Where the Kid gets his foam

Now in its sixth year, the Sundance Beer Festival is a popular part of the city’s roster of annual events and festivals. According to organizer Reggie Gaylord, it’s still growing both in attendance and number of vendors, so beer lovers can expect another fun evening of hop-fuelled revelry on September 7.

“After six years, it has finally got its legs – and it’s crazy to think it’s been six years. We’ve had a lot of great attendance,” he smiles.

“We will probably sell close to 500 glasses, and the amount of people who attend has grown, which helps the vendors and food vendors and the businesses.”

Gaylord doesn’t feel that the festival has hit its peak yet and expects it to continue growing year by year. To encourage that, he aims to keep introducing new flair each time festival day arrives.

“The amount of vendors who come to us to be a part of it now is a good sign,” he points out.

“We send out invites to hundreds of brewers, to just throw them out there so that everyone is invited, but the amount that are coming to us now is good.”

This year, Gaylord expects to hit the mark of 20 brewers for visitors to sample again. If all goes to plan, he says, the beer stands will fill the street.

Among the new vendors expected to be on tap this year are Gruner Brothers Brewing of Casper, who have family in this area; a new brewer from Idaho called Rooster Brewing; and Sawyer Brewing of Spearfish. Previous favorites will also be in attendance, says Gaylord, such as Lost Cabin, which lost the title of people’s choice last year to Sick N Twisted and will be looking to regain the crown.

“But Gruner Brothers have already told me they’re taking it – that’s what they called to tell me,” he laughs.

Alongside the trophy for best all-around brewer, for which there’s a grand prize purse available of $500 (as well as bragging rights), prizes will be awarded for categories ranging from best pale ale to best IPA, best amber and best wheat.

The competition has been getting pretty tight, says Gaylord – last year, there were just 13 votes between the top two brewers, so it’s a safe bet that every vote will count in this year’s contest.

Gaylord would also like to stress that the festival wants to grow its home brew category. Last year, four home brewers offered their wares to visitors; he’d like to see that number increase next week.

“We would like to see it grow,” he nods. “We are trying to get it to be a bigger category.”

There’s no need to sign up ahead of time if you have a brew you think might please the crowd – just come on down next Saturday, Gaylord says.

There will be no entry fee to the festival for kids and those who do not wish to drink. For those interested in sampling, the entry price will again include a wristband and tasting mug that can be used to sample as many of the flavors on offer as you would like.

Samplers will use their Sundance tokens to cast votes, with the winning vendors announced at the end of the evening. The event will also include an announcement of the winner of the Sundance Fire Department raffle for a pellet grill at around 7 p.m.

Main Street will be closed between 2nd and 3rd Streets for the event, which will be held between 4 and 9 p.m. on September 7. The same DJ as last year will entertain the crowd as they sample the beers on offer and select their choice for this year’s prizes; non-beer vendor stalls will also be available to browse, as well as plenty of food ranging from bbq to pizza.

“It’s still a family-friendly event and we’re working on having something from the kids, but it is also a beerfest so it’s a hard thing,” he says. “Because of being a Main Street Organization, we can’t have the bouncy castles due to the insurance part of it. We would have done it, but we were told not to.”

Gaylord is hoping to include an event for the kids from 4 to 6 p.m. but does not yet have confirmation of what the activity will be.