Here at West Coaster, we attend a lot of beer festivals. We love ’em because we get to meet our awesome readers, sling t-shirts, and spread the gospel of San Diego Beer. Last weekend, we attended BrewFest Encinitas and were extremely impressed. The first time festival was meticulously organized, and we had a blast. We called Vembra Holnagel, one of the festival’s organizers, to hear what her thoughts were.
“We did our due diligence by researching what we needed,” Holnagel, a professional party planner with 15 years experience, stated in a phone conversation earlier this week. She continues: “Chris Cochran at Stone was a huge mentor to us. We customized the location to meet our needs, but he gave us the goods and told us how to run a beer festival.”
The original team of five organizers soon realized they’d need more help to put on a proper festival. Seven more organizers were added, and volunteer pourers were recruited.
More than 500 people attended the festival that featured 12 different breweries, mostly local. For every $40 ticket, $10 would be donated to a organization of the ticketholder’s choosing. Vembra and The Encinitas Coastal Rotary Club expect to to donate over $5000 to various local charities, including the YMCA Community Resource Center, Mira Costa College Foundation, Boys & Girls Club of Encinitas, and more.
How was the festival conceived? Every year the Encinitas Coastal Rotary has a Community Service budget. That budget surplus, combined with funds raised by past golf tourmanets organized by the Rotary, left a little war chest. The Rotary decided that they could successfully throw a festival, earn their money back, and donate the rest to their charities.
Overall? Proper planning and organization made this little charity beer festival stand out from the crowd. We’re looking forward to next year!
Check out our facebook for more photos from the event.
Full disclosure: West Coaster helped promote the event. We provided print advertising space in exchange for a booth at the festival.