TRAVERSE CITY — The third time won’t be a charm for the Michigan Brewers Guild’s annual Spring Beer Festival outside of Traverse City.
Guild officials confirmed their Spring Beer Festival won’t be returning to Turtle Creek Stadium south of Traverse City in May. The event wasn’t included in the organization’s 2024 event schedule that includes four other beer festivals around the state, which kicks off this weekend with Saturday’s 18th annual Winter Beer Festival at LMCU Park in Comstock Park north of Grand Rapids.
The Spring Beer Festival seemed star-crossed from its inception. It was originally planned to debut in May 2020, but the first two years were wiped out by the COVID pandemic. It finally debuted on May 7, 2022 at the home of the Traverse City Pit Spitters baseball club and drew around 1,500 participants, according to Guild estimates. But those numbers dropped off in the event’s second year last May which drew less than 1,000 attendees — numbers that weren’t sustainable because of the time and expense to conduct such events, according to Brewers Guild Executive Director Scott Graham. Such events need at least 2,000-3,000 attendees to break even, he said.
“It was a great festival — a ton of fun,” Graham said. “Unfortunately we didn’t see the year-over-year organic growth to make it sustainable … when we were budgeting for this year, we were taking a financial risk by bringing it back.”
Graham was at a loss to explain the festival’s flat attendance numbers. He said the event was “heavily marketed” by the Brewers Guild and it drew significant attendance from outside the Grand Traverse region, but didn’t get the local support that organizers anticipated.
“There were a lot of people there who were not from Traverse City,” he said. “Somehow, we weren’t able to engage the local community as much as we could’ve.”
Local brewery operators said they weren’t surprised the Spring Beer Festival had fallen by the wayside. Chris Cargill, head brewer at Stone Hound Brewing Co. in Williamsburg, said there were several challenges facing the event, including the timing of the festival on Mother’s Day weekend. He also said it would have benefitted from better transportation options such as a shuttle service from downtown Traverse City or some of the local hotels.
“The venue left a little something to be desired,” he said.
Cargill also said organizers should consider adding other attractions — including music or entertainment — to expand the draw of the festivals to beyond craft beer enthusiasts.
“It’s not enough anymore to throw a beer festival and expect a big turnout,” Cargill said. “You need something more than just the beer to draw people in.”
Russell Springsteen, owner of Right Brain Brewery in Traverse City, said participating in such events creates a lot of work for local breweries and their staff and that he can better utilize those resources inside his operation.
“It’s possible that they’ve just run their course,” Springsteen said of the popularity of large-scale beer festivals. “We want to put our resources into our own pub and cater to our own audience.”
Graham wouldn’t rule out another beer festival being organized in Northwest Michigan, but there’s nothing in the works so far. The Brewers Guild is focused on its other events which continue to draw strong turnouts, he said.
Those include the 25th annual Summer Beer Festival July 26-27 at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti, the 15th annual U.P. Fall Beer Festival on Sept. 7 in Marquette and the 15th annual Detroit Beer Festival on Oct. 19 at Eastern Market in Detroit.