Why did the first chicken cross the road?

To remind you to set your alarms for Tuesday, June 20th at 7am!  Tickets for ALL THREE SIPtemberfest events will go on sale at that time. We have added the leftover pop up tickets to the online allotment for SIPBeer, which means there will be more tickets available than usual, but we still suggest you get up early and don’t dilly-dally! Plus, there are less than 60 tickets available for our final SIPDinner and SIPCoffee tickets could go quickly – only time will tell. So preprogram all the things to help your morning ticket purchasing efforts go smooth as buttah. More ticket info here.

Also, if you purchased tickets at one of our pop up sales, they are all redeemable now. You must redeem them by August 31 so just get that over with and click the button below to claim them now!

Why did the second chicken cross the road?

To announce that we are ADDING A NEW SHUTTLE PICK UP LOCATION! We will offer two shuttle pick ups in two locations this year. Parking has always been tight at MRG and this year it will be even more cramped as the state does not want anyone parking along the side of the Rt 17. There’s a very real chance that cars could be towed. So please, if you’re not taking the FREE shuttle, CARPOOL, be respectful of our parking attendants and do NOT park on the side of the road!!

Shuttles will pick up at Hostel Tevere and a spot centrally located in Waitsfield, TBA. Pick up times are currently scheduled for 12pm and 12:40pm. YOU MUST RESERVE YOUR SEATS WHEN YOU PURCHASE TICKETS!! So huddle with your posse and come up with a plan to pile the team into one car, or coordinate which bus you want to ride. Each bus seats 40 people.

Why did the third chicken cross the road?

To get a couple beers out of the fridge to share with the other two girls while they made their plans for SIPtemberfest weekend. Cheers!

Greetings Team!

Oh, boy, SIP! I’m coming!

OMG! SIPtemberfest!

Oh, SIPtemberfest! Dance with me darling!

Hmm? Wha? SIP?

This is – gasp – the Tenth Anniversary of SIPtemberfest! Ten! Ten years ago, iPhones made their debut, the first episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians aired, Donald Trump shaved Vince McMahon’s head bald live at Wrestlemania, and SIPtemberfest was an itty-bitty beer tasting on the porch of Mad River Glen. Who knew we’d be where we are today!?

Ok, so it’s really not that surprising how far the craft beer industry has come in the last 10 years, and thanks to all your continued support, SIPtemberfest is still going strong as ever. To celebrate we are adding a new event to our line up: SIPCoffee! If you’re even half as in to coffee as we are at SIP HQ, you know that the craft coffee scene is looking a lot like the craft beer scene was way, way back in the 2000’s. We are so excited to partner with Vermont’s roasters to bring you what we hope will not only be just as awesome an event as SIPBeer, but also a great way to cap off your weekend!

Please see below for all sorts of important SIP Info, including Ticket Sales information and our Epic Contest!

-Thanks and cheers from Team SIP!

…and without further ado, here are all the things:

SIP 2017 Featured Artist: Natasha Bogar For our 10th, we have partnered with an artist who knows a thing or two about festivals. If you’ve been to Hop Jam or the old Northeast Kingdom Music Fest, you’ve see Natasha’s work hanging from the stage, or gracing the panels of stunning one-of-kind tents. You’ll also find her work all over Bolton Valley Ski Resort, on the cover of the 2017 Stowe area guide (pictured) or in local shops like the Stowe Street Cafe (where you can also buy it!) We are thrilled to see what she comes up with for our 2017 SIPtemberfest Artwork, but in the meantime, you can learn more about her work here: Webpage | Facebook

Meet the Dinner Brewers: The Last Supper! Unfortunately, this will be the last year of the Meet the Brewers Dinner at Mad River Glen! Yes, I know – sad face. But fortunately, we are already making plans to go out in Da Vinci-esque style! We will announce the Brewer hosts, menu and everything else you’ll want to know very soon so stay tuned. As always, the dinner will be a four course meal, each course paired with beers from two select brewers. Tickets are very limited to this event and will only be available online.

Brand Spankin’ New: SIPCoffee We are so, so, so excited to announce the first ever SIPCoffee, a coffee tasting modeled after our beer tasting. It will take place following Saturday’s beer tasting, Sunday, September 24 from 11am-2pm, right in the base area of MRG.

Here’s the format for SIPCoffee:

• Tickets will be $20 each and will include a SIP tasting mug and 12 tastes. Tickets will be available online only.
• Gates will be open from 11am-2pm and will take place in the same area as our beer tasting.
• We will have live music and local food vendors. (Hint: have you ever heard of Blueberry Bacon Donuts?)
• Additionally, Mad River Glen is currently planning to serve their famously delicious diner-style breakfast in the cafeteria while the Pub will be open serving their lunch menu and featuring a selection of coffee beers on tap. Single Chair Rides will also be available.

We still have things brewing for SIPCoffee – we will post more details soon.

Vermont’s Best Little Beer Fest: SIPBeer SIPtemberfest is turning 10 because it is exactly what it is and we aren’t going to mess with that. So SIPBeer will take place as usual, Saturday, September 23 from 1-5pm in the base area of Mad River Glen. Tickets will each include a tasting glass and 10 tasting tokens. We will once again host two pop up sales for local ticket purchases and offer online sales. See below for details.

The one way we’d like to celebrate is to see as many people as we can wearing SIP hats, hoodies and t-shirts from years past. We will have our annual Scavenger Hunt again too so their might be some sweet bonuses if you dig through your box of beer-shirts and rock the SIP Swag!

WICKED IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT PARKING: PLEASE CARPOOL! PLEASE CARPOOL! PLEASE CARPOOL! PLEASE CARPOOL! PLEASE CARPOOL! MRG has a relatively small parking lot and the State is NO LONGER ALLOWING PARKING ON THE ROAD! This is a really big deal!!! We will offer our free shuttle service again and MRG is working on some incentives for those who fill up their cars with Sippers! Please consider your travel plans for getting to SIPtemberfest when purchasing tickets and try to come with as many people in as few vehicles as possible. Thanks in advance for signing up for the shuttle or packing more than one or two people into your vehicles. Thanks also in advance for being respectful to our parking attendants and shuttle drivers who work hard to help you have fun! We will post more info about this as we have it. Carpoolers get excellent beer karma!

Tickets We are going to do both online and pop up sales again this year. Here’s the deal:

• Pop Up Sales  – Back by popular demand, we will do two Pop Up ticket sales at which people can directly buy up to 2 tickets to SIPBeer – Saturday’s Beer tasting. We will sell up to 150 tickets at each Pop Up. These will be CASH ONLY SALES!  We will be in Waitsfield on June 6 & Waterbury on June 13. We will post the specific locations and timeframe, within one hour of sales opening to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (Fun Fact: this is the only time we ever use twitter anymore.) This is to prevent ‘liner-uppers.’ Sales will take place in a convenient location, sometime between 4-8pm. So hang out at a good watering hole in the area and wait for us to post. If you’re not on social media, we betcha you have a buddy who is, so buy them a beer at the watering hole while you wait.
• Online! We will sell 450 SIPBeer tickets online, June 20 at 7am. These will be first come, first served, and we expect these to sell out very quickly so set your alarm. The link for online sales will be available at a later date.
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  Meg’s Events mascot-at-large, Sid Vicious, shows of her threads. #SIPtemberfest #SIP10 #SIPItAll

  SIP10 Epic SIPItAll Contest: We are gonna give away a sweet ticket package to celebrate our 10th Anniversary! It will include two tickets to Friday’s SIPDinner, two tickets to Saturday’s SIPBeer and two tickets to Sunday’s SIPCoffee. And two t-shirts and two hoodies and two hats and more SIPtemberfest swag for a retail value of over $450! Wanna win? All you have to do is take a photo of you wearing SIP swag and post it to Instagram with the hashtags #SIPtemberfest #SIP10 #SIPItAll. You can enter as many times as you like! Get creative: use props, get your posse or your pets to pose with you, choose some crazy location, try out a slo-mo or a boomerang video! Is there such a thing as a photo haiku? Key words to think of: beer, friends, fun, 10! Entries accepted as soon as you’re done reading this. Deadline for entries is Sept 4th to give you time to plan and go big! We will post shortly thereafter to our blog announcing the winner.

Call to Volunteers!  With the addition of a third day of SIP, we are looking for MORE volunteers! If you are interested in joining a super cool team, doing relatively easy labor and fun work with perks like beer, coffee and t-shirts, then this is the volunteer job for you! Please contact us today for more details. Thanks in advance!

Hey Team!
So we have some bad news for you. It seems SIPtemberfest headquarters wasn’t the only place experiencing a perfect storm of problems. Between getting ready for the upcoming grand opening of their new brewhouse and waiting for their beer to finish fermenting, Farnham Ale & Lager has had to pull out of SIPtemberfest. Sad face. We are bummed to miss them this year and wish them the best with all their endeavors.

But there is good news! We were able to make a few calls and add the Burlington Beer Company our line up! Woot! What beers they will bring you will just have to wait and see, but the BBC has been cranking out some impressive brews lately and we are so excited they were able to squeeze in our little event to their schedule.

And there is even more good news! We reached out to our friends at the Alchemist and they too will be at SIPtemberfest, serving up Focal Banger! Boom! So despite a little set back, it looks like we will have come out on top and will have even more incredible beer than we originally expected! Cheers to that!

Some other important housekeeping:

• Meet the Brewers Dinner, FRIDAY, September 23 – Doors at 6pm, dinner starts *promptly* at 7. This ticket includes a four course meal with multiple beers paired to each, a tasting glass and a raffle ticket. Zero Gravity Craft Brewery and Prohibition Pig Brewery will be this year’s hosts along with Craft Beer Cellar. Paul Sayler, Nate Johnson and Mark Drutman will be on hand to field questions about the beers served and more. There are a handful of tickets still available. Learn more about the event and the menu here.  This ticket does not include admission to Saturday. 
• Vermont Beer Tasting, SATURDAY, September 24 – Check-in will start at 12:30. Gate opens at 1pm. Last call is at 4:40pm. Ticket includes Saturday entry, 10 tastings and a souvenir glass. There will be food from the Mad Taco and Skinny Pancake. This event is sold out.  Also, our shuttles are now full and we are no longer taking reservations.
• Those interested in buying/selling tickets may try our Facebook Invite. Bad beer karma for anyone trying to sell for more than face value of the tickets. You can edit the name on the ticket by logging on to Eventbrite and editing the ticket info. You can manage financial exchanges directly. If you are arriving together, you do not need to change the names on the tickets.
• EVERY TICKET HOLDER MUST HAVE THEIR ID AND TICKET FOR CHECK IN. NO EXCEPTIONS.
• Designated Drivers and underagers are allowed in at no change HOWEVER: please arrive if possible after 2pm, allowing us time to efficiently check in ticket holders.
• The forecast is looking promising but as always, come prepared for hot, cold, sunny, cloudy, dry, wet Vermonty weather!
• We are still looking for a couple more volunteers for Friday. Please contact us if you are interested!

That’s all for now! We look forward to seeing you this weekend!