After various false starts over the years, it appears the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area is finally jumping aboard the "beer week" bandwagon. Distributors Imperial Beverage and Rave Associates, in partnership with the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor Convention and Visitors Bureaus, have announced August 1-9, 2014, as Ypsi-Arbor Beer Week. Yes, it would have made more sense to do it during the week leading up to the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival, but there you go.
From the press release:
It's not just the people in attendance that will make events exciting. Ypsi-Arbor Beer Week will feature hard-to-find beers, tap take-overs, brewer presentations, beer dinners, and more. "There is no limit to how fun—and sometimes quirky—these events will be. We encourage host locations to plan events that are centered around craft beer and fun. We invite speakers to present that will appeal to those that might identify as 'beer geeks.' In some cases, we've had movie, bowling, or bingo nights with our brewers. Very little is considered off the table when planning beer week events," says Anne Drummond, Imperial Beverage Marketing and PR Director.Keep an eye on the (under construction) YABW Facebook page and website for updates and schedules.
But equally important to what beer lovers will find at Ypsi-Arbor Beer Week is also what they won't find. "YABW is not a gathering of 4,000 of your closest friends under a tent to taste beers in a third party location. Those events are great, but that's not what this is," says Drummond. "Ypsi-Arbor Beer Week will drive consumers to places where craft beer is shared, sold, consumed and loved already—area bars, restaurants, and retailers."
I think one of the reasons for the date planning was that as an annual event the week before MBG SummerFest could be Ann Arbor's Art Fairs. Actually gives another reason for folks to hang around. Or come back and visit.
ReplyDeleteThe Art Fairs are always the week before. I think the most compelling reason to hold a beer week leading up to the Summer Beer Fest is that there will already be people from all the breweries around the state in the area, making it easier to set something up. But I'm sure they had their reasons for choosing August 1-9 and you are right that it was probably basically that nothing else was going on, apart from that soccer game.
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