Rene Greff, the owner of Ypsilanti’s Corner Brewery, just left the following note in a thread about the renaming of the Ypsitucky Jamboree, and I thought that I’d move it up here to the font page, as I we haven’t had a good, bloody fight here in the past few days.
How about (we call the event) the Anheuser-Busch Jamboree? Looks like Gerry French and the fine folks at the DTCDC are going to thank us for all of our support by freezing us out yet another Ypsi festival. Budweiser bought the rights to the Heritage Festival for $5,000 and evidentally the French’s believe that should give them exclusive rights to all of the DTCDC festivals including the jamboree. So it looks like another “local” festival with no local beer.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I’m an investor in the Corner Brewery. So, I guess you could make the assumption that I’m on the side of the Greff’s in this one. And there’s also the fact that I think Budweiser is pisswater. Then again, though, I’ve also recently been called a bitch of the French’s.
Putting all of my alliances aside for a moment, can someone explain to me how decisions about which beer is served at festivals is made? I’m guessing that most festivals are produced by private individuals. Entities, like the Michigan Brewer’s Guild, I’m assuming, rent the park for a day, to host something like the Summer Beer Festival, and, in return, they pay the City some rental fee, plus enough money to compensate us for police and other services. So, in a case like that, I’d imagine that the entity renting the park would call the shots relative to what vendors get brought in. Then, however, there must be other cases, where some quasi-public entity, like the Depot Town Community Development Corporation, is the organization renting the park and hosting the event. And, in those instances, I would imagine, the organization would request proposals, and make a choice accordingly. And, I think that’s probably where the event formerly known as the Ypsitucky Jamboree finds itself, right? So, I guess, my question is – what, in this instance, was the process for selecting a beer vendor?
I don’t think I’d want the City to demand that private entities renting the park choose only local beer, but, if it’s a City-sponsored thing, especially one run by a non-profit dedicated to local economic development, it would seem as though our local tax-paying companies would at least be given a chance to compete.
Sorry if I come across as terribly naive, but I’ve really never given much thought to the politics behind such things before… At any rate, I thought that it would make for an interesting discussion.