Great Austin Beer Festival

This festival was the most poorly organized and least impressive I have ever been to in Austin — and that’s 28 years of festivals! Here were the problems:
1. Horribly Long wait to even get into the Expo Grounds — no one our directing traffic (I’ve been to the Rodeo many times and this was just ridiculous compared to that HUGE event)
2. $ 10 parking — REALLY? after a $ 35 ticket! Gouge, Gouge, Gouge
3. Small, CHEAP Plastic Cups. have you ever been to and Oktoberfest Party in Austin/​Fredricksburg? How can anyone enjoy even good beer in one of those cups.
4. HEAT!!! from the Pavement. Are you kidding, putting the vent on the cement? think Eeyores, Hot Sauce Festival — Terrible Venue
5. Absolutely NO CHARM at all –esp. for paying $ 35 each. Cheap EZ-​UP covers, no tables/​chairs/​picnic tables to sit at… no cool Bar Area. Again — think bigger — Big White Professional Tents, etc. (Like at Wine & Food Festival) I’m sure the vendors would appreciate it too.
6. Music — Sucked. Sound was horrible
7. Expensive — $ 1 tasters for those jello shot cups? really? My husband and I spent $ 100 there — after buying a few beers for our friends and ourselves. What a waste of $$
Overall, a HUGE FAIL — nothing to go back for and a feeling of being ripped off. I would have MUCH rather gone to the Gingerman, The Draught Horse, or BB Rovers and had all the same beer, better atmosphere, and spent less without all the cement heat!

p. s. my review encompasses the entire event, we were there until the staff started walking around telling everyone who was left to finish their beers and get out of there. Yes the crowd cleared but nothing much left except the beer I can get at my local HEB, lame.

Wow you guys have hit the nail on the head! Such all encompassing reviews really giving an exact image of what this festival was like.
I arrived at about 3.50 to get my wait on in line. It was fine everything was moving quickly I didnt have any complaints, they got us all through very quickly and efficiently. When I entered I was expecting some swag or a pen and paper but all I got was a plastic cup with a laminated paper for marking drinks. Disappointment. Walked in and saw that each table had free swag, pens bottle openers, key chain clips, stickers and some sweet sam adams hats. Then I hopped in line and got some Dogfish head no problem. After I finished that the place was packed and there were ten minute lines for just about everything. You could sneak around and find a short wait for something like saint Arnold’s but all in all it was over crowded. This went on for about another hour or so and then just like Whitney F. clearly stated everyone just disappeared. There was no challenge to get anything. Finally some of the breweries came out with some of their reserve beers. Widmer bros brought a prickly pear ale you cant buy in Texas (yet, I hope). Then my friends and I just meandered around ate some meat pies and drank what ever beer was closest and coldest (temperature was a problem but not at most tables) to us.
I wish i would have been sober enough to enjoy the quality of some of the later beers. But over all I did enjoy myself even if it was a bit expensive. Its nice being able to walk in the grocery store now and look at the beer wall and say «Yeah I have tried that, and that and. .. »

For a city that prides itself on the drinking abilities of its citizens, this sure was a craptastic event. San Francisco knows how to do it right in this regard. Cheers!

I have a feeling the previous two reviewers left after about an hour and a half. Ya know why I think that? Cause most people got kinda fed up and left after about an hour and a half.
The previous reviews are right… the thing was a huge, poorly organized, poorly planned out clusterf*ck. They way over sold the event, the venue was not a good choice, and the setup was abysmal.
But, after about half the crowd cleared out because of those problems, the beer festival got pretty fun. After about 6pm, there were very few lines with more than about 10 people in them, you could move around, and spend time talking to the beer reps without feeling like you were pissing off everyone behind you.
I talked to several interesting and very knowledgeable people in line, and tasted a few nice beers I hadn’t tried before… my two favorites on the day were the Franziskaner Dunkel and the Brooklyn Brewery Local 2.
I think that if they do this event again, it needs to be held at the Convention Center, they need to put banners for each brewery up above the table so you can see it anywhere in the room, and only line up the booths on one side of the room… that eliminates all the crisscrossing lines problems. I also think they should sell about half the number of tickets… and if that means raising the price to clear out some of the riff raff, so be it. Lastly, they really need more breweries present. 30ish breweries, especially when about 5 of them are local and offer free tasting events all the time, and 5 others are huge corporate guys, just isn’t that special.
Still, I had a good time, tasted some new things, met some fun people. There were problems, but I hope they’ll do this again next year (just with a better plan in place).

The previous review was right on with all the details I am too lazy to spell out in words. Here is my addition:
Pros: One star just for being a beer festival
Cons: Insanely crowded, lukewarm beer, no food, no live music (this is Austin isn’t it?) and it was a crazy disorganized mess trying to figure out what line went where. Then after waiting in a ridiculously long line some folks filled the already tiny cup only half full.
If the cost were $ 20 instead of $ 41and some logistical issues were fixed I might consider going again, but otherwise I consider it a bust. My boyfriend and I went together for a total cost of $ 82. If you consider the cost of an average pint at the Gingerman we could have drank a hell of a lot more with an equal selection, eaten something and had a much more pleasant environment with money to spare.