Beer and baseball - a big hit

After day one, this year’s Inland NW Craft Beer Festival is shaping up to be a home run.

Eric Radovich of the sponsoring Washington Beer Commission was all smiles about the attendance at the festival’s new home in Avista Stadium, where the Spokane Indians play baseball.

It helped that the weather cooperated, after last year’s muddy monsoon downtown in Riverfront Park. It’s supposed to be even nicer today, in the mid-70s and mostly sunny, as the festival continues from noon to 8 p.m.

And people seemed to love Avista, with its open feel, free parking and distinctive vibe. After all, how often do you get to walk around drinking beer in the outfield of a professional baseball park?

Among the comments we heard from visitors to our On Tap booth:

“It’s not that I didn’t like Riverfront Park, but this has got a little more of a cool factor.”

“We took a picture this year and said, ‘Hey, look where we are.’  “

“In Riverfront Park, with all the fences, you kind of felt corralled in. Here, it’s more open.”

“It feels more exclusive, more quirky. If you’re going to have a craft beer event, it should be in a special location.”

By the way, our booth is in a different place than we posted yesterday. We expected to be along the third base line, by the restrooms (like the map in the program shows), but once organizers arrived they changed things up a bit; the restrooms actually are along the first base line, and we’re near the left field corner, between the booths for Malted Mutt dog treats and Montana Beer Finder.

Stop on by today to say hi and talk beer, and don’t forget to enter our drawing for $25 gift certificates to local beer stores.