HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) – The Downtown Hattiesburg Association is kicking off the spring festival season with an event for craft beer enthusiasts.
To dodge the summer heat, Hattiesburg’s Craft Beer Festival has now been moved to March 4 in Town Square Park.
While the event highlights the creativity of local craft beers, Andrea Saffle, the executive director of the Downtown Hattiesburg Association says it’s also a way to bring people to the area.
“The beer festival has always been an event that has attracted people from all over,” said Safffle. “I mean, we have people from numerous states surrounding that come for this event that just love craft beer so much.”
“With VisitHattiesburg and the Downtown Hattiesburg Association and FestivalSouth and the amount of marketing they put into the beer fest, is beyond the amount of marketing that a lot of these small businesses can put into it,” said Curry. “So we have a lot of people that will come from Laurel, West Hattiesburg or Wiggins and not know that there is a craft brewery in downtown Hattiesburg, much less not know the Suzy B they have been drinking for years is made in Hattiesburg.”
Local and regional brew masters will be invited to share their homebrew creations during the event and will have the opportunity to compete for the 2023 People’s Choice Award.
The event will also include a VIP section, yard games and live music. Attendees are also encouraged to bring a lawn chair or blanket to enjoy the open space in Town Square Park.
“Because we do attract over a thousand people for this event, typically they would come in for the weekend because it’s an evening event, so they are staying in the hotels, they are eating at the restaurants, shopping in the stores the day before or the day after as they are leaving. So it does have a reverberating economic impact across downtown,” said Saffle.
The festival will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
General admission tickets are $35 each and include a sampling mug, unlimited sampling and complimentary soft drinks and water.
To purchase tickets you can visit the Craft Beer website or visit the festival’s Facebook page.
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