Sudz In the City

We had a good time. There were cider options for the GF ppl (me) which was great. Great beer selections as well for others. Only complaint was the location. There’s a really creepy vibe in the downtown area of Fresno and plenty of tweakers roaming around.

Taken over by the Downtown Fresno Partnership, this event has turned around. No longer in Chukchansi Park, it’s now on the 1200 – 1300 blocks of Fulton Mall. It’s also all regional and local microbrews. A true beer tasting experience, not a binge-​n-​puke. Live local music supplied by Love a Captive.

Beer! Beer! Beer! Love it!!!
Love it! What more to say an ode to beer! Who can’t love that!!!

The 2011 Sudz In The City event was just «OK.»
As my first time attending, I even wanted to vomit more as I realized this was the 17^th annual event, meaning that Fresno has had 17 years and chances to not-​fuck-​this-​up, but in the end — Fresno is always «Fresno.»
First off, the GLARING and major negatives come from the disorganization of the entire event. Before entering the event for example, there’s ZERO signage telling you exactly WHAT line to get into, or WHERE to go. You basically find your way by asking a dozen people waiting in line, who you realize are just as clueless as you are, hoping to god they are in the right line themselves due to already waiting for at least 30 minutes. Even our group, after waiting in line for about 20 minutes, realized we were not waiting in the ‘wrong’ line, but rather the ‘longer line,’ as there was a much shorter line near the entry (confusing, I know). As soon as people realized this, there was basically an orgy of lines that accumulated and bottle-​necked at the front, forming one huge crowd — just ridiculous. Thank god these people weren’t drunk YET, as a riot would’ve surely formed due to the clueless-​ness and disorganization of it all.
When you finally are about to get access inside, you realize that there’s literally only TWO people checking tickets, and of course taking their sweet-​ass time; I’m convinced these checkers must have worked for the airline industry or DMV in their past lives. Why is it taking this long to simply get inside for an event you ALREADY have PAID tickets for?! And of course after entering, there’s yet another two checkpoints you have to go through to validate your ticket. Seriously people? The first two checkpoints within 12′ of each other, within an already heavily-​gated entry aren’t enough apparently? Sigh.
Anyways, the 3^rd and last validation is when you actually receive your 3 — 4 oz plastic cup (seriously, it’s about 2 — 3 shots worth) for sampling, and even at this point, there’s only about three people handing these out for the hundreds of thirsty people that are coming through the gate. Again, efficiency at its finest people.
Overall, just hugely under-​staffed and hugely disorganized and mismanaged.
Once you get in, the other ridiculous thing is that there’s (shocker) absolutely no signage at all for the beers. It’s not until you actually get up to the actual booth, that you can see what kind of beer you are about to be drinking. The only thing you see once getting in, are basically dozens of lines leading to non-​descript tables (beer).
I’ll tell you guys right now, the feeling you walk away with is that this is not setup for beer enthusiasts and connoisseurs at all. Meaning, if you come here expecting even a SLIGHT education and serious sampling into local and premium beers, you will be hugely disappointed. It’s simply hordes of people standing in disjointed lines waiting to get as much beer as they can, and trying to get as drunk as they can before the event is over. In terms of education, I asked countless times if the beer I was sampling was a local beer, and countless times, I got the standard «umm, I’m not sure… NEXT IN LINE!»
Again: Beer enthusiasts and connoisseurs — this is NOT for you.
The only positives I can say (not even related to the event), is that as long as you bring good company, you should have a «good» time. I had fun, but only because we had a good group, and met some cool people as well during the event. Also, the stadium has a lot of bathrooms, so with the hordes of people, I didn’t once have a problem finding an empty bathroom stall. It was the ONLY thing I didn’t have to wait in a line for!
It’s just hard to get over the fact that during the event and while leaving, you just basically hear groups of drunk people yelling and talking about how much the event sucked. I just hope Fresno learns for next year, but that’s tough to say since they’re 17 years into it and still manage to have disgruntled attendees and organization that signals they have absolutely no idea WTF they are doing. It honestly seemed like this was the first time ever Fresno has done this. I’ve heard of beer festivals like this in bigger cities that go off much better, and it just pisses me off to hear it; why can’t Fresno just learn and take example from these? For example, Fresno could make a lot more money by having the ability to purchase different sized cups, versus the default 3 — 4 oz piddly sized cup you are given. Everyone I was with wanted this option as they all realized it’s not worth it to stand in line for 15 mins a beer, only to barely have a wine-​flute sized cup for sampling.
Here’s the event summed up for you: it’s nothing but people standing and waiting 15 mins. to get beer, only to get right back in a different line because the beer they previously got was finished in about 30 seconds.
Repeat this circle-​jerk cycle throughout the whole night, and there my friends, you have Sudz in the City 2011.