Hops in Humboldt is celebrating its 10 year anniversary. The festival is Saturday August 24 at Fortuna’s Rohner Park in the heart of the Redwoods. Here is a little history of the the festival:
The story starts ten years ago when a small group of directors were trying to decide on a new event for Fortuna with $1,000 new event grant provided by the Fortuna Business Improvement District. It took two years of planning, organizing and researching. Fortuna Rotary and ESA offered to sponsor the event and Hops in Humboldt was born. The very first Hops was held in 2004, in a small beer garden between the two playgrounds, at Rohner Park. We had 10 beers at best, all of our local breweries and the rest brought by local distributors. It had a bluegrass theme with local bands and some random vendors.
As the event progressed throughout the years more breweries were added. Mixed genres of music became the norm, the Hops beer games and the Hops awards were born. Local homemade food and vendors started to make the event more unique. Partnerships with transportation companies were formed to provide safe transportation alternatives to attendees. Until year five Hops was an all age event and featured homebrew tasting and brewing demos. The homebrew area was a favorite of the crowd and its death is still mourned today. The end came when the ABC told it was not legal to serve beer to the public that was not made in a commercial facility.
The end of year five saw elbow to elbow room only in the festival and we knew we had out grown our location. In year six Hops decided to make the move off the green grass of Rohner Park to our larger home and current location on Bartow field. That year Hops also started the process of shedding our sponsors and filed the paperwork to become our own non-profit.
With a new board of directors and a dedicated beer loving committee who works year a round, Hops in Humboldt is bigger and better than ever !
Hops has proudly taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars in event income. The majority of our budget is put back into the community and spent with local businesses to make the event happen. 100% of the proceeds are given back to local groups each year who fall under our grant categories. To date over $ 150,000 in grants have been awarded to schools, youth groups, sports; senior services; drug and alcohol prevention and community projects.
Thank you for your support and sacrificing your sobriety in the name of community service!
We hope you have a great time and enjoy the 10th annual Hops in Humboldt.
Source: Hops in Humboldt
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