Community Brewing Hot Over Brewgrass Festival

Residents of East End (L-R): Renee White, Carmen Ramos-Kennedy, Bruce Kennedy, and Mandy Broderick.   Photo: Urban News

Staff Reports

As Brewgrass gears up for its upcoming September festival, residents of the East End community are bracing themselves for the mayhem it brings. Last year’s festival, although fun for revelers, wreaked havoc on the surrounding neighborhood and residents.

Renee White, President of the East End Community Association, said, “We didn’t mind the festival being at the MLK Park until we observed that many of the people became drunk, disorderly, and disrespectful to the neighborhood and residents who live in the area. Last year I witnessed festival goers breaking beer bottles in the St. James Church parking lot and walking off laughing.”

Mickey King, a long time East End resident, points to an area far from the event’s venue where trash and beer bottles were thrown by Brewgrass attendees.  Photo: Urban News

According to White, the attendees left styrofoam coolers in yards, urinated on people’s lawns, blocked driveways, “and talked nasty and ugly to several residents. If we had known the Brewgrass Festival was coming back to MLK Park we would have asked all involved to find a new venue for this year. I spoke before Asheville City Council to let them know this is the end, and for 2013 they need to find a new venue, because it’s more than we can take in this community,” she said.

This past May, for the fourth year in a row, Asheville was named one of two top beer-brewing cities in the USA, the other being Grand Rapids, Michigan. Asheville has numerous local breweries and more on the way, all of which enjoy support from the local community and visitors. The Brewgrass Festival grew out of this community backing, and dozens of craft brewers have an opportunity to showcase their beers and ales, while local musicians perform, often raising funds for worthy community projects and efforts.

“I am not against the Brewgrass festival,” said resident Mandy Broderick. “The Asheville beer industry is an important part of the economic development of our city and contributes to its uniqueness. I do, however, agree that MLK Jr. Park, is not the right venue for such an event. The festival is not very representative of the East End community and its residents. Brewgrass should really be held in a non-residential area.”

East End residents walk the perimeter of MLK Park and discuss the upcoming Brewgrass Festival.  Photo: Urban News

As the East End community members met to ponder the festival’s September return, there was an overwhelming consensus that the Brewfest, and the bad behavior of some attendees, “does not fit in with the family-friendly sort of event that would be preferable in our residential neighborhood,” said East End Association Secretary Carmen Ramos-Kennedy.

“Considering that we have our new children’s park immediately adjacent to MLK Jr. Park, we feel our families should not have to subject themselves to the kind of behavior that drinking beer all day can produce,” she said.