It may not seem smart to have a beer festival in the blustery heat of a Louisiana July, but then when else would you rather have really cold beer?
Gulf Brew 2011 is scheduled for July 23 starting at 6 p.m. at Parc International. The idea behind Gulf Brew is having beer from all around the Gulf Coast featured, as well as different restaurants presenting food, all in the spirit of raising money to support the Acadiana Center for the Arts, a multimedia art performance center. Although the list of liquor vendors has yet to be announced, this event is always popular and it's a good idea to get tickets early.
A $25 Taster Ticket gets you regular entrance, meaning you need to get dropped off and picked up again because this entitles you to try dozens and dozens of beers for free. A $50 Pre-Taster Ticket means you get to enter the event with the other chosen special people at 5 p.m., so you have far less joslting through the masses to get to the beer and more one-on-one time with the distributors. If you are under 21 years old you won't be admitted to the park.
If you want to volunteer, it means that after a few hours of work you get to go taste all the beer you want and a t-shirt. I don't know why but every time there is a volunteer event in Acadiana people get a free t-shirt and this lure seems to work. Anyway, if you don't care about gratis clothing the beer should suck you in. Worked on me and my friend a few years ago!
To get volunteering information or to buy tickets go to AcadianaCenterfortheArts.org, call AcA's box office at 233-7060 or go to AcA itself at 101 West Vermilion Street in downtown Lafayette.