Some people just love to complain. Within minutes of the Brewers Association announcing that the Great American Beer Festival would move from the cavernous confines of the Colorado Convention Center to an outdoor park in Denver, the criticisms came in fast and furious.
In social media posts and comments and throughout online forums, the people made their case. It’s abandoning tradition. It will be smaller than before. The new location is inconvenient in multiple ways. All are valid points and the predictable knee-jerk reaction when something as steady as the GABF gets monkeyed with.
Last year on April Fool’s Day I penned a piece that poked fun at the changing nature of GABF, saying that it was slated to become just an informational kiosk at Bierstadt Lagerhaus. “We’re not saying this is forever, but in this world you need to adapt or die,” read a totally fictitious quote for the spoof story. “This is us adapting.”
With this change of venue, reduced attendee space, and other groundshift changes, this is the BA adapting for real. It’s an acknowledgment of the changing landscape of beer drinking across the country and the way consumers want to interact with breweries, samples, and others.
The fact is, outdoor beer festivals are nothing new. Yes, the weather in Denver is unpredictable in October, but if Mother Nature throws a snowstorm at the city, attendees can just dress for the weather. The hearty souls that wind up going will likely have a story to tell for years to come.
If the weather is nice, it’ll be a chance to be in the sun and maybe get some families out, introducing a new generation to the fun of beer festivals.
I’ve never been to the Levitt Pavilion. Like so many others, I had to look up the location when this change was announced. Locals pointed out that the space — with a sloped hill that makes it perfect for concerts — will be difficult for the teams of volunteers to navigate, getting kegs and ice where they need to be.
The Levitt Pavilion has a capacity of 6,500 people, according to its website. Even at a sell-out over the two sessions announced — Saturday, October 10 and Sunday, October 11 from noon to 4 p.m. — that’s less than a quarter of what this festival once brought in during its heyday.
The BA will lose its marketing around calling this the country’s largest beer festival, but while it won’t be great in size, there is a real opportunity to make it great in other ways.
In a very real column last year I outlined some of the ways the BA could improve the fest. This included vetting the brewery list to make sure that only makers of quality beer are included, that the pour list is truly diversified, and offering larger than 1-ounce pours.
This reimagined festival has the chance to be a blueprint for others to follow when it comes to experience, service, presentation, and personalities. To achieve that, the BA would be smart to look at what festivals like Good Word Brewing’s Little Beer has been doing for nearly six years, or the Firestone Walker Invitational, or any of the other brewery-led festivals that have fostered community while slinging thoughtful lagers and ales.
The last few years of the GABF at the Colorado Convention Center have felt grim. Adding thematic areas added some brief new elements of fun, but it also felt like a Band-Aid over a bullet wound.
This year’s festival won’t be the cash cow GABF has been in years past for the BA, but it is a chance to reset a great tradition and to keep up with the changing nature of the industry and drinkers.
Maybe this will be temporary. Maybe the fest moves back to the convention center in 2027 and the Levitt Pavilion experiment becomes part of the buried GABF history like the Baltimore edition in 1998. Maybe this will be its last year.
Walking out of the Friday evening session last year I had a sense that I’d be skipping the 2026 edition thanks to a “been here, done this” feeling. Now, with this change and a promise of something new, I’ve already started looking at flights to the Mile High City for mid-October.
I hope you do the same.
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John Holl is the editor of All About Beer Magazine.
JohnHoll@allaboutbeer.com