Darkness Day 2018 - in Wisconsin

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

elkhunter36

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2013
Messages
2,955
Reaction score
3,639
Location
Glendale, WI
Well this is weird. Do we need to have this discussion in the Wisconsin thread?

http://surlybrewing.com/news/darkness-day-moving-remain-calm/


Darkness Day is moving.

Now, before you freak out, there’s a good reason for this.

Simply put, we ran out of room at our Brooklyn Center brewery. Cramming that many people and that many campers into an industrial park was a study in chaos and a credit to the very (VERY) tolerant businesses who share the neighborhood with us.

Once it became apparent that we had to move the event, we needed to find another location that would allow us to amplify the entire experience. Festival Field wasn’t an option, as state law prohibits us from selling bottles of Darkness outside of the building. We were able to sell bottles in Brooklyn Center thanks to an agreement with Brooklyn Center Liquors, who we should all thank for what they’ve done to support Darkness Day over the years.

With that in mind, we needed to find a place that would allow us to:

  1. Sell Darkness bottles.
  2. Have live, loud music.
  3. Have plenty of campground for the folks who very literally come from all over the world to be there.
  4. Generally make Darkness Day a bigger, better event.
The best option in the area that fulfilled these four requirements was the Somerset Amphitheater in Somerset, Wisconsin.

So that’s where Darkness Day will be this year, on Saturday, Sept. 29. It’ll be cool.

What we can tell you at this time:

  • Tickets will be required for admittance. Booking a campground isn’t free, even in Wisconsin.
  • These tickets will allow you to camp overnight on Friday and/or Saturday. It’s the best way we can think of to maintain the phenomenal bottle share/cookout/bonfire scene that has sprung up around Darkness Day and still be vaguely responsible. This must be what growing up feels like.
  • You DON’T have to camp. Again, enjoy Darkness Day/Darkness Day Eve responsibly.
  • Saturday, September 29th will be the ONLY day you can buy Darkness bottles before its official release date on October 31st. Yeah, Halloween.
  • In addition to straight-up Darkness, there will be bottles of Darkness variants available for purchase.
  • GOING TO REPEAT THAT: BOTTLED DARKNESS VARIANTS. We’ll give you the details this summer.
What we’ll tell you in the future:

  • Ticket costs. There will be packages (camping, camping with electricity, camping w/bottles of Darkness, etc.). Those will be revealed in June.
  • The bands. There will be a bunch. Those will be revealed this summer.
  • The other beers. We’re bringing a lot. We might bring more than that. Again, more info this summer.
That’s it. This is a big ol’ experiment for us, so let us know what you think. Hit us up (or light us up, we’re used to it) on our social channels.
 
I despise this.

Attendance had already dropped for the overnight share & bottle pickup the last couple of years. I doubt people are going to want to drive 45-60 minutes for a bottle share & to pick up what has become a (very good) shelf beer.

Wildly interesting variants or great guest breweries could change this, but I see a big drop-off in attendance coming, based on my anecdotal discussions with friends.
 
Anyone still planning on checking this out? I went to Darkness Day four years ago and had a blast, partially due to people from this site.
We will be there. Skipping zwanze to try out camping. It’s sounding like the guest breweries and taplist should be pretty amazing. Got someone to buy the $200 package for me and I’m giving him all the bottles. Should be a great time, we will still be bottlesharing for sure.
 
We will be there. Skipping zwanze to try out camping. It’s sounding like the guest breweries and taplist should be pretty amazing. Got someone to buy the $200 package for me and I’m giving him all the bottles. Should be a great time, we will still be bottlesharing for sure.

Good deal. Hopefully I end up making it and if so, will totally hit you up.
 
We have been talking about it. If this group ^ is all going we would most likely go.

Does anyone know if you get to pick your camping spot or is it assigned? It would suck if we were all at opposite corners of the park from one another.
 
We have been talking about it. If this group ^ is all going we would most likely go.

Does anyone know if you get to pick your camping spot or is it assigned? It would suck if we were all at opposite corners of the park from one another.
I think it’s just first come first served. You get a camping bracelet and that lets them know you can be there. There wasn’t anything about picking spots when I ordered mine.
 
Also out, unless I have an inexplicable attack of FOMO, or they bring in sixteen J. Wakefield pastry stouts as guest taps.
 
Back
Top