Pic courtesy of http://www.beerandbourbon.com.

Last Saturday I attended the first annual Reston Beer, BBQ, and Bourbon Festival. After seeing advertised promises for great food and tasty drinks from all over, we were excited to experience it all. The festival was located right in the Reston Town Center and had so much to see they spilled out from the main parking lot onto the overlooking hill. There were tents for bourbon and specialty Oktoberfest beer tastings and live music as well as food, the VIP section and corn hole games to play with friends. Even the dismal weather couldn’t dampen the mood, people just pulled on their ponchos and made umbrella chains and continued to party.

As fun as the atmosphere was, I did make a few negative observations. For starters, the festival fell short on fulfilling some of the promises made. Although, there was a long list of ciders on the event page, there was only one in attendance. Therefore, for a gluten-free drinker like me, the only drink I could enjoy at the event was one choice in cider or straight vodka. This was a little disappointing considering the price of the ticket. Another frustration was the amount of food provided during the VIP hours. For a ticket price of $75, I was expecting a number of filling options. Instead there were a limited number of choices that fell more in the small finger food category. And stingy portions and long lines made it difficult to actually fill up. They even ran out before the end of the VIP two hours of the specialty food items like the bacon. In fact, there was a general lack of food overall, despite the promised BBQ part of the festival. There were only two food carts in attendance to even buy lunch. With people drinking a lot of straight alcohol like bourbon, I’d say this lack of food was a bit disconcerting.

Overall, my friends and I still very much enjoyed ourselves, but to bring people back year after year, this festival will have to up its game in the BBQ category. Until then, it’s just a heavy handed pour.

-JPM (Joyana)