Bockfest 2007

Every year, I make the pilgrimage to New Ulm, Minnesota, for Bockfest held on the grounds of the Schell's Brewery.

This year it was cold. Witch's tit cold. This did not dampen the typical party atmosphere. Everyone there was up for the task at hand, the tedious task of drinking good beer.

The crowd was smaller this year, and I chalked that up to the weather until I got talking to a guy in the bathroom line and he said that the brewery doesn't advertise this event in the Minneapolis and St. Paul papers anymore because too many people were showing up.

This was fine with me. I got my beers in a very timely fashion this time around. The lines did start getting longer as the day progressed, but I'd had enough by then. I just drank my last two on the drive home.

The one thing that did irritate me was that I spent 2 hours in my cold garage the weekend before, making an 11-hole beer board to transport cups of beer from the sales line back to the thirsty patrons that I was there with. When I got to the beer line, they told me that I wouldn't need it. There was a 4-beer minimum per person and they were giving out those disposable, cardboard drink carriers that you get in the drive thru.

Does anyone need an 11-cup beer board?

In the 10 or 11 years that I have been attending this festival, I saw something for the first time. Security escorted someone off the grounds. Everyone that I have met here, has been friendly and polite. This guy, as it turns out, got off of work at 2 a.m., started drinking, showed up at Bockfest at 11 a.m., kept drinking, and was escorted out a 1 p.m. That's a good day no matter who you are.

It's always a good time at Bockfest, and I recommend it to everyone I know. If you want to plan ahead, next year it will be held on February 2nd.

...Drink up.

www.whaletime.net
So hip it'll break your pelvis^TM
© 2007 Whale Time.