Agreed - in my opinion the thing that could really turn around the event is to convince the NSLC to carry more craft beer from away. Why would a craft brewery spend money to be at a festival when they stand no chance to actually sell beer in that market? I think were it not for Premier and their selection, most of the craft breweries that fall into this category wouldn't show up - maybe I'm wrong about that, but putting on my business hat for a second, I know I wouldn't bother.mr x wrote:I'd say that's half right - I don't see how Propeller is a game changer.
Last year was my first year to actually attend and I went in the afternoon. I honestly can't say I remember the music being too loud but maybe it's different at night. I also recall all the big breweries being deader than dead - people were there to try new (good) stuff as best I could tell. Again, I'm sure the night time crowd is a different story. However, I do see having the mega swill being present as an opportunity to attract folks to an event they otherwise would not have attended where there is craft beer, and who knows, they might even take a break from mega swill to try something good and begin their transition to drinking good beer.
I would like to see the event advertised a little differently - market the afternoon session to the beer geeks. Give the mega swill booths the afternoon off, or even turn it into two separate events - but keep some craft beer there for the swill nights for the reason I mentioned above. Anyhow, I liked the afternoon session enough last year to buy a ticket again this year. However, by the sounds of it, if I had attended an evening session I'd have left pretty pissed off. Hopefully it can evolve into what could potentially be an awesome event - let's face it, it's still the closest thing to a beer festival we've got in Halifax at this point.
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I generally take the approach that I don't write about bad beers, i just write about the good ones. 
If I don't write about it, it probably wasn't appealing to me. If I'm asked for feedback I am brutally honest. And I do tell the brewers when I think they have off beers for sale somewhere. They have never reacted negatively, other than sometimes replying with something like: "We've tested it and there is no DMS problem!" They always say thanks for telling me (they may, privately, call me a dick, but I don't really care about that. Sometimes I am a little bit like Jeff 
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