Another big hit at Avista

The Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival took another step forward over the weekend.

In its second year at Avista Stadium (and sixth overall), the event topped last year’s attendance record, with at least 2,868 paying customers going through the gates on Friday and Saturday.

With reports still to come from three advance ticket outlets, the final tally should be 12 to 15 percent higher than last year, says Eric Radovich, executive director of the sponsoring Washington Beer Commission.

“Overall, it produced what we hoped it would produce,” Radovich says. “It was great exposure, having the opportunity to try many of these breweries in one stop. It’s just building on the love of craft beer.”

If attendance continues to grow, the commission could consider adding a third day to the festival on Sunday in two years, he says.

While this year’s event was held a week later because of scheduling conflicts, the weather was again ideal, with a high temperature around 70 and mostly sunny skies over the minor league home of the Spokane Indians.

“It had such a nice vibe to it – the music, the beer, the outfield grass, the sunshine,” Radovich says. “Beer and baseball are a wonderful match.

“It was another incident-free event, we didn’t have a single complaint. And the breweries all loved it.”

Seattle’s Fremont Brewing poured the most 5-ounce beer samples over the weekend out of the 30 participating breweries, with River City and Twelve String right behind, followed by No-Li, Iron Goat, Big Barn, Pullman’s Paradise Creek and Leavenworth’s Icicle.

The commission should net around $8,000, Radovich says, up from last year’s $4,700. That goes toward the promotion and marketing of the 282 craft breweries statewide.