John Andrulis, 55, of South Philadelphia, takes a sip of Pinelands Brewing Company’s Swamp Donkey IPA on Saturday afternoon at the Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival.
JOHN RUSSO, Staff Writer
About 14,000 people were expected at this weekend’s Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival inside the Atlantic City Convention Center. The event featured 110 breweries, 64 vendors, nine restaurants and more.
ATLANTIC CITY — John Andrulis, like his T-shirt stated, was in the “pursuit of hoppiness.”
He came to the right place Saturday afternoon.
“I love beer, and I love the Jersey Shore,” said Andrulis, 55, of South Philly, who then took a big sip of his Swamp Donkey IPA sample from Pinelands Brewing Company.
“I’m from Jersey originally, so I like seeing all the small microbreweries.”
Andrulis joined the thousands of beer enthusiasts who filled the Atlantic City Convention Center for the second session of the Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival. This year’s indoor festival was held Friday night, with sessions 2 and 3 following Saturday afternoon and evening. An outdoor version of the festival will be held at Bader Field in July.
One-hundred-and-ten breweries were represented Saturday. Joining them were nine restaurants, 64 vendors, six charities and 12 attractions. Musical acts, including headliners Hot Mullugan (Session 1), Saves the Day (Session2) and Goldfinger (Session 3), were set to perform.
The festival was held inside the convention center for the first time since 2019. Jon Henderson, whose A Good Time Tricycle Production puts on the festival, said they expected about 14,000 people this weekend.
The festival was moved to Bader Field in 2021 and has been held there since. It will return outdoors July 13 with two sessions (noon to 4 p.m. and 6 to 10). The summer sessions tickets are on sale at acbeerfest.com. No festival was held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Henderson joked that with this version of the festival inside the convention center, he didn’t have to look up at the sky constantly as the past few years have shown that having it outdoors means being at the mercy of Mother Nature.
“I’ll wait for July for that to happen,” Henderson said. “I see a lot of familiar faces. People who didn’t want to brave the elements were excited to come back to the convention center.”
Advocating for affordability
Henderson said he always considered doing two festivals a year — one indoors that is heavy on the craft beer and another outdoors in the summer that’s more focused on the lighter refreshments.
“When we took it outside, we kind of split our audience in half,” Henderson said. “Some people just don’t like outside. At the end of the day, the sun’s too hot, the rain’s too wet, whatever that is. So we decided, let’s take it, do a three-month gap, do the April event all beer, all beer, all beer, and then do the July event, more of that beer, bubble, booze with the new (ready-to-drink) craze, the seltzer craze, different summer beers. It led us to create two different experiences.
“... Plus, it’s April. We’ve always been a big kickoff to the spring in Atlantic City. So let’s get back to doing that.”
As Henderson said, a portion of event-goers was thrilled to see the festival return indoors.
Kevin Kolodziej, 35, of Toms River, has been coming to the beer festival since 2009, after he turned 21. He was with a large group of friends who made a weekend of the festival.
“We have a big group. We do Airbnb and stuff,” Kolodziej said. “The prices for rentals always jack up in June. So we always made this a fun, affordable weekend.”
Hearing stories like that is why Henderson enjoyed hosting this event in April. He wanted to draw people while also considering the impact it would have on the consumers’ wallets, he said.
“I am a huge advocate of affordable Atlantic City, which is a challenge,” he said. “Moving it to June since COVID, that was a struggle getting people out, getting them accommodations when it’s kind of already busy (in the resort).”
This expected weekend crowd of about 14,000 was down from the 26,000 it drew in 2019, which used the same two-day, three-session format that April. Henderson attributed that to an economy in which people are holding onto their dollars a little tighter.
He also heard the complaints from prior festivals, from not enough portable toilets to a lack in variety of food options to overcrowding at the entrances.
To help motivate people to want to spend $75 for four hours of beer drinking, he capped the number of tickets sold per session so there is more space for people to move around and for different vendors and games to fill the event floor.
“Beer festivals are all over the place. Ours is probably one of the more expensive, but we offer so much more than everybody else,” Henderson said. “People are watching their wallets, people are drinking differently.”
Guaranteed good time
One of this weekend’s activities was a costume contest judged by the Atlantic City Beard and Mustache Club. Homer Simpson and Duffman enjoyed some samples, as did the Flintstones, a group in track suits, and a handful of Barbies.
Michael David, 44, who grew up in Galloway Township and now lives in Central Jersey, has been coming to the festival every year. His group of friends, which traveled from Maryland and Seattle, dressed up as characters from the Saturday morning cartoons they grew up watching.
“I absolutely love the return indoors,” said David, who was dressed as Lion-o from “ThunderCats.” “It’s a better time of year. You get more people to come out in the spring versus when the summer comes and people get busy with stuff.”
Casey Belamarich has been coming to beer fest almost every year, having done both the convention center and Bader Field events.
“I liked it outside, man. There was fresh air. It’s nice!” said the 32-year-old from Forked River.
Belamarich and his group planned to do Saturday’s early session because it was easier to make the hour drive to and from Ocean County. He likes that Atlantic City’s festival offers more than just beer.
Belamarich took his chance at kicking a soccer ball toward a Velcro target board, and others had fun with a row of pinball machines or trying to survive inflatable obstacle courses.
Liz Walp and Tony Blount, both of Bristol, Pennsylvania, tried their hand at axe throwing. Walp has only ever done the indoors beer fest, and it was Blount’s first time.
“This was a guarantee you’d have a good time with it being inside,” Blount said.
Added Walp, “I really love the food (vendors). It’s been a great time, adult fun.”
PHOTOS: Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival session 2
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John Andrulis, 55, of South Philadelphia, takes a sip of Pinelands Brewing Company’s Swamp Donkey IPA on Saturday afternoon at the Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival.
About 14,000 people were expected at this weekend’s Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival inside the Atlantic City Convention Center. The event featured 110 breweries, 64 vendors, nine restaurants and more.
Welcome to the discussion.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
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Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.