MACON BEER FEST PREPARES FOR BIG CROWD
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Macon Beer Festival is back on Saturday for the 7th year in a row. The festival allows you to sample more than 50 different crafts beers from all over the state of Georgia.
Macon Main Street and the Rotary Club of Downtown Macon put on the festival, not just for the fun, but a special cause.
“It’s a great opportunity to also raise awareness about prostate cancer,” said Macon Main Street manager, Emily Hopkins.
The festival promotes Pints for Prostate, a campaign aimed to bring awareness to prostate cancer. There will be booths at the festival for people to take free PSA screenings.
“Once they’ve had a beer, they think ‘hey you know I really should do this’,” said Hopkins. “It makes them a little more relaxed. It makes the conversation a little easier to have through that universal language of beer.”
The festival is expecting to draw more than a thousand people.
“Events are one of the things that draw to any city, particularly our city,” said Valerie Bradley with the Macon-Bibb County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Bradley says events played a big role in the more than 10 million visitors Macon had in 2016 and thinks the Beer Festival helps.
“We have so many events that appeal to all different people, ages,” said Bradley. “So it’s just a great time for people to come and visit our city by visiting one of the events.”
“It’s a community event where you can come out and enjoy our beautiful downtown, while also drinking beer and also supporting a good cause because all proceeds do go to Pints for Prostates,” said Hopkins.
The festival is on Poplar Street and Third Street. It starts at 3PM and goes on until 7PM. Starting at 10AM, Poplar Street from Third street to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd will be blocked off. As well as, Third Street from Poplar Street to Plum Street. Those streets reopen after 9 PM.
“It is more of your really good centralized where you are in one block where you can just walk from tent to tent to tent to try a bunch of different beers, to find one that really suits you and your pallet,” said Hopkins.
Tickets are available for $35. You can purchase them at the festival, or on the festival’s website, TheMaconBeerFest.org.
Journalist Edna Ruiz
https://www.41nbc.com/2017/08/25/macon-beer-fest-prepares-big-crowd/
