(Press Release)

BREVARD, N.C.—Oskar Blues Brewery refunded all ticket purchases for its Burning CAN Music, Beer and Sports Festival, which took place at REEB Ranch in Henderson County this past weekend.

After learning that a handful of breweries didn’t have the necessary North Carolina permits, brewery staff and event organizers came up with the idea of turning the event into a big free private party so that all the breweries, whether they traveled from just down the road or 1,000 miles ago, could showcase their canned creations.

All of the 50 breweries attending were there to support the Festival’s non-profit beneficiary–CAN’d Aid Foundation.

While the show did go on as planned, the ticket refund means that the festival beneficiaries did not receive much anticipated donations to support their work.Upon hearing that their hard-earned cash would be refunded, many festival-goers asked how they could contribute. Some turned around and donated their refunds on the spot.

Now, Oskar Blues has set a lofty goal of raising $100,000 for CAN’d Aid Foundation, and the brewery is hopeful you will join us in this effort to give back and do a lil’ good.

Oskar Blues is asked craft beer lovers to help support the CAN’d Aid Foundation, the organization slated to benefit from the proceeds of Burning CAN, by donating HERE

 The CAN’d Aid Foundation, the brewery’s non-profit arm, supports initiatives across the country, but focuses much of its do-goodery on the brewery’s home communities of North Carolina and ColoRADo.

This past week, CAN’d Aid was busy offering:

  • The first ever CAN’d Aid Camps for Kids, which provided local WNC children with a free opportunity to participate in a Mountain Biking 101 clinic led by professional downhiller Neko Mulally, African drumming and upcycled art projects.
  • The Crush it Crusade, CAN’d Aid’s national recycling program worked with Mountain True and  recycled more than 20,000 cans at Burning CAN.
  • Crush, CAN’d Aid’s 12-foot- tall Crush-it Crusader created from scrap metal and upcycled bicycle parts by Colorado artist Amanda Willshire (Awd aRT), filled his belly with crushed cans and helped spread awareness of the importance of recycling at the fest.

All donations made will support CAN’d Aid’s current program areas: Towns,Treads + TrailsTunesLove Yur Mama and Total CANarchy.  In addition, CAN’d Aid will cut a check to its local partners Mountain True who provided volunteers, fresh water for attendees and managed “Crush it Crusade” recycling efforts for the festival.  Mountain True works hard to protect and preserve Western North Carolina’s natural systems – air, land, water, and native plants and animals.

About Oskar Blues Brewery

Founded as a funky little brewpub by Dale Katechis in 1997, Oskar Blues Brewery launched the craft beer-in-a-can apocalypse in 2002, using a tabletop machine that sealed one can at a time. In 2008, the makers of the top-selling pale ale in ColoRADo, Dale’s Pale Ale, added a brewery in Longmont, ColoRADo. The brewery has since experienced explosive growth-from packaging 59,000 barrels of beer in 2011 to 149,000 barrels in 2014. In December 2012, Oskar Blues opened the doors to an expansion brewery in Brevard, North Carolina. Oskar Blues has continued craft can innovation by introducing the CROWLER as a canned off-premise growler alternative. The innovative, original canned craft brewery now distributes trail-blazing craft brews to 44 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., as well as parts of Canada, Sweden, Norway and the U.K. For more information and social media, visit http://www.oskarblues.com.

About CAN’d Aid Foundation

We dig bikes, beer, music, food and family and we’re rallying around what we love to raise money for things that matter. What started as a response to the 2013 floods in Colorado (where over $700,000 was raised to support small businesses and families in need), has evolved into an irreverent nonprofit that is doin’ good its own way across the United States:

Towns: Building strong communities.

Treads + Trails: Get outside and get after it!

Tunes: For your eyeholes and earholes.

Love Yur Mama: Save the blue marble.

Total CANarchy: UnCANventional projects that make a difference.