Press Release:
(Redlands, CA) – The Hangar 24 AirFest & 5th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, May 18 at Redlands Airport attracted just over 15,000 people to watch the aerial acrobatics, sample thirty five different Hangar 24 beers that were on tap and listen to the musical acts that were interspersed with the air show portion of the event.
“The attendance was overwhelming,” said Hangar 24 Brewery owner and Master Brewer Ben Cook. “We were planning for 10,000 people, but the crowds just kept coming all day. People were still arriving by 8:30pm, just to see the aerial fireworks show, which was the last entertainment of the event.”
The AirFest & 5th Anniversary Celebration was billed as being an air show/beer & music festival. One of the highlights of the show was Kent Pietsch landing his Interstate Cadet “Jelly Belly” on top of a pickup truck. The event also featured Food Trucks, a Kids Zone, and vintage warplanes, as well as fireworks shot from a jet sailplane.
The event went from 9am to 10pm and Hangar 24 had three new beers available to try, including the 5th Anniversary Ale – Slow Roll, and an experimental IPA that the Brewery is trying out with an eye on adding it to their lineup.
“We opened our archives wide to bring out the vast majority of all the special beers we have brewed over the years,” said Cook. “We also used it as a chance to try out a new beer on our fans and we bottled our Anniversary Ale for the first time ever, so it was a pretty significant date for our Brewery as well.”
For those who did not get a chance to get a t-shirt or commemorative glass from the event, a limited supply of those are available for sale at the Brewery’s Tasting Room, across the street from the Redlands Airport. Slow Roll, which is a Belgium-style golden ale aged for six months in bourbon barrels, is also for sale on draught and in bottles.
“We have already begun planning for next year,” explained Cook. “This being our first event of this magnitude, we now realize a number of things we can improve for 2014, but the great response we have gotten from our fans has told us they very much liked the format of the show and the entertainment offered. Being a pilot myself, it is very gratifying to hear fans talk about that this was their first air show and how much they enjoyed it.”