Nearly 100 brewery members of the Michigan Brewers Guild are headed to Traverse City on Saturday, May 7 for the association’s newest festival: the Michigan Spring Beer Festival, to be held at Turtle Creek Stadium (home of the Traverse City Pit Spitters) at 333 Stadium Drive (US-31 South). These breweries will have a collective 450+ unique beers (over 70 distinct styles) available for sampling between 1-6pm. Enthusiast Members are admitted one hour early and those wishing to take advantage of this exclusive benefit (offered for an entire year’s worth of festivals) can join at mibeerenthusiast.com.
Tickets for this Spring Beer Festival are $50 per person in advance ($60 the day of, if any remain) and each includes 15 3-ounce samples (additional sampling tokens can be purchased on site). Admission is for those 21 and older only, with valid ID. The festival will be held outside, rain or shine. In addition to all of the great beers, the festival will feature food concessions run by the Pit Spitters, live music and free on-site parking.
“We are excited to finally bring this festival to Traverse City, after two years of cancellations,” says Scott Graham, MBG Executive Director. “This is a big year for the Guild as it is our 25th anniversary of our non-profit trade association. We can’t wait to celebrate with people in Traverse City and throughout the year at our other festivals and special events.”
The 5,000-seat Turtle Creek Stadium is a privately-owned multi-purpose facility located just south of downtown Traverse City and home to the Traverse City Pit Spitters of the Northwoods collegiate wooden bat league. The stadium was originally opened in 2006 and the facility and baseball franchise were purchased by group of investors led by the West Michigan Whitecaps in September of 2018.
The MBG 2022 festival schedule includes:
- Summer Beer Festival – Friday, July 22 & Saturday, July 23 at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti
General admission tickets go on sale on Thursday, April 28 at 10am
- U.P. Fall Beer Festival – Saturday, September 10 at Mattson Lower Harbor Park in Marquette
General admission tickets go on sale on Thursday, June 30 at 10am
- Detroit Fall Beer Festival – Saturday, October 22 at Eastern Market in Detroit
General admission tickets go on sale on Thursday, August 4 at 10am
- Michigan Winter Beer Festival – Saturday, February 25 at LMCU Ballpark in Comstock Park
General admission tickets go on sale on Thursday, December 1 at 10am
For more on each festival, visit MiBeer.com/events.
Formed in 1997, the Michigan Brewers Guild represents nearly 300 member breweries. The Guild is a passionate beer community that believes in quality artisanship, bold character, fun, responsibility and pushing the boundaries. The mission of the Guild is to promote and protect the Michigan beer industry with an overarching goal to help locally brewed beer attain 20% of all beer sales in the state by 2025.
Michigan’s brewing industry contributes more than 21,000 full-time jobs and $872 million in labor income, with a total economic impact of over $2.5 billion. In terms of overall number of breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs, Michigan ranks #6 in the nation—supporting its title as “The Great Beer State.”