Today was going to be a really good day. I was going to do what I do best, start pimping for a great event. Unfortunately, that will not be the case. Instead I am here to announce that the fest has been cancelled. I blame my foolish pride for trying to think I could pull this off in under 40 days. A great deal of hard work over the weekend was looking more than promising for getting most of the small details together. And add to that some of the groundwork I already made late last year, I thought things could work themselves out. But the reality is that craft beer is big business, and the old day of just giving a holler is way over and I knew that. If I look at it from my stand point, I would be pretty leery about something that has changed venues twice and the date three times. Hell, I would be saying don't call us, we'll call you.
So why announce it Saturday morning and turn around and cancel it on Tuesday? Pride kids. I really wanted this to happen. The people in this area wanted it to happen. Sunnybrook wanted it to happen. But the cold hard facts of life were staring in the face the whole time. All if not most companies have put up their schedule for the year 2011 by the end of 2010. Most were willing to give it a go back in November or December, but not now. Time moves on. Maybe I should have been more professional early on, but those fun loving ways are sometimes hard to break. It was also pretty hard to continue to contact people in December and early January and tell them "I am having a fest sometime in March, I just don't have a place or time just yet. Can you please wait for me?"
The one thing that disappointed me later in the process was the lack of return calls, e-mails or texts. Maybe they fought I would be mad at them or something, but I'm not. Just let me know. It's business. Nothing personal. At least I hope not.
I now have a new found respect for people who put these things together. For all the planning I did, that looked good on paper, there was still one or two things that snuck up on me. Will I ever get the chance to do another one? I doubt it. Even with all my new found knowledge, the track record from this one will sting for a while. I would like to thank some of the great folks from Facebook and real life :>), who came out of the woodwork, so to speak and offered their help in any way possible. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. To all my beer brethren, I'm sorry I have wasted your time and hope and dreams. I am not feeling so "Social Media" today and I think I'll go to the corner of the room and put my dunce cap on for awhile. After a couple days, I'll lick my wounds and come swinging, I mean drinking. Stay thirsty my friends.
