The Great American Beer Festival was due for some change. The fest, known as GABF, first debuted in 1982 and is now celebrating 42 years. Forty-two. A craft beer festival is 42-years-old. Let that sink in. Besides growing from a few dozen breweries to several hundred, the fest has largely looked the same for decades, until now.
This year, the festival will reduce the number of sessions from four to three, with the notoriously raucous Saturday session going away. The Brewers Association (BA) also redesigned the layout and experience of America’s most attended beer festival to better suit a new generation of drinkers.
“We know the format, whether regional, alphabetical, or now by experience area, is always one of the festival’s most highly debated topics,” says Ann Obenchain, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the Brewers Association, organizers of the Great American Beer Festival.
After decades of organizing the event by region and other similar staid manners, the BA decided to radically shift its approach to the nation’s largest beer event. “To execute the new experience area idea, we had to abandon the traditional ordering from the past,” says Obenchain. “We hope that attendees will share our excitement in this new layout and discover new beverages and vendors.”
While many long-time Great American Beer Festival attendees and brewers may bristle at the changes, the festival was probably long overdue for some changes. Once a must-attend event whose tickets sold out shortly after going on-sale, recent years have seen emptier aisles and far fewer attendees. The festival’s regional approach revealed some of its challenges. Long dominated by Colorado and California breweries, other regions were less well-attended, with some, such as New England, so tiny as to barely cover any ground.
The pandemic and demographic changes only exacerbated an existing identity crisis. Once among the most popular weekend activities for adults, beer festivals have experienced diminished attendance in the past decade. Festivals grew expensive and tired, with little innovation to meet changing demographics and the aging of their audiences. Many large festivals have opted not to return. For those events looking to continue, trotting out the same old business model was no longer optional.
Great American Glow Up: GABF’s New Look
The Great American Beer Festival is ready to shed its rigid craft beer enthusiasm and usher in a new era of fun. According to the BA, the new GABF experience involves a series of “diverse and immersive experiences designed to transport you to different worlds, each offering a unique blend of themed decor, specialized brews, engaging activities, and vibrant entertainment.” Gone are the boring regional sections of the past, replaced by new sets of festival experiences, “a series of unforgettable journeys, each promising its own set of delights and discoveries,” according to the BA.
Attendees at the 2024 festival will experience six distinct areas. They include “Prost!,” a German inspired biergarten featuring decor paying homage to Oktoberfest, live polka bands playing traditional Bavarian music, and a stein-holding contest. “Score!” is a sports-themed area that will host Lucha Libre Mexican Wrestling and Mechanical Bull Riding. “Fright” is a Halloween-themed area welcoming costumed festival attendees. “Blast Off” offers “liquid innovations and on-trend flavors from international and domestic breweries,” according to the BA. This includes the United Nations taproom, which hosts classic beers from around the globe.
“The brewers self-selected their locations,” says Obenchain. “We’re looking forward to seeing how they engage with the new themes and the customers. We’ve already seen a few photos of props some brewers are bringing- it’s going to be fun!”
It’s easy to be skeptical or to decry these innovations as a desperate attempt to maintain relevance in a time of dwindling consumer interest and beer festival attendance. And you’d be correct. You could understandably expect the Prost! Experience to be a sanctuary for lager lovers, filled with pilsners, marzens, and festbiers. And while you’ll likely see folks decked out in lederhosen and dirndls, you can also drink a Key Lime Pie cream ale, a nearly-9% ABV blueberry waffle pastry stout, and a pina colada milkshake IPA in the section, and that’s only from the first brewery listed in the section. The celebration in the Prost! experience of all things German also comically includes the Lost Abbey and Russian River (maybe STS Pils qualifies).
But also, what do you expect? Should the BA and other festival sponsors simply pack up their taps and crack a Big Sipz Purple Punch wine cocktail. To the BA’s credit, it’s attempting to iterate, to push the bounds of beer festivals, to lean into catering to those seeking a fun night out.
Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. But standing still is no longer an option. Craft beer sales have stagnated if not retreated in recent years due to a wide variety of factors. It’s time to try something new.
The fest also continues opportunities for attendees to meaningfully interact with brewers. The Meet the Brewer experience area at the Great American Beer Festival offers an interactive space where fest goers talk with brewers from around the country, allowing them to “appreciate the artistry and passion that goes into every pint, offering a chance to learn, taste, and engage like never before,” according to the BA.
“The experience area idea was generated from feedback from brewers, attendees, and our event committee, as well as the desire to evolve to continuously meet the ever-changing customer preferences,” says Obenchain. “Events and festivals, in general, are becoming more experiential and providing multi-layer offerings to the wildly varied preferences of the now four distinct generational groups (legal drinking age Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers).”
Obenchain and the BA also acknowledge that the core group of craft beer fans continues to age and it’s incumbent on the association to evolve with the times. “Our largest purchaser group is between the ages of 21-34, and the vast majority of purchasers under 44,” says Obenchain. “We mindfully kept long-time attendees and beer fan favorites like Meet the Brewer, Heavy Medal, but also wanted to provide more entertainment options for the younger demographics who might be looking for other things to do, see, taste, and enjoy.”
See you in Denver
I’m excited to attend the festival this year, to reconnect with the American craft beer industry in its single largest and most influential event, and to see how the changes work out. It’s ok to remember that beer is supposed to be fun and this year’s fest seems geared towards reminding folks of that.
“As always, we value attendee feedback and will be listening and learning for ways to evolve GABF for years to come,” says Obenchain.
