Brewery Check-in & Set up: Friday, September 30, 2022, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Festival: Saturday, October 1, 2022

• VIP entry is at 12:00 PM
• GA entry is at 2:00 PM
• Last call is at 6:15 PM
• Festival closes at 6:30 PM

Location: Fiesta Gardens, Austin, Texas (at Edward Rendon, Sr. Metro Park)

During the Festival

We want everyone to feel safe and included at the Texas Craft Brewers Festival.

We ask that all participants:

• Keep it considerate
• Choose safety
• Sip responsibly

Harassment, violence, and abusive language toward other guests and festival employees have no place here. Festival officials may ask anyone to leave, and will report unsafe or illegal activity to the appropriate authorities. For health and safety support on the Festival grounds:

• Medical attention is available in the EMS tent.
• Austin Police Department is on site during the festival. If you are in danger, witness or experience a crime, please alert authorities at the nearest exit gate or call 911.
• Stop Abuse for Everyone (SAFE) supports survivors of different types of violence and abuse. Visit the SAFE booth at the Festival to learn more about their work to promote healthy relationships. Anyone can find support anytime through the confidential, 24-hour SAFEline:
  • Call: 512.267.SAFE (7233)
  • Text: 737.888.SAFE (7233)
  • Chat: safeaustin.org/chat

If you witness or experience an incident during the Festival that violates the participant expectations described above, please report it to us.

As a Guild Member

We celebrate beer in positive, supportive ways for all. In order for that to happen, we need to create a safe space built on trust and mutual respect. The Guild will not tolerate any forms of discrimination, harassment, assault, threats of assault, sexual harassment, sexual assault, threats of sexual assault, damage to property, theft of property or services, inappropriate behavior towards brewery staff or ticketed attendees, or any other behavior that is illegal, unethical, or reflects poorly on us as a festival or community. We ask that all members use good judgment to make safe choices at all times. The Guild makes no warranty, express or implied, about the guaranteed participation of any staff, volunteers, attendees, or sponsors.

Identifying Abuse, Human Trafficking, and Upstander Strategies

We work with Stop Abuse For Everyone (SAFE) to equip our festival leadership team with tools and strategies to make sure we are providing a safe, inclusive environment for everyone. If you’d like to learn more about the prevalence of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual assault; identifying potential red flags; and some techniques for intervention, please take a look at the slides provided below. Please be mindful that it may not always be safe or in the victim’s best interest to intervene. Visit the SAFE outreach booth at the festival to learn more about their prevention and survivor support resources and how you can get involved.

Blue Owl Brewing Company serves as the concessionaire for the Festival. That means all beer for service at the Festival is purchased by Blue Owl (not the Guild).

After the beers have been selected for the festival by the Planning Committee, representatives from Blue Owl will contact brewery participants or their distributor to arrange a beer order. At that time, beer quantities and keg sizes for each brewery will be finalized. All beer ordered for the festival must be in 1/4bbl or 1/6bbl kegs.

When the Festival closes on Saturday evening, breweries will check out and settle up with Blue Owl for the kegs that were tapped during the event. Check out takes place in the Pavilion.

Spread the Word on Social Media

Let your fans know that you’ll be at the Festival and which beers you’re bringing out! Below are the official Festival channels and event hashtag to help with your digital musings.

#TXbrewfest

Ticket Giveaways

We ask that breweries do not hold public or social media contests to give away tickets to the Texas Craft Brewers Festival. We have negotiated special deals with our Co-Presenting sponsors to be the exclusive ticket giveaway channels for festival tickets. Please help us keep these generous sponsors happy and share your tickets with team members, friends and family. Thank you!

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM Brewery check-in at the park pavilion on the west side of the festival grounds

2:00 PM Titan & God level sponsors tents set up deadline

FRIDAY, September 30, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Please refer to the Brewery Booth Checklist for required and suggested items you are responsible for bringing.

Brewery check-in is the day before the festival. All breweries are required to come to Fiesta Gardens on Friday to check in and set up, at which time you can:

• Pick up your tickets
• Drop off the required Health & Fire Department items at your booth
• Get a jump on set-up; tents and tables will be in place by Friday, and security is set for overnight.
• Drop off all your festival materials a day in advance
• Drop off branded merchandise (t-shirts and hats only) for consignment sales during the festival
• Titan and God level Sponsoring Breweries: please have your branded tents set up by 2PM on Friday. This is needed so we can complete the Fire Department walk-through.

Beer Delivery & Overnight Storage

• Out-of-town self-distributed breweries should bring their beer to Friday Check In. Secure, refrigerated overnight storage is provided. If you cannot Check in and deliver beer on Friday, you must make arrangements with Festival and concessionaire staff to do so on Saturday morning.
• Local breweries and distributed breweries should bring their beer on Saturday morning but must still check in at the Pavilion on Friday.
• All self-distributed breweries should have an invoice prepared for the concessionaire at the time that beer is delivered to the festival. For breweries using a distributor, the concessionaire will work directly with the distributor for the beer order and invoice.

Late check-in for Breweries (for very limited cases). You are required to check-in on Friday. If you absolutely cannot check in on Friday, you must contact Guild staff at info@texascraftbrewersguild.org to pre-arrange Saturday morning check-in. For Saturday check-in, you need to arrive between 8:30 AM and 9:00 AM. 

Brewer Load-in Entrance

• FRIDAY ONLY: At the parking area off Chicon Street south of Jesse E. Segovia Street
• FRIDAY & SATURDAY: At the gate on the North Side of the park along Jesse E. Segovia Street east of Chicon Street

Participating Breweries

Each brewery is slotted alphabetically under shared tents, which wrap around the grounds. You will be assigned to a location and provided:

• An exact 10’x10’ slot (your “booth”)
• One 8’ table at the front of the booth for serving attendees
• One 8′ table in the back of the booth for jockey boxes and equipment
• Ice upon keg delivery Saturday and continuously throughout the day
• 8ft Festival signage listing your beers

Titan & God level Breweries

You are expected to bring your own branded tents (10’ x 20” for Titan, 10’ x 10’ for God). Titan and God sponsor tent locations surround the pavilion. You will receive a festival site map with booth assignments ahead of the festival. Your booth will be supplied with tables and signage that is commensurate with your level of sponsorship.

Overnight Beer Storage

All beer for out-of-town, self-distributing breweries being delivered on Friday will be loaded onto a reefer truck and stored overnight. On Saturday, beers will be checked out of the reefer to brewery representatives by festival staff only. If your distributor is bringing your beer, please ask them to deliver Saturday morning between 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM. Back-up kegs can be stored on the reefer truck.

On Friday, breweries should stage jockey boxes and draught equipment, hang additional signage, and decorate your booth as you see fit. Do not obstruct the festival banner provided for you in the front of your tent space. Grounds will be patrolled by security overnight.  

Please refer to the Brewery Booth Checklist for required and suggested items you are responsible for bringing.

If your brewery plans to sell merch through festival consignment, you must complete the Brewery Merchandise Consignment Registration form before September 30th, and bring your merchandise to Friday check-in. Merch volunteers will be on hand to receive, inventory, and store your wares overnight. Merchandise that has not been pre-registered online may not be accepted.

All brewery merchandise is sold at a common merchandise tent staffed by Festival personnel who are in charge of selling merchandise. Pricing is pre-set by the festival at $25/item including tax. All sales proceeds are split 40% festival/60% brewery. The festival will cover sales tax from our end.

Each brewery may bring T-SHIRTS & HATS ONLY. No glassware is allowed due to a City of Austin park restriction. Please see the merch form for allowed quantities.

Check out at the Merch Tent after the festival closes to receive your merch payout before you leave. The Festival will track sales and, at the end of the day, you are responsible for signing off on the final inventory with our merch leader. You can pick up your payout (by check) and whatever unsold merch is still at the merch tent. Out-of-town breweries will be prioritized during check-out. Payout checks for merchandise sales may require about three weeks if they need to be mailed. If you leave without checking out with the merch team and retrieving your inventory, your sales and remaining merch may be considered a festival donation (thank you very much).

Please share this timeline with all of your brewery representatives who will be involved with the festival.

Saturday, October 1

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Brewery set-up. Set-up must be complete with beer ready for service by 10:00 AM.

9:00 AM   Green Room opens with breakfast tacos for brewers and sponsors (booth must be set up first!)

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Food vendor check-in and set-up

11:45 AM  All brewers out of Green Room for VIP Session

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM VIP session / GREEN ROOM CLOSED    

2:00 PM – 6:30 PM   GA session / GREEN ROOM RE-OPENS TO BREWERS

6:15 PM Last Call

6:30 PM – 7:15 PM Service Ends – Untap all kegs / Merch check-out; settle up with Blue Owl

6:45 PM   Brewer tear down begins

At Friday check-in, you will receive 4 BREWER Tickets that are good for all-day access to the festival on Saturday, including Green Room access. Your brewery representatives who are working your booth should bring these tickets to Brewer/Sponsor check-in (located on the North side of the park along Jesse Segovia) on Saturday morning to go through security/entry protocols, check-in, and redeem these tickets for wristbands. Each attendee will also receive a corresponding 21+ wristband, taster cup, and drink tickets at that time.

The person who picks up your tickets on Friday is responsible for distributing them to brewery staff and representatives. If you neglect to distribute these credentials to your staff in advance of the festival, YOU will be responsible for meeting them outside of the festival gates to give them their tickets so they can proceed to Brewer/Sponsor check-in. Please do not exit through the main entrance gate to meet your representatives, especially after 2:00 PM. Exit through the exit gate located at the north side of the park by the merch booth. Meet your representatives, then re-enter through the neighboring Brewer/Sponsor entrance gate.

Need more tickets for your team?

Distributors

Your distributor is allowed to drop off beer on Saturday morning and will receive SETUP wristbands which allow them access to the park before 11AM, but not during the festival’s open hours. Absolutely no distributor delivery/service vehicles are allowed within the festival grounds on Saturday. If you have a distributor representative that needs to be at the park all day, their credentials need to come from your BREWER wristband allocation.

Green Room Access

Brewer wristbands will also grant access to the Brewer Green Room. The Brewer Green Room is at capacity. While we’d love to accommodate requests for additional passes, we cannot. Please respect the situation and do not put volunteers or other staff in a difficult position by requesting that other people be allowed in. Only people with BREWER (4 per participating brewery) or SPONSOR VIP wristbands will be allowed past the security checkpoint to the Green Room.

NO ONE without a ticket/wristband will be allowed onto the festival grounds Saturday morning.

All beer should be set up and ready to serve by 10:00 AM.

Ideally, the only items you will need to bring on to the grounds on Saturday are your required entry items (ticket & ID for age verification) and your kegs of beer. All additional set-up should be completed on Friday. Kegs may be loaded in at the north gate by Brewer/Sponsor Check-in between 9:00 & 10:00 AM. Please plan enough time for safe unload, and to either carry or dolly (remember your hand-truck) your beer onto and off of the festival grounds. Again, Friday load-in is required to streamline Saturday morning set-up.

Draft Issues & Trouble Shooting

Custom Draft, an Allied Trade member that specializes in designing, installing, and maintaining draught systems, will be on-site and available to assist you for the duration of the festival. They are tasked with helping you solve any draught issues throughout the day, which should ease your need to have a distributor representative present for the full day. Custom Draft will not set up your beer. They will provide support and trouble shooting ONLY.

Ice for Kegs

All ice is provided to participants by the Festival. Ice will be delivered as quickly as possible to all breweries once kegs are in place. Festival staff will distribute ice at the beginning of the day, and as needed throughout festival hours. If you need ice after set up, please notify your Beer Captain so they can order it for you.

Park Access and Wristbands

When you come to the park on Saturday morning, please have your ticket and ID ready to show at Brewer/Sponsor check-in on the North side of the park in order to receive your wristband and obtain entry. The person who picks up your tickets on Friday is responsible for distributing them to brewery staff and representatives. If you neglect to distribute these credentials to your staff in advance of the festival, YOU will be responsible for meeting them outside of the festival gates to give them their tickets so they can proceed to Brewer/Sponsor check-in.

If you need additional people to help you set up (i.e. more than the four BREWER tickets your brewery receives, or team members from your distributor), they will be able to come to the Brewer Check-In line and ask for a SETUP wristband. People wearing these wristbands will be able to help you with setup in the morning between 9:00 and 11:00 AM. They will all be asked to leave the grounds by 11:00 AM.

Only FOOT TRAFFIC will be allowed on Saturday before AND after the festival. Absolutely no brewery vehicles will be allowed in on Saturday due to high traffic and safety concerns. Please note: There may be exceptions made for sponsors and participants with pre-approved mobile units. In other words, just because you see a vehicle on the grounds does not mean you are allowed to drive on the grounds.

Pour Size: Sample pours should never exceed THREE ounces.

Each Texas Craft Brewers Festival ticket holder receives 10 x 3 oz. samples with their initial entry ticket (except for the Designated Driver ticket). Additional tickets are available for purchase at a very reasonable rate. Taster cups have a 3 oz. line; pours should not exceed that. Please be aware of and respect this sample size. The volunteers in your booth will be asked to be strict about the sample size. Please help them enforce this limit.

Please don’t interfere with the volunteers pouring your beer.

We understand that it seems natural for you to be in your booth during the festival. However, we have beer captains, bar backs, and other personnel inside and behind the booths making the festival work. When possible, please stay in front of your booth to talk about your beer with the attendees. Do not let non-brewery personnel behind the booths (that means friends, family, etc.). PLEASE DO NOT CONGREGATE BEHIND THE BOOTHS.

Keep Lines Moving

Help us keep lines moving by posting a brewery rep at the back of your line talking to attendees about your beers and which to order BEFORE they get to the booth. We can’t let people congregate up front once they have a beer. Mingling with attendees is encouraged but do so at the back of the line or off to the side.

Working with Volunteers

• As a brewer, DO NOT pour yourself a beer. TABC prohibits this. Your volunteers may pour beers for you (for a ticket). Please allow them to do their job.
• All festival volunteers are technically temporary employees of Blue Owl Brewing. Please let the Blue Owl team and the festival organizers manage the volunteers. We have lead-volunteers (Beer Captains) who will communicate with the pouring volunteers about taking breaks, end of shift, etc. Please do not tell one of your volunteers they are not needed in the booth anymore.
• Educate your volunteers about your beer. Be descriptive and mention and critical characteristics you would like them to pass along to the attendees.
• If you have a problem with a volunteer, please let a Beer Captain know so we can take care of the situation.
• Do not offer Green Room passes to your volunteers or promise them food from the Green Room. If you want to do something nice for your volunteers – feel free to give them t-shirts, hats, pins, patches, etc. (no glassware). Brewery swag goes a long way in making a brewery fan. 

Back-up Kegs & Tappings 

With more than 200 kegs pouring throughout the course of the day, this year we are trying to reduce keg waste by requesting 1/4bbl or 1/6bbl kegs. Determinations about providing backup kegs will be made on a case-by-case basis. Please do not supply a backup keg unless requested by the Festival concessionaire, Blue Owl. The decision to tap a backup keg is the sole discretion of the concessionaire. Backup kegs will not be tapped after 5:30pm.

VIP Session runs from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM on Saturday

Volunteers will not take tickets for all-day beers during the VIP session, and will serve smaller 2 oz pours. Rotating Tap beers that are poured during this time WILL require tickets and be served as regular 3 oz pours.

The VIP session sets the Texas Craft Brewer Festival apart from any other. Attendees pay a premium to meet brewers and discuss the beers they are sampling in an intimate, casual environment. Please have at least one brewery rep available in front of your tent for the duration of the VIP session to talk to adoring fans. NO BREWER SHOULD BE IN THE GREEN ROOM DURING VIP. Any brewer in the Green Room will be asked to leave at 11:45 in order to participate in the VIP session.

The Brewer Green Room, adjacent to the main festival, is a dedicated area where brewers and sponsors can mingle throughout the festival day. Opening during morning setup, breakfast is provided, along with indoor restrooms, air conditioning, snacks, and cold beer. 

Only BREWER (4 per participating brewery) and SPONSOR VIP ticket-holders will be allowed entry to the Green Room. The Brewer Green Room is at capacity. While we’d love to accommodate requests for additional passes, we cannot. Please respect the situation and do not put volunteers or other staff in a difficult position by requesting that other people be allowed in.

Green Room Beer

Please bring canned beer to share with your fellow brewers and sponsors in the Green Room. Cans are required as glass is not allowed in the park. Please, no bottles or draught beer in the Green Room. We will have coolers and troughs with ice to store the packaged beer. You can drop off Green Room beers starting at 9:00 AM on Saturday. Finally, please bring a generous amount, if you can. All beer left over at the end of the festival will go to the offices of our lobbyists, the Cross Oak Group. This beer goes a long way toward furthering our legislative agenda and opening doors in the Capitol.

Last Call for samples is at 6:15 PM. Absolutely NO beer should be poured after 6:30 PM.

Booth Tear Down begins at 6:45 PM.

Even if you run out of beer before then, we request that you help us maintain the festival atmosphere by leaving your booth intact until tear down actually begins. Use any delay to settle up with Blue Owl and settle up at the Merch Tent.

Make sure you take all your brewery’s equipment, supplies, and remaining giveaways. We cannot offer overnight storage on Saturday. Anything left behind on the festival grounds Saturday night will be disposed of during tear down and load out.

Beer Payment

Blue Owl Brewing has the license for the event and serves as the official festival concessionaire for beer purchasing. Please invoice them for the total amount of beer you bring. At the end of the night, Blue Owl will settle up and invoices will need to be adjusted for beer that was not tapped. Again, no beer can be tapped by the breweries; only a beer captain is allowed to tap a keg.

Merch Checkout

Check out at the Merch Tent after the festival closes to receive your merch payout before you leave. The Festival will track sales and, at the end of the day, you are responsible for signing off on the final inventory with our merch leader. You can pick up your payout (by check) and whatever unsold merch is still at the merch tent. Out-of-town breweries will be prioritized during check-out. Payout checks for merchandise sales may require about three weeks if they need to be mailed. If you leave without checking out with the merch team and retrieving your inventory, your sales and remaining merch may be considered a festival donation (thank you very much). Make sure to register your merch for consignment by September 30 and bring your merch to Friday checkin!