One of Good Time Tricycle Production’s oldest and most popular events is its annual Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival, taking place on Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5. And the folks at Good Time Tricycle are adapting to these unprecedented times: for the second year in a row, the event will take place outside at the sprawling former airport, Bader Field, giving people ample space to remain socially distant.
“After COVID restrictions were lifted on gatherings and during the 2021 event season, we noticed a dynamic shift in where people wanted to be and how they wanted to celebrate together,” festival producer Jon Henderson said. “A lot of the feedback we received was outdoors is a must. With a festival of this magnitude, keeping the event outside on Bader Field was a no-brainer; it felt better, it felt like a festival in the open-air.” Henderson and his crew want to make sure that no one has to miss out on the premier beer festival of the East Coast.
Festival producer Jon Henderson
The festival will feature more than 120 breweries, including Ship Bottom Brewery, Founders Brewing, and Allagash Brewing Company, all of whom are local to the region. “It’s a celebration of beer,” Henderson said. “But it’s also an opportunity for discovery. There’s always that new craft beer or that new brewery that you haven’t tried yet. We want people to go make new discoveries. There’s always an opportunity to expand your beer palate.”
The Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival is dedicated to craft beer and the opportunity to highlight the best in craft brewing. Beer enthusiasts (and beginners) will have the chance to taste classics side by side, try new releases, and ask brew masters and brewery team members any beer-related questions you may have. The goal of the festival is to promote and educate attendees on craft beer. Festival producers want attendees to go on a beer journey, bravely venturing to new breweries, as well as enjoying their good old classics.
Beer is not the only thing being celebrated at this renowned festival. Fourteen musical acts will be on board to help keep the party going. With musical acts like Alkaline Trio featuring Thrice performing the first night and New Found Glory with Four Years Strong coming on for the second night, the soundtrack to this festival will not disappoint. And as always with the Good Time Tricycle crew, promoting local, home-grown artists is paramount: the festival will have an acoustic stage, featuring eight local artists unplugged.
But don’t think that this festival will stop with beer and music. The festival’s producers have developed it in such a way that it will feel like a carnival. With world-famous cuisine from staple Atlantic County restaurants, educational seminars, sideshow acts, hot wing eating contests, Silent Disco, hatchet throwing, sip and paint, and keg tossing, the fun will literally be non-stop. There will be something for every member of the family to enjoy.
As if all that isn’t enough, the Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival will see the return of its ever-popular beer run, Hops Trot 5K. Started in 2016, the fun run has turned into one of the most popular events of the festival, as hundreds of runners explore the boardwalk course and end in the festival’s session ahead of the masses. The 2022 Hops Trot will take place Sunday, June 5 at 10 a.m., starting at Ocean Casino Resort. This fun run will send racers down the boardwalk to some of Atlantic City’s favorite pubs, where they can sip on a little beer at each stop, before ending on Bader Field just in time for Session 2 of The Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival. The festival producers encourage everyone to show up in costume!
Started in 2006 with 3,000 people and less than 30 breweries, the original Atlantic City Beer Festival or “Celebration of the Suds” has undergone countless changes over the past 16 years, adding close to 100 breweries to the roster, and to date has seen nearly half a million people. The festival does about $7 million in economic impact for the region. This festival is surely not to be missed.
General admission tickets are $70 in advance (plus taxes and fees) and can be purchased online at www.acbeerfest.com. Tickets are also available at Joe Canal’s Discount Liquor Outlets on Fire Road in Northfield or Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township.
— Dani Fleischer
