Beericana Festival Coming to Sugg Farm Park

“Beer’s intellectual. What a shame so many idiots drink it.” -Ray Bradbury – Author

Beer – One word that can mean a lot of different things to different people. When is the best time to have a beer? Some may think it’s during a football game, others during a NASCAR race, others during a barbecue, maybe just to sit with friends? Well, some local residents feel the best place is at the brewery that produces it. Ale is one of the oldest beverages humans have produced, dating back to the 5th millennium BC, and beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe as far back as 5000 years ago, and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale; according to Wikipedia. Micro-breweries don’t have the same depth. Microbreweries started in the mid-60’s, but didn’t take off until President Carter de-regulated the beer market in 1979. What defines a micro-brewery is that they are limited to 15,000 barrels of beer a year (460,000 gallons), and at least 75% must be sold outside of the brewery. On a smaller scale, there are craft breweries. Craft breweries produces no more than 2 million gallons of beer per year, and are independently owned. So why the beer lesson? Because we have a craft beer festival coming to Holly Springs!  Beericana is the brainchild of Holly Springs native Wayne Holt and his friend Adam Eshbaugh. Back in June of 2012, a local club was formed. 919 Beer, as they dubbed themselves, started with about 12 guys, meeting the second Wednesday of every month to go to a different craft brewery in the area to sample their beer and tour their brewery. That group still meets every second Wednesday, but now consists of about 45 – 50 people. The 919 Beer club evolved into a company that promotes local brewers, and helps them bring their beer to the local market. On September 27th, the first ever Beericana (http://beericana.com) festival will be held in Holly Springs at Sugg Farm Park.  Beericana is going to be a day of sampling local craft beers and enjoying local music.

The Beer –

Over 40 local craft beers will be setting up shop for the afternoon. Each with their own tent; they will be pouring samples to attendees. There will also be a “newcomers tent”, which are brewers that are in the process of getting their breweries off the ground.  You can get samples here that you can’t get anywhere else. Additional samples will be available to attendees that opt for the VIP admission.

The Music-

Local bands The Honeycutters, Lynda Dawson and Pattie Hopkins, Skinny Bag of Sugar and Dark Water Rising will be performing: The Honeycutters refer to themselves as Appalachian Honky Tonk. The band is formed around lead singer Amanda Anne Platt. They will be traveling from Asheville to play; Lynda and Pattie are based in Raleigh, and are a guitar and violin duo that offer an amazing duet sound, both instrumentally and vocally; Skinny Bag of Sugar is from Carrboro, NC. They offer more rock and funk than some of the other bands performing – a great choice to mix it up; Dark Water Rising is fronted by American Idol Semi-finalist Charly Lowry.  The NC based band has generated an admirable following with Lowry’s smooth voice and insightful lyrics.

Games –

13 Degrees Games will be providing a gaming section at the festival.  Along with cornhole boards, they will be bringing their Tumble Tower (a giant Jenga game), as well as other portable games.

Food-

What’s a festival without food?  12 of your favorite food trucks will be on-hand, serving up some of the finest food in town. There’s a good chance your favorite will be there. Beericana has partenered with  an array of companies to offer safe rides home to attendees that sampled too much to operate a motor vehicle.  Parking will be free, but the safe ride home system is not. A valid photo ID and either your printed ticket or your smartphone with the ticket to be scanned are required for admission. A printed ticket is preferred.

Attendees can bring:

• Folding lawn chair
• Blanket
• Umbrella
• Bottled water (we will also have water available)
• An empty shopping bag (for stickers, coasters, purchased items)

Attendees can NOT bring:

• Dogs or any other pets
• Firearms or other weapons
• Coolers
• Mugs or other drinking vessels
• Food or beverage of any kind, except bottled water
• Anyone under the age of 21