Earlier this month, Valley craft beer drinkers were happy to learn Real, Wild & Woody, the Southwest’s largest indoor beer festival, would return this summer after a two-year hiatus due to covid-19.
They were less happy that the event, which had been held at the Phoenix Convention Center downtown since 2015, is moving 35 miles to Bell Bank Park in southeast Mesa.
The recently opened sports complex, adjacent to Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport, also hosted the return of the state’s premier beer festival, the Arizona Strong Beer Festival, in February after a decade at Steele Indian School Park in north central Phoenix.
‘‘I’m closer to Lake Pleasant and Vegas!’’ a Phoenix resident commented on social media.
‘‘Can’t help but feel like it’s catering to people in the far southeast Valley,’’ wrote another.
‘‘Just catch a flight from Sky Harbor to Mesa Gateway if it’s too far to drive,’’ someone joked.
The seventh annual Real, Wild & Woody – which showcases cask beers, Brettanomyces yeast beers, and barrel-aged beers – will run from 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6.
Arizona Strong Beer Festival
Rob Fullmer (pictured below), executive director of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild, which organizes the RW&W and Strong Beer fests, says the moves were made for financial reasons.
In the case of Strong Beer, contracts for the 2022 event had to be signed in mid-2021 at a time Gov. Doug Ducey was relaxing covid restrictions on venues but cities were pushing back by threatening their own measures.
Rather than run the costly risk of Phoenix shutting down the festival at one of its city-owned parks at the last minute, the guild opted to move it to the privately owned Bell Bank Park.
As the first major event held at the sprawling complex, which opened in late January, the guild also was able to establish an early relationship with the venue that Fullmer hopes will have future benefits.
As for any concerns about what impact the switch might have on attendance, Fullmer says this year’s Strong Beer Festival drew the same number of attendees as the 2020 event held in Phoenix just before the covid pandemic hit the state.
The downside? The festival only made a third of its previous profit due to huge increases in other expenses. Portable restrooms, for example, are three times more expensive than in 2020, Fullmer says.
Real, Wild & Woody
The moving of RW&W was the result of slightly different financial considerations. Mainly, after two years of covid-related shutdowns, the non-profit guild’s coffers are drained.
‘‘We’d love to put ourselves back in our 2019 shoes when we had a huge bank account and we didn’t care what it cost to get something done,’’ Fullmer says, ‘‘We don’t have that money anymore.’’
Putting on a festival in downtown Phoenix always has been expensive, and it’s become even more so with the influx of new restaurants, bars, and retail stores in recent years.
‘‘We were the only festival there (at the convention center) in 30 years, and nobody has done anything since,’’ Fullmer says. ‘‘That should tell you it’s not easy for someone to just walk in there and do it.’’
The guild spent up to $150,00o each year putting on RW&W and cleared about $20,000. Compare that to the guild’s annual Baja Beer Festival, which costs $15,000 out of pocket but makes $30,000, at the Tucson Convention Center.
Fullmer expects RW&W’s attendance to be down next weekend – partly reflecting an overall summer slump in Arizona’s craft beer industry – but still be slightly profitable.
‘‘If you’re gonna do an indoor festival, there’s only about six places you can do it,’’ he says. ‘‘And the big sports stadiums are heavily contracted and very difficult to work with.’’
‘‘Our choices were to do it there (Bell Bank Park) or not do it at all.’’
Looking ahead
As for the future, Fullmer isn’t sure what’s next for the guild’s beer festivals.
‘‘No contracts have been signed for next year yet,’’ he says. ‘‘We’re still in uncharted territory.’’
In the meantime, the guild is working on other events. It launched a successful Wickenburg Oktoberfest last fall, and is planning a yet-to-be-announced October event with Phoenix Magazine outside the Arizona Cardinals stadium in Glendale.
The guild’s annual brewers conference held at a downtown Phoenix hotel in conjunction with RW&W has been moved to October at a site to be determined. Fullmer hopes it will pave the way for a bid for the national Craft Brewers Conference.
And he’s not closing the door on a return to downtown Phoenix.
‘‘Here’s the long and short of it: We’d love to do something downtown in Phoenix again,’’ Fullmer says. ‘‘We’d love to be able to afford it or work something out.
‘‘We’d love to do the festival (RW&W) there but, economically, given two years of not doing any events, it’s not worth putting the entire guild at risk. Our mission is not that.
‘‘If we’re going to have it, we’re going to have it in, at this point, the one place where it makes sense.’’
