ALTON - Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau will host its first Craft Beverage Festival to celebrate local craft beverage culture.
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From 12–4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, community members are invited to Old Bakery Beer Company in Alton for a day of sampling beverages and food from across the Riverbend region. Several local craft beverage vendors will be present, as will a few restaurants.
“In the Great Rivers and Routes region, there’s amazing wineries, breweries, distilleries, and we even have some nonalcoholic options, too,” said Lindsey Laird, sales manager with Great Rivers and Routes. “This year, it is beer, wine, spirits and nonalcoholic drinks in addition to some really cool food options.”
Laird explained that Great Rivers and Routes previously hosted a Craft Beer Festival, but they quickly realized that the area has “a lot more than just craft beer to offer.” This new iteration of the festival will highlight a wide variety of beverages in the area.
Attendees can sample countless specialty drinks and liquors from different vendors, including Old Bakery Beer Company, Old Herald Brewery and Distillery, Red Rooster Brewery and Distillery, Grafton Winery, Schlafly, Moon Drops, Herbarium, Blue Stem Vodka, Wild Pickins Winery, and Eckerts. Blackbird Bakery, Foxes Boxes, Mother Road Fudge Shop, and Earth Candy will bring food samples.
Andrew Dahle will provide live music. The event takes place in Old Bakery Beer Company’s event space and brewing area, where “all the magic happens,” Laird said. She looks forward to welcoming community members.
Tickets cost $25 for the full experience or $10 for a designated driver experience. Laird noted that there are a lot of great food and nonalcoholic options for designated drivers to enjoy.
“Designated drivers still get to enjoy all the tasty snacks and the nonalcoholic drinks,” she explained. “And then the full ticket, obviously, you get to have all the fun stuff.”
Ticket sales are capped at 250 people, so Laird encourages you to get your tickets today. You can purchase tickets here.
She also suggests downloading the Great Rivers and Routes app, where you can learn more about the local craft beverage culture and find information about different vendors in the area. She noted that Great Rivers and Routes tries to stay up-to-date on events and offerings from each vendor, but the best way is to follow their individual social media pages.
“If you stay connected to those businesses on their websites and their social media, you’re going to find out how rich the craft beverage culture is really quickly,” Laird said.
She expressed her appreciation for the vendors who make the Craft Beverage Festival possible. She said she loves supporting local businesses through events like the festival, and she hopes to see many community members there on Nov. 2 to celebrate the local food and beverage vendors.
“The best part of our job and the favorite part of our entire team is being able to support small locally-owned businesses, big locally-owned businesses, just being able to support that local community,” she said. “The independent folks are the folks that really bring creative, exciting opportunities. It’s just such an honor to be able to create opportunities like this to celebrate what they do and the value that they bring to our region. It takes my breath away.”
Purchase tickets online at the official Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau website at RiversAndRoutes.com.
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