“Beyond Good Beer”: Are Prestige Beer Events Losing Their Luster?

Destination beer festivals are due for a temperature check. More than two years after the onset of COVID, large-scale events—and their $100-plus ticket prices—are back. Yet there’s a sense among organizers and festival-attending brewers that perhaps not all longstanding events are as hot as they once were. There is also a sense that the idea of a hotel-ballroom fest with a lineup of best-in-class breweries isn’t moving the needle the way it did five years ago. Even the Great American Beer Festival’s presale didn’t sell out entirely this year.