HopsFest Coming to Bethlehem

by theelvee_w2oe3m

The Celtic Cultural Alliance, the crew behind Bethlehem’s popular Celtic Classic, are hosting a new fundraiser in June: a beer festival.

The 1st Annual Lehigh Valley HopsFest will take place on Saturday, June 14th.  Utilizing the same field as the Celtic Classic games are held on, the fest so far features over 50 breweries and 100 different beers.  Tickets are on sale now (and selling fast).  General admission tickets are $40 which gets attendees in from 1pm to 4pm.  VIP tickets, which are $75 and limited to 250, get attendees in an hour early and provides them with lunch, special beers not available after 1pm, and a souvenir tasting glass.  DD tickets are available for $10 and include soda, water, and snacks.  Additional food and snacks will be available for purchase throughout the day.

The list of breweries so far includes:
Alchemy and Science (makers of the Curious Traveler shandy line)
Anchor Brewing
Boaks
Cottrell Brewing
Cricket Hill Brewing
Doylestown Brewing Company
East Coast Brewing
Evil Genius Beer Company
Fegley’s Brew Works
Fish Tale Brewing
Free Will
Full Pint Brewing
Funk Brewing
Goose Island Brewing
Great Lakes Brewing
Guinness
Harp
Ithaca Brewing
John Henry
Kona Brewing
Lancaster Brewing Co
Leinenkugel
Lion Brewing
Liquid Hero
Magners
Naked Brewing
Neshaminy Creek Brewing
Old Forge Brewing
Penn Brewing
Red Castle Brewing
Red Hook Brewing
Round Guys Brewing
Roy Pitz Brewing
Saucony Creek Brewing
Shawnee Craft Brewery
Smithwicks
Southampton Brewing
Starr Hill Brewing
Stoudts Brewing Company
Strongbow
Susquehanna Brewing
Thomas Creek
Three Heads Brewing
Tommyknocker Brewery
Troegs Brewing
Victory Brewing
Weyerbacher
Widmer Brewing
Yards
Yuengling

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6 comments

Bob March 29, 2014 - 1:41 pm

There is no such thing as a “1st Annual” anything. For an event to called “annual”, it has to be held more than once annually. For the first occurrence, an event is called “inaugural”… The Inaugural Lehigh Valley HopsFest .

Reply
Megan April 10, 2014 - 4:20 pm

Do the General Admission ticket holders get a souvenir tasting glass as well?

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The El Vee April 10, 2014 - 4:21 pm

I think they just give you one of the cheapie plastic tasters.

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Maria Landis May 12, 2014 - 10:24 am

Hello,
I purchased 2 tickets for the Bethlehem Beer Fest to be held on 6/14/14.
I was unable to print the attachement email and now the email is not in my inbox.
These tickets were purchased around 5/2/14 and charged to my PNC account on 5/5/14 through paypal.
POS17536422, 2871633, N0502 8496 Payment. Celtic San Jose Ca.

Please resend a copy of my tickets to print.

Thank you.

Maria Landis

Reply
Jon June 13, 2014 - 12:58 pm

Is this a pet friendly event?

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Kathy June 15, 2014 - 8:14 am

I love Celtic Fest and the Celtic Cultural Alliance, so I am sad to write a mostly negative review of this event. But I can’t possibly be the only one who thought these thoughts about yesterday’s event. So here ya go – my review of the 2014 1st Annual Inaugural Hops Fest. 🙂

I went to Hops Fest yesterday with the Darling Husband. We had a blast for the first hour. Then, I wondered why all these people (and I mean like 100 people) were lined up in the middle of event. We realized they were waiting for the BATHROOM. And it looked to be a 30+ minute wait. It was all kinds of bizarre having the very center of the event be hogged up by a HUGE HUGE line for the bathroom. You could not go from one beer tent to the other without passing through the bathroom line, it was that long.

Obviously, a large supply of beer requires a large supply of bathrooms. It’s not rocket science. Sadly, the organizers of this event didn’t plan for this obvious human need, and they placed a pathetically small number of port a potties at one end of the event.

With taxes, each general admission ticket cost about $45 for the 3 hour event. Waiting in line for 30 minutes to pee (and that’s if you only had to go once, and let’s face it, tons of beer usually requires multiple visits to the bathroom) takes up a significant chunk of expensive beer time. It’s kinda hard for a woman like me, in her 40’s (who’s had 2 kids) to relax and chug beer when she knows that the inevitable desire to pee will be unmet. Paranoia sets in, and it does NOT go well with a righteous beer buzz. All I could think was OH MY GOD I HAVE TO PEE.

OK, besides the bathrooms, the beer selection was wonderful, and the people attending were fabulous – I was in such good company. I’ve never seen so many cool beer t-shirts in one place, either – people have great beer fan wardrobes in this town! I really and truly would have enjoyed a few details being added, though, in addition to more bathrooms. For one thing, tables and chairs would have been nice. Nobody could sit down anywhere. This resulted in hordes standing right by the pour tables, which impeded the flow of traffic in the tents. There were 3 or 4 stand-up tables, but they had gross leftovers from the VIP event still there after hours the VIPs were done. My shitty plastic beer cup cracked in about 3 minutes, too. $45 for a shitty dixie cup? Really? And the sound system for the music was shitty. It was static-y and distorted and did not carry well over the event. A small band would have been far superior. Or, nothing at all! And the tents were smashed together to create a space that was way too small – it was a lot of people in a small area, and there was no reason why this event couldn’t have been put into a larger square footage area.

Next year, the neighbors and I will skip this event entirely and hold our own beer tasting in the backyards. Or, we’ll go to Liberty Tavern or something. Our most basic human needs will be met, we’ll have more space, and we won’t be out tons of cash for a very short event that wasn’t properly managed. Sorry, Celtic Cultural Alliance – while the beer itself was AWESOME, the event was not well run and really needs to be totally revamped if it’s ever going to become the 2nd annual Hops Fest. I’d give this event a D grade. The beer selection saved this event from being a total fail for me. Everything else besides the beer itself was horribly managed and somebody ought to lose their job.

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