The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

August 27, 2008

Brew Fest to leave town

New liquor law inspires decision

By Dan Linehan

MANKATO — Brew Fest will return in 2009, just not to Mankato.

A co-creator of the two-day classic rock and beer festival says the city’s new liquor ordinance caused too many headaches to warrant a fourth show next June.

“Oh, certainly, it’ll happen,” Jim Gehrke said. “It’s just not going to happen in Mankato.”

Brew Fest’s first two years of beer sampling went off without much city interference. Customers paid a ticket charge, and were treated to as many samples, about 3 ounces each, as they wanted.

But last November the City Council passed a far-reaching liquor ordinance ending the practice of all-you-can-drink specials. The context then was rising intoxication levels thought to be caused by bar specials, as well as drinking-related deaths.

At first, Gehrke said, the city told Brew Fest that the new law didn’t affect them.

But by early this year, that stance had changed, he said.

Gehrke said the city took five weeks to tell Brew Fest how it could hold the festival.

During that time, he said, Brew Fest lost a chance to book Willie Nelson. The Marshall Tucker Band headlined instead.

In the concert business, acts typically charge half of their fee before their performance, and the other half afterward. Gehrke said he wasn’t willing to risk the five-figure investment before being told whether or not Brew Fest could happen.

City Manager Pat Hentges disputes that claim, suggesting that Brew Fest organizers were instead receiving responses they didn’t want to hear and went “answer shopping” with different officials to get a preferable deal.

The method to prevent unlimited drinks involved a card that was punched each time a patron took a certain variety of beer.

Gehrke said there were more than 80 types of beers served, so the system, per se, didn’t limit drinking.

But the hassle involved with punching cards made lines go twice as slow, he said.

“It really hurt the quality of the event,” he said.

Gehrke and Hentges offer very different descriptions of how much trouble Brew Fest presented to law enforcement.

Gehrke said Brew Fest was “lumped in” with bars, and only had to kick out two people over the past three years.

But Hentges said the high levels of intoxication were very obvious to police, who had to deal with the drunks after the festival closed.

He said there were fewer problems this year.

Gehrke said he’s not sure where Brew Fest will end up next year. He mentioned Lake Crystal, St. Peter, Rochester and the Twin Cities area as possibilities. Brewfest co-creater Joe Tougas will no longer be involved in the festival, in order to devote more time to writing.

“I only wish we had a documentary crew with us throughout the past three years,” Tougas wrote in an e-mail. “It would easily win best documentary, comedy and drama.”



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