Local Brews Local Grooves

This event went from 4:00pm - 10:30pm. We got there at 6:30pm and had to WAIT for more drink tickets to be brought to the cashier (10 mins) and then we were told HALF of the beer samples were gone! The band that played from 7pm-8:30pm was a COVER band! (that's what you consider Local Grooves?) Ended on a positive note - Darko Gray was very good !!

The venue was very nice. Even with the amount of people there was plenty of room to walk around and very small lines to get beer. The bands were good also. The only one thing I did not like was the beer tabs vs the size of the beer cups. 2 bands had 10 tabs for 25 bucks. That's 2.50 a tab which got you about 3 oz of beer. That is if they even filled the whole thing. Most of the time mine were 1/2 to 3/4 full. So in my case, NO beer is worth 2.50 for 3 oz. Just to review everything the food was awesome. You can use the tabs for the food and that was the better deal.

The House of Blues Anaheim is way too small a venue for this type of event. There were so many people here that you couldn't move. The lines for beer tasting were miserable. Just trying to move around anywhere was a nightmare. You couldn't tell if people were in line or just standing around because it was so packed. On average, it took about 15 to 20 minutes to get through a line for one beer tasting. All ingress/egress points were one-way only. If you walked out of the 2nd floor area to use the restroom, you had to walk all the way around to the opposite door, winding your way through the masses on the patio just to get back inside. It could have been more enjoyable with a lot less people, but when you sell as many tickets as the Fire Marshal will allow, you're not thinking of the enjoyment of your guests. The Observatory (Galaxy Theatre) does such a fantastic job with music festival type events that I would recommend attending their events instead.

I really had a great time and having the chance to see and drink some local Brews that I did not know about was the best part. My Friend Andi & I plan to go next year if they have it again. It was cool have the different bands play through out the House of Blues.

Compared to last year it was great how the bands and breweries were spread out throughout the House of Blues and outside. I was very impressed on the beers that each brewery brought, thank you. HOWEVER, it was way to crowded. This is the only reason I might not attend again.

I really enjoy beer tasting events, especially when live music is involved, but was disappointed with how chaotic this event was. I received a handout when I came in with information about the bands and which room each brewery was located, but the map didn't tell you where each room was in relation to eachother, so we felt that we were on a hunt to find the room we wanted to go to. When I went to buy a wristband for drink tickets (not sure why this wasn't just included in the ticket price), you couldn't figure out where to get in line. The wristbands had to be purchased at the bar, but there were also people who were at the bar to buy drinks so there were a few people who just walked right up to buy wristbands not noticing there was a line of people waiting. The bartenders didn't even notice this so they just let it happen. This was also the case for the brewery and food stands, nobody could tell where to get in line and some people just cut in not knowing there was a line. Because the rooms in HoB are not wide open spaces, it was difficult to walk through the crowds, which included the lines of people waiting for beer/food. I really liked the band that I got to see, but unfortunately couldn't really see any other bands because we were busy waiting in line for food/beer, or waiting in line to get into another room. My suggestion to make this a better event is to either sell less tickets or to put up line dividers to help with determining where to get in line.

I attended the Cleveland's beer fest and you were able to have 20 + samples for approximately the same costs. I didn't attend this event to drink Bud Lights. When the 5 samples ran out, I was forced to buy $9 - $11 beers. You didn't have enough tickets to sample all the Beer Companies that participated - bad planning. The Cleveland Beer Fest was at the Convention center and it also had a few bands and entertainment. So in comparison - I will be going to the Cleveland Beer Fest every year. I doubt if I will attend this event again.