An important message for those who encountered delays entering Winterfest

9th Annual Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest logo

As the nonprofit trade association representing Indiana’s craft brewing community, we at the Brewers of Indiana Guild appreciate everyone who joined us at our annual Winterfest fundraiser on Saturday.

We understand that a significant number of attendees waited outside for an excessively long period of time on a cold February afternoon, which is completely unacceptable. For that we are truly sorry.

We encountered difficulties with our ticket provider’s scanning system, which caused delays in getting many attendees inside in a timely manner.

We are committed to making this right for those who lost valuable sampling time at the festival and for those who chose to not continue to wait and missed the festival completely.

The first step of this was extending the serving time by 15 minutes, but this was by no means our only way of addressing the horrible experience had by those who waited patiently and well beyond what we deem acceptable.

Rest assured that we are also working to improve our internal processes and reviewing the situation with our ticket provider to ensure these difficulties don’t happen again in the future.

While we maintain the same no-refunds policy as most other event organizers, we recognize that the difficulties we faced resulted in many local beer lovers being unable to enjoy the festival to its fullest, and we are able to offer the following.

Please note that we are still reviewing a substantial amount of ticket data, and the ticket offers below won’t be immediately available. We thank you for your patience.

For those who didn’t get into Winterfest until after 3:30 p.m. (half an hour after General Admission entry began):

We recognize that your opportunity to enjoy the festival was cut substantially short, and we hope you will join us again at a future festival.

We are reviewing ticket scanning data and will be emailing discounted presale codes for future Brewers of Indiana Guild beer festivals to everyone who purchased Winterfest tickets from us via Etix but didn’t get in until after 3:30 p.m.

Those who purchased tickets via Etix and didn’t have their Winterfest tickets scanned until after 3:30 p.m. will have the option to purchase discounted tickets to either the 22nd Annual Indiana Microbrewers Festival (“IMF”, Saturday, July 29, 2017 at Military Park in Indianapolis) or the 10th Annual Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest (date to be determined) via an exclusive presale link two weeks before tickets go on sale to the general public. We are still working on confirming a date and location for our annual Bloomington Craft Beer Festival and unable to offer discounts toward this event.

The discounted tickets will be $10 for a General Admission ticket to either fest, and the code will be good for the same number of tickets purchased for this year’s Winterfest.

For example, if you purchased 4 tickets to Winterfest and take advantage of the discounted $10 tickets for a future fest, you’ll effectively be receiving three free tickets for the price of one regular $40 GA ticket.

The availability of your discounted tickets will be guaranteed during the two-week presale window (dates to be determined).

We want to ensure that our festivals continue to benefit our charity partners, so each discounted $10 ticket provides $3 for Joy’s House (our charity partner for Winterfest) or the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Indiana (charity partner for IMF).

We’re still tallying fundraising numbers from this year’s event. In 2015 and 2016, Winterfest raised $40,000 for Joy’s House, significantly supporting their scholarship fund. The 2016 IMF raised more than $13,000 for LLS.

$3 of the discounted $10 ticket will also go to the Brewers of Indiana Guild’s legislative fund, which allows our nonprofit to support legislation that benefits Indiana breweries as well as consumers. This fund makes efforts such as Sunday growler sales at breweries possible. The remainder of the $10 discounted ticket price will go towards ticket processing fees.

Please note that the discounted ticket offer will be sent to the person who purchased tickets from us via Etix. If a friend or family member purchased your ticket, please reach out to them to coordinate purchase of your discounted ticket. If you purchased tickets for friends or family, please let them know about the discount offer that you’ll receive.

We will announce general public ticket sales for both events later this year on our website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and IN Brew News, so if you hear that public tickets are on sale but you haven’t received your discounted ticket code, please search your inbox and spam folder for the email and contact us if you don’t find it.

For those who left because of the long wait, or purchased a Designated Driver ticket that was scanned after 3:30 p.m.:

You will receive the same number of complimentary tickets that you purchased but didn’t use for Winterfest for your choice of either the 22nd Annual Indiana Microbrewers Festival (“IMF”, Saturday, July 29, 2017 at Military Park in Indianapolis) or next year’s Winterfest. We are still working on confirming a date and location for our annual Bloomington Craft Beer Festival and unable to offer complimentary tickets toward this event.

For example, if you purchased 4 General Admission tickets to Winterfest and didn’t use any of them, you will receive a ticket code and link for 4 tickets to either the next IMF or next year’s Winterfest. If you purchased 4 GA tickets and used 2, you’ll receive 2 complimentary tickets to your choice of IMF or the next Winterfest.

You will receive the link for your complimentary tickets two weeks before tickets go on sale to the general public. The availability of your complimentary tickets will be guaranteed during the two-week presale window (dates to be determined).

We will announce public ticket sales for both events later this year on our website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and IN Brew News, so if you hear that tickets are on sale but you haven’t received your discounted ticket code, please search your inbox and spam folder for the email.

Only the person who purchased tickets for Winterfest via Etix will receive the emailed link to the complimentary tickets, so please let the others in your party know about this offer.

If a friend or family member purchased tickets for you, please let them know if you’d like them to redeem your complimentary ticket(s) for you. Only those who purchased tickets via Etix will be able to redeem this offer through their email address.


Again, we are truly sorry for the unfortunate delays that many experienced at Winterfest.

We strive to represent Indiana’s craft brewing community professionally and are dedicated to making future festivals as enjoyable as possible for everyone involved.

Please feel free to contact us with questions or concerns. Thank you for your support of Indiana brewers.

Cheers,

The Brewers of Indiana Guild

Rob Caputo
Executive Director

Tristan Schmid
Communications Director

Iris Dillon
Events Coordinator

No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

Indiana Brewers Guild