It was quite all right, wasn’t it?
I did not spend long sessions in the festival, but I popped in for several shorter visits. Long opening hours and no entrance fee meant that visitors could come and go and there were no long lines to come in.
The range of food available seemed fine to me, from organic burgers to oriental food. More elaborate menus in some of the tents, too, though if I wanted a three course meal, I would probably go looking for a restaurant in the area.
The place
Organising an event like this outdoors in Norway is always a gamble. They had rented a municipal park in Oslo for the occation. The major music festivals here sell out most of their tickets in advance, meaning that they cover their expenses come rain or shine. A beer festival with no entrance fees does not have that option, and the weather went from so-so to pouring rain. Three large tents meant that the guests were able to stay dry, and most of the beers of the festival were to be found in these tents as well. Some of the minor outlets, located around the fringes of the festival area, probably suffered the most because of the weather. But still 13000 visitors sounds reasonable, considering the weather.
The beer range
As I’ve said before, the important Norwegian micro breweries were not present, neither were any of the new farm breweries or brewpubs. There were some very decent Danish and Swedish craft brews in one of the smaller bars, and I was pleased to see that they seemed to be very popular. I hope they didn’t have many foreign visitors coming to taste the range of Norwegian beer…
Overall
I’ll come back to a list of proposals they might consider if this event is to be repeated. As an overall conclusion, this was a welcome addition to the Oslo beer scene.
And there are always friends and acquaintances old and new to meet up with and have a chat. There are news, rumours and speculations, very useful for a beer blogger.
Good beer info! Some more photos from the beerfestival here, but all text in Norwegian: http://halvtomtglass.blogspot.com/
Regards
LizM
Good festival spirit in a rather sad weather…
Some more photos from the festival (but all text in Norwegian) here: http://halvtomtglass.blogspot.com/
Let’s hope for a new event next year with more sun and more of the Norwegian small brewerys present.
LizM
When Hansa Borg and Aass sold 2.800 liters of beer all together and spent 600.000,- for their tent rents alone, I believe they not to happy with the outcome. Even if this has to be partly seen as marketing, they might re-consider participating next year. Something must be done regarding pricing if they want to continue next year. Maybe fewer days could help?
I’ll get back to that, but the figures are certainly interesting. It seems to me that people were interested in sampling a broad range of beers, not swilling half liters of pale lager.