Untappd Beer Festival returns

What’s happening: The single-day, two-session festival returns for the first time since 2019 after the pandemic forced organizers to cancel in 2020 and 2021.

Flashback: Untappd had the makings of a wildly popular spring festival in 2019. 

• It had the venue: Bank of America Stadium. 
• It had people’s attention: 176 breweries and 12,500 tickets sold–a sellout.
• Then it had people’s anger, all over social media, to the point it issued a public explanation. 

Attendees were promised a “souvenir sampling glass.” Instead, they received plastic cups, and as they broke, Untappd didn’t have enough to replace them all. 

• Storms damped the day, forcing people to evacuate the field.
• Even without weather issues, people complained about breweries not having beer available right away.
• Untappd refunded people about $120,000, as Axios’ Katie Peralta Soloff reported. 

Yes, but: This time organizers have a venue with an indoor alternative. Everything will move into the adjacent Grady Cole Center if needed.  

• They’re also promising a souvenir tasting cup, again, which Next Glass, parent company of Untappd, vice president of festivals & live events, Talia Spera told me is one of their top priorities.
• They worked with govino to create the cups, which claims to be shatterproof. 
• “We have tested them and physically dropped them from rooftops to see if they would smash,” Spera said. “We’ve ran things over them. They do not [smash].” 

Zoom out: Spera joined Next Glass in December 2019, several months after the debacle in Charlotte, an event that was outsourced to a third party on behalf of Untappd.

The biggest difference this time around is everything is being done in-house, and they went about assembling a team who can do it, Spera said.

• Spera has worked in live entertainment for over a decade, with her latest stop at MGM Resorts International. Think the Aerosmith residency in Las Vegas. That’s her background.
• They also brought on Kathryn Porter Drapeau as manager of event operations. Drapeau spent 19 years with the Brewers Association putting on events.

“If we don’t produce a leading beer festival in the industry and if we don’t leave our attendees walking out of that festival thinking ‘that was one of the top five beer festivals I’ve ever been to,’ we failed,” Spera said.

What to expect: Live music and unlimited beer samples from more than 100 breweries, including Weathered Souls Brewing Co., Olde Mecklenburg Brewery and Free Range Brewing, according to the event website.

• They’re still working out the lineup of musicians, but to expect regional acts, Spera told me.

Details: The first session runs from 11am until 3:30pm for VIP admission and 12-3:30pm for general admission.

• The second session runs 5:30-10pm for VIPs and 6:30-10pm for general. 

What’s next: Tickets go on sale March 25 at 9am. General admission costs $60 and VIP is $150. 

My thought bubble: Previously, Untappd Beer Festival felt like Charlotte’s micro version of Fyre Festival. Hopefully, it will have better luck this time around.

Separately: American Legion Memorial Stadium underwent a $40.5 million overhaul, reopening to the public in July 2021. A representative from Mecklenburg County, which manages the facility, told me Untappd is scheduled as the second non-sports related event for the stadium since it reopened.

• The first will be a Freedom House Church concert on April 10.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with input from Next Glass and Mecklenburg County.