CNM brewing school students handling most of the pouring of the casks, it freed up many of the participating brewers to mingle with their customers. We saw reps from Marble, Ex Novo, Second Street, Thirsty Eye, Sidetrack (naturally), and more on site.

Many of the events we attended in 2023 were smart enough to know that this was a good idea to invite the Guild to have a presence, so we are probably just reinforcing that preexisting belief.

Keep it outdoors

Unless it is in the dead of winter, like WinterBrew, we feel that most events should be outdoors. Oh, there are other exceptions (IPA Challenge, for instance), but the fact is New Mexico has some of the best weather in the country. Sure, it can change faster than a toddler’s mood on any given day, but there is something fun about being outside and enjoying a sample or a pint. The weather was simply tremendous for the Cask Festival, but as we look outside today (Monday), we can see it easily could have had us all squeezed under the patio cover only.

The more outdoor events in the future, the better.

Keep it affordable

Again, this is kind of a tough one for the breweries and festival organizers. They need to make a profit from festivals, but New Mexico is not exactly a state filled with wealthy people with lots of extra cash to throw around. When money gets tight, going out is usually the first thing that gets

Cask Festival tickets came out to about $36 with fees, which seem perfectly reasonable these days. Going over $50 is probably a bad idea, unless those come with some serious perks (think the VIP packages that are offered when concerts roll into town at places like Sunshine, El Rey, Revel, Isleta Amphitheater, etc.). If you offer up additional sample tokens and/or full pours, it can help make up some of the money you saved people on their entry tickets.

It’s weird, people are almost more willing to spend a little more once they are at the event and having fun. Wait, is that why half my wardrobe is made up of concert shirts?

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All right, those are our main ideas/suggestions. Sound off if you disagree or have more to add. We would be happy to share any and all with event organizers and breweries in the future.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister