If you are around something long enough, you can grow weary of it. Even as wonderful as the beer scene is, it is difficult to get up for spending hours giving beer to people. It sounds fun ,and believe me it is. But there are only so many times that you can hear the statements "Gimme the lightest thing you got", gimme the strongest thing you've got", or my favorite "just pour something in my glass." 
As professionals who takes this business very seriously, it is important to us that we spread some knowledge about our product and hopefully get them excited about our brand. This is very difficult with 500 people throwing cups at you and telling you how much they love Blue Moon while you pour them a perfectly balanced and citrusy IPA just to watch them throw their tongue out and dump the sample in front of you as if you just took the jam out of their doughnut.
What's worse than 500 of these people? 5000 of these people.
So when we get asked if we want to give our brands some "exposure" and donate beer to an event where there are 5000 meatheads in Affliction shirts wanting to show off to their girlfriends who don't like beer how much they have learned over their past 6 months of drinking $3 Shock Tops at their local bar - we're not as excited as you may think. Personally, I'd rather work an intimate event with a fraction of that number of people who really care about the business than Mr. Affliction, but somehow these massive moneymakers get the attention; so we go, go, go with a smile.
What we need here is some enthusiasm.
Me and my crew arrived at this Mega-Event at 4:00 to prepare for the 7:30 start time and began to set up our tables. Bringing lots of really nice stuff, setting it out, and pulling it off the tables because it would be tampered with or stolen is no fun - but it seems every time that decision is made in the interest of prudence. This occurs as always and the crew left me behind to gather our volunteers and get them up to speed on product. 
As it turns out, we were going to be given three helpers per booth and that was great news. This event gets packed and the more help the better. As it turns out, the help we got was not just help, but lifesavers. Some call it divine intervention, some maybe just a result of good juju, but I just look at it as a constant lesson to appreciate what you got.
What did we get? We got 24 hands who were awesome, awesome, awesome; and they spread that excitement that I needed to get back into this business that I love so much.
When they showed up, each group selected which table they wanted to operate (we had 4) and started getting to work getting set up. Mind you, these folks had never worked a beer festival before, but all were ready to jump doing the heavy lifting, filling up the ice, getting organized, and preparing to the onslaught.
We went from table to table, explaining the brands and the flavors of each; a little history on the brands; and some FAQs that we have found over time. All were extremely attentive and were very interested in what we were telling them. Now this is what I love about the business!
When the crowd finally started to filter in, there was a calmness over the crew that I wasn't feeling myself. having been through this before, my heart was pounding preparing for the madness. But strangely, the calm of the volunteers made me feel much better and what I saw in them made me feel completely confident in what we were about to do. Then came the rain. And a power outage.
This was no small mist either. This was a downpour. In fact, we joked a little about being at the Zoo and expecting Noah's Ark to pull up to let them in. And as with all water - it got into everything. Our volunteers got soaked. They tried to move the tables under the shelter at the carousel where we were located, but they got drenched in the process. The beer got all washed out and the ice in the tubs disappeared. It was getting late, cold, and miserable. Add to this there were no lights. People were holding their phones up for lights, glow sticks, lightning bugs, whatever they could find to emit some light.
The great folks helping us didn't relent. Smiling, they got everyone served and never complained one bit about the rain. This massive crowd was stuck elbows to elbows in the shelter and the rain showed no sign of slowing, but everyone was having a great time. My smile and faith in humanity was indeed returning.
While I don;t always enjoy larger festivals, this episode of the Wazoo Festival was great and I ma thankful for the volunteers who stepped up and showed some amazing spirit given terrible conditions. These are the people who end up making me feel proud to be in this business and man was I glad to have them there that night. Cheers!
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