HERE’S HOW AN authentic “happening” starts these days.
Not with an official announcement in the newspaper, not with TV commercials, not with a city government or some agency taking charge, not with some corporation putting up big bucks to sponsor it, not with Ticketmaster selling all the tickets for a hefty, little commission.
Nope, you don’t need any of that.
“Forestville 2015,” coming up this Saturday out at the Forestville Trailhead, discovered a better, simpler, cheaper way of doing things. Through Facebook and word-of-mouth.
In case you haven’t heard about it (and it’s been all but ignored by the Mining Journal and the TV stations), Forestville 2015 is a beer and music festival happening out in the woods this Saturday from noon until 10 pm.
Nine Marquette County bands including Wildhack, Chasin’ Steel, and Frank an Da Beanz will be playing under the huge Arabesque tent that the city owns and hardly ever uses. Artists and artisans will show their wares, Peak Gymnastics will put on a show, Dia de los Tacos and Steinhaus will provide the food.
And oh yeah, Blackrocks, Ore Dock and Cognition will serve up the beer. Thirty brews, more or less. Tickets are $35 for 10 drink tokens.
Ten hours out in the woods with friends, food, music and beer. Yeah, sounds like a pretty good idea. Not only that, but the proceeds go to maintain the trails of the Noquemanon Trail Network.
Blackrocks Brewery and the NTN came up with the idea last winter (probably over a beer or two). They were thinking that Marquette has so many summer weekends booked in town…Why not do something out-of-town but nearby, like 15 minutes away?
The idea was born, and Facebook took it from there.
One little problem: They were planning on selling only 500 tickets. No surprise, they sold out. Now they’re trying to find room for more. You can try to get last minute tickets on the Blackrocks website.
A final thought: Blackrocks may have initiated the idea but had no problem inviting the Ore Dock Brewing Company and Cognition Brewing Company to join in on the fun which, of course they did gladly. Andy Langlois of Blackrocks says they also would have liked to include Marquette County’s three brew pubs as well but licensing for them is different. Maybe next year. The point is, though, these breweries may be competitors but they’re not at all cutthroat. They love working together.
Business, for them, is not a zero sum game. Kinda refreshing.
And it’s working for them. The breweries all seem to be thriving.
And here’s a guess. “Forestville 2015” will be a success, and “Forestville 2016” will be more successful. We could be witnessing the start of something big.
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