Burbank Beer Festival returns Saturday
Verenice Salazar of San Dimas dons a pair of beer goggles at the Burbank Beer Festival, in this file photo taken on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015.
Some of the craft-beer breweries from around the state and across the country will convene in downtown Burbank on Saturday for the city’s second annual Burbank Beer Festival.
More than 85 varieties of beer will be on tap from local breweries, such as Golden Road Brewing, Angel City Brewery, Stone Brewing Co. and House Beer, said Mary Hamzoian, economic development manager for Burbank. She oversees the Downtown Burbank Partnership, which is putting on the event with the California Beer Festival.
The beer-centric event was started as a way to promote downtown Burbank and attract residents and tourists to that stretch of San Fernando Boulevard, from Magnolia Boulevard to Angeleno Avenue.
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Festivalgoers sample the Pacific Coast Hopliner IPA at the Burbank Beer Festival, in this file photo taken on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015.
The beer festival will be set up in two tasting sessions, the first from noon to 3 p.m. and the other from 4 to 7 p.m. Tickets for either session is $45 per person.
“We hope that after the sessions are done that we drive you into the restaurants to eat and enjoy the rest of your day,” Hamzoian said.
In 2013, organizers originally called the event OktoBURfest and in the first year sold about 300 tickets. The event quickly grew in popularity, with about 600 tickets purchased in 2014.
The Downtown Burbank Partnership teamed up with the California Beer Festival in 2015 and changed the name of the event to the Burbank Beer Festival. As the popularity of craft beers has risen over the years, so did attendance at the city’s event.
Last year, the festival brought in 2,860 attendees, with more than half of them coming from outside Southern California. Hamzoian said that she was not surprised about the number of attendees, adding that she expects about the same number of people on Saturday.
“It’s an event that brings in a different demographic, a different crowd of people,” she said. “The intent of our events is to bring in people that may have not otherwise shopped or dined in our downtown, and I think we definitely accomplished that.”
Hamzoian said that the craft beer festival was the right fit for the downtown area, where many of the restaurants already serve craft beer.
“It just makes sense for this kind of event to pop up here in our downtown,” she said.
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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
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