The Michigan Brewers Guild has announced the cancelation of its upcoming Spring Beer Festival originally scheduled for Saturday, May 8 at Turtle Creek Stadium in Traverse City. Continued concerns over the health and safety of its members, volunteers, staff and the community in the wake of the ongoing pandemic remain the deciding factor. This is the sixth event the Guild has cancelled since spring of last year.
“While things continue to improve and more people are getting vaccinated, it’s just not feasible to host our Spring Beer Festival in May,” says Scott Graham, Guild Executive Director. “We remain hopeful that in the coming months we will be able to gather once again at a festival to celebrate our industry and our member breweries who have been diligently working hard to keep their operations going throughout the pandemic.”
Early last summer, the Guild launched its “Support Your Local Michigan Breweries” campaign to encourage the public to keep visiting breweries (following all safety protocols), ordering take-out beer and food, buying gift cards and buying locally produced beer at retail stores around the state. These efforts continue as the state begins to open up with increased capacity for indoor eating and drinking and will remain in place until after the pandemic has passed.
“Our member breweries are small businesses that are struggling to survive in these very challenging times,” Graham says. “The support they receive from their local community as well as those who are venturing out to travel are critical to their survival. We remain dedicated to helping them in any way we can.”
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 $914 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.”