A popular craft brewing festival that has generated thousands of dollars for local charities is moving to a springtime event date.
The Columbus Craft Beerfest is moving to May 18 at Mill Race Park, and will be scheduled for the third Saturday in May in upcoming years, said Caroline Letzel, who is handling event coordination and publicity for the event with ZwanzigZ.
The festival has traditionally been conducted in the fall since its inaugural event in 2016, founded by a group of Columbus young professionals led by Elaine Wagner as an opportunity to provide a fun-to-do activity for younger Columbus residents.
After two years, they reached out to ZwanzigZ, known for its craft beers and pizza, to become the presenter of the event, Letzel said.
While the date change is significant, it represents a chance to brand the festival to the third Saturday in May every year, in the hopes the set yearly date will attract more visitors to Columbus, and more craft breweries and vendors to the festival, said ZwanzigZ owners Kurt and Lisa Zwanzig.
“In 2017, we checked out four months of activities — from July through October, and out of those 16 weekend, there were 14 events,” Kurt Zwanzig said. “Many of them were beer-related — others were not. We just didn’t want to congest their space for their events. And we wanted to be able to find a repeatable date — the third Saturday in May, that’s predictable,” he said.
Hours and ticket prices are still being worked on, but organizers are thinking of having the festival in the afternoon, going into the evening. Tickets had gone for $50 a person under the Young Professionals organization with unlimited tasting during the event.
They are hoping to attract 2,500 people to the event next spring. Organizers are planning an online ticketing portal, which is not yet available. The committee is working on a plan that the first couple hundred ticket buyers might receive an interesting merchandise item with their purchase to spur sales.
The Zwanzigs and Letzel believe weather conditions will be favorable for the date change — although they plan to have solid alternatives for locations in the event of flooding at Mill Race Park or other complications.
And they plan to keep the Young Professionals’ pledge to donate a portion of the proceeds to charities.
This past May, the group donated $30,775 checks to Just Friends Adult Day Services and the Columbus Park Foundation, representing the proceeds from the 2017 event.
Working with a committee composed of ZwanzigZ officials and volunteers, organizers are hoping to attract a variety of Indiana craft breweries to the event, along with some from surrounding states who have distribution rights in Indiana, Letzel said.
Beerfest is a place that craft breweries use to debut some new beer, and ZwanzigZ plans on debuting two or three new beers during the festival.
The committee is also considering a band, vendors and food truck offerings, but Kurt Zwanzig said organizers are focused on staying away from gimmicks. However, there will be an option for a reduced price for designated drivers who may only want to partake of craft sodas from the breweries, something that is growing in popularity.
“We don’t want anyone to feel that this festival is about anything but the beer,” he said. “And we also want Columbus to be the focus and the charities this festival helps.”
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The Columbus Craft Beerfest is sending out “Save the Date” notifications on social media to remind fans that the next installment of the festival will be May 18 at Mill Race Park.
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