The og Bier ON the Pier festival was seriously one of my favorite PNW beer events for over a…read moredecade. Sadly, last year the Port of Anacortes decided to close down the iconic Transit Shed pier location for this event (and for all events, of which there were many); so the festival was forced to move to the only other available facility in town: the Depot Arts Center. I have to say, it was NOT an improvement.
First off, the Depot is broken up into several different rooms. I've been to a few art shows here, and it works for that. But for a beer festival, there just wasn't any energy since the breweries were all cordoned off from each other, and the music was outside in a completely separate tent area. At the original festival (on the pier), the stage was right in the middle of the action - not a separate destination entirely.
Speaking of music, this was a highlight as Skagit Valley favorite Mama Dirty Skirt rocked the stage on Friday night. And on Saturday afternoon we chose the early entry option just to see one of our all-time Bellingham favorite musicians, Michael Dayvid, perform.
There also seemed like fewer beer and cider options than years past. Several local breweries weren't represented, including favorites like Stemma, Wander, Aslan, and Boundary Bay from Bellingham, and North Sound from Mount Vernon. We missed seeing other PNW brewery kingpins, too. Fremont Brewing was there (thanks Fremont!) but it would have been lovely to see Georgetown, Elysian, Pike, Deschutes or any number of other local legend breweries. This could have been a space issue, though, as the breweries/cideries present were all stuffed into very tiny spaces.
The breweries who were present definitely brought the enthusiasm and great brews. Some of my faves were Farmstrong's Oktoberfest vienna lager, Temperate Habits' ESB, and tasty sips from Beach Cat, Anacortes Brewing, Fringe, and Garden Path (to name just a few).
The food options were also a bit disappointing compared to previous years. On Friday, we chose the dumpling operation, which was pretty much highway robbery. We paid over $15 for literally the tiniest, saddest little dish of dumplings ever. It was barely enough to be considered an appetizer for one person; definitely not a meal. Needless to say, after that we just walked downtown to the Brown and got a decent meal for not much more! On Saturday, we grabbed a hot dog from one of the on-site vendors and it was quite delish.
I feel like the festival organizers did the best with what they could. But, personally, I probably won't return to this festival again unless some major changes are made. It wasn't really worth the time and expense to spend a whole weekend in Anacortes.
