On Saturday, the Business Improvement District Board held its 2nd annual La Pour Beer Festival at the Civic auditorium in La Porte. The festival will help fund the Downtown Movie Nights held in Downtown La Porte as well as other community activities.
“This is only our second time hosting this event, but the success we’ve seen has paved the way for a lot of expansion,” said Thaddeus Cutler, Downtown Director for the City of La Porte. “I think we’ve accomplished making this brewfest different from a lot of the other similar events around La Porte. The atmosphere here is a much more social and casual event”.
Patrons to the beer festival were able to sample beers, wines and meads from across the region. Some of the vendors that participated were Burn ‘em Brewery, Evil Czech, Three Floyds, and Black Dragon Meadery.
While enjoying good beer is a big perk of going to the La Pour Beer Festival, the event also does its part by giving back to the community.
“Today we are raising funds to buy a new movie screen for our Downtown Movie Nights here in La Porte," Thaddeus continued. "This next summer will be our 10th year holding the movie nights and we wanted to make the event more dynamic and improve it overall for the community. With the inflatable screen we will purchase with the proceeds we can move the movie nights around La Porte to keep it fun and exciting”.
“We show three movies once a month every summer and people really have made it an event to look forward to for their families and friends. It's a different experience seeing a movie outdoors and I think it's a great way to show what Downtown La Porte has to offer for its residents and other people," explained Cutler. "The future for the La Pour Beer Festival will show a lot of growth as the patrons and vendors increase like we’ve seen here today, it’s a great way to taste different beers and also help strengthen the community of La Porte”.
Matt Zakrzewski, co-owner of Burn ‘em Brewery was at the inaugural La Pour beer fest last year and really felt how different this event is from other beer festivals he goes to.
“We love to support the local community, we have a huge fanbase here in La Porte and we want to show that we appreciate them as much as they appreciate our beer. We were here last year and knew then that we’d not just be coming back next year, but for as long as they host it here. It's a great event to go to whether you're drinking the beer of pouring it, just a really good vibe from everyone here,” he said.
Attendees such as Elena Mrozinski of La Porte mingled among the cocktail tables and chatted with friends in between getting more beer or wine samples as well as some food perhaps.
“It's a great community event to go to, and with all the wonderful small breweries from our area it feels good to support their local business, she said. La Porte as a community comes out to support our town and what could be a better way of doing that than drinking good beer”.
More information about events in La Porte can be found at http://www.cityoflaporte.com/