Ultimate Beerfest Orange County

«ultimate» beerfest?!? more like ultimate clusterf*ck!
this was easily the most poorly organized event of any kind that i’ve ever attended. we ordered «VIP» tickets through living social and were promised early admission at 11am (rather than general admission at noon) as well as a chance to judge the beers.
the organizers didn’t open up the gate until 12:30pm! we stood in line the whole time (over 1 ½ hours), watching other frustrated «VIPs» curse out the organizers and bail. some went to breweries or to yard house, and everyone thought they’d be able to get a refund since this is what the security people were telling attendees. we were close to bailing out as well but chose to stick it out.
by the time we got into the gates (at 12:45pm), we saw that more than half the beer vendors didn’t show and that there were many empty tents set up. in all, there were maybe 15 beer vendors at most, and over half of them were big business beers (blue moon, carlsberg, kronenberg, etc). in what way is this a «craft» beer fest, as touted by karma media group?
to add insult to injury, the tasting glass was the most pathetic thing i’ve ever seen. it was like a pinkie ring shot glass that fit at most 1 ½ ounces of beer at a time. anddd the organizers had the gall to hand out tasting cards which the breweries were supposed to punch each time they poured us (literally) a taste of beer. talk about total bullshit!
despite the complete lack of organization (no VIP benefits, one ridiculously long line, hardly any good beers, long lines at the breweries, not enough volunteers to pour beer, etc), we still managed to have a good time. villa chardonnay was the charity that received some money from the event organizers (but who knows how little), and they are a great animal and horse rescue group located in temecula. and the volunteers were simply amazing and were working their asses off the whole time.
karma media group is so damn sleazy that they tried to blame their lack of organization on the morning attendees, saying that we were unruly and caused some «misconduct» that caused them to cancel the afternoon session. LIES, LIES, LIES. i would be FURIOUS if i had planned on attending the afternoon session or if we had left and then attempted to get a refund from the event organizers or living social (which we were told we could do by the security and event organizers rather than waiting in that ridiculous line). apparently neither one was willing to offer any refunds to any participants. BOGUS. i hope karma media group gets what’s coming to them. karma baby, karma…

I just received an email from Karma Media stating that since we purchased a Living Social voucher that we were not entitled to a refund, only credit toward a future event.
THIS IS COMPLETE BS! The voucher indicates in their «Fine Print» that you are entitled to a refund in the event of a cancellation. Contact Living Social directly and they will process your refund. Don’t buy into the disinformation being distributed by these fools.

Had I had the misfortune of buying the afternoon session, this would’ve been a one star review, believe me! Lucky for me and my friends we had the first session, and we did manage to get in (after that crazy wait) and we did have fun, but at one point we did think about bailing. We’d gotten our «VIP» tickets through Living Social like a month ago for $ 35, so at least we didn’t spend as much as some people, but it’s still money, and we did NOT get any kind of a VIP value out of it. That said, the people who did stay and the vendors/​volunteers present at the event were really great. There was no unruly conduct of any kind (surprisingly) so the statement the organizer put out saying that «attendee misconduct» was why they cancelled the afternoon session is completely bogus. Pretty much everything that went wrong was due to the the cluelessness of the organizers, from what I could tell. Hm, the DJ couldn’t play because he was too young… how could an organizer NOT find this kind of stuff out ahead of time?!
We got to sample from pretty much every vendor present, including some really interesting and excellent beers, like the blueberry lager with real blueberries! The truly «craft» selection was pretty limited, however, with really large outfits like Widmer, Blue Moon and Oggi’s present. If I wanted to taste stuff from them I’d just go to the grocery store! There were a good number of food trucks, however, and for like the first time ever there weren’t long lines in front of them, thank the lord! The attendees were very laid back and cool, and sharing tables and shade was not a problem. The beer pong tournament area was quite raucous, but there was no hooligan-​like behavior from anyone. At 4pm the security came and let everyone know they were closing up to get ready for the later session, which, alas, never happened, which is the truly worst part of this whole debacle. If I hear of any other events organized by this group (or anyone affiliated with them) I’ll be giving them a very wide berth.

Yes. The wait to get in was horrible and awful. What was even worse was that there was only 1 line. WHATS THE POINT IN GETTING VIP WHEN YOUR STUCK IN THE SAME LINE AS GA?
Anywho…once we got in… it was better
Disappointments:
–long line to get into the festival… we lost a couple of hours of beer-​ful activities
–was there really a point in getting VIP?
Besides the line to get in… once a couple of chugs and gulps were made at the various beer stands… things got better. Food trucks were awesome… nice selection of them too and kudos to KARMA for not picking the typical OC food trucks that reside at the parking lots of Irvine Lanes on Tuesdays.
Oh well… Im not complaining. I got it from LIVINGSOCIAL and got it for free. Sucks to those who bought session 2. I guess its always better to start your alcoholic beverages in the morning because day drinking is that much better.
Will I ever come back? Yah sure why not. i left the event happy and drunk.
UNTIL THEN! ^-^

This was a poorly planned event y KHARMA MEDIA GROUP! They did not start on time… There is one of two things that happened here… Either this company is completely inadequate or intended to rip people off.
We had VIP tickets and there were no VIP benefits at all. No VIP entry access, but stand in the general line of hundreds of people for an extremely long time. (In the morning they were delayed because of the Heath Department and water issues.)
The waivers could have been passed out in line instead of hundreds of people waiting in the sun to get to a table of four lady volunteers and a few pens!!! what about an Electronic signature when you purchased the tickets?
The bottle water vendor did not show up so there was no water at all unless you bought it at a roach coach.
There were no perks or so much as a bottle of water for the designated drivers who had to pay about 17 bucks to get in.
This company posted online that session 2 was shut down due to «unruly attendees». This is a lie. the first group was so tamed and the volunteers told us they ended up shutting down session two because OGGIs BEER was out of compliance when they began to sell pint glasses with beer. which is true, because we were in that line. Which we have no idea why that would cause a complete shut down???
The little two ounces of beer we got for tastings could have been bigger… Not sure what that was all about.
I heard the company KARMA MEDIA GROUP handled this event has done others… But you could not tell by there obvious inexperience with such long delays and a really poor set up!
Terrible event!!!

Well, you’ve already heard the folks who complained. I just wanted to fill in some of the blanks that maybe you haven’t heard.
There were lack of people who worked at the beer booths. For example, Craft Beer Alliance who represents Redhook, Kona, and Widmer needed people to help pour. That alone took away a few folks. Even the lady from the dog rescue /​wine organization was helping pour Aztec’s beer. (which I might add, the Cacao chocolate porter was the best beer, thanks for pointing out Joe)
The people who were checking people in –some folks knew the organizer, yes some were people from Craigslist. All were doing it for free. And for free, I mean a long time like 6 hour blocks. Not getting paid, not being able to have a beer.
These same folks have all the intentions to let the people in at least to the corral area just to alleviate the lines prior to the health inspection. There was nothing more they could do but they tried what they can under the rules of OC fair what they can prior to opening because of the inspection. Wouldn’t you do the same if you were in their shoes?
The DJ pulled out the day of. Unfortunately, he was not old enough.
Yes, the cups were small, so this created more problems. Beer gets foamy when not cold enough. When you have too much head, people aren’t happy. People will just come back for more… and more… and more… making lines longer. This wouldn’t be so bad if they had more help.
People were bringing their own cups.
People buying shot glasses.
People taking more of the 2 ouncers.
This created problems, such as line problems and problems for the security. I’ve been to a Taste of Brews event and received a similar cup. At first, it seemed small and rediculous but believe it or not, it worked just fine because food was inclusive in the event price. So not everyone was getting beer. Oh and there were more beer vendors as well.
I love beer folks. I’m one myself. Most of us are really easy going. We, for the most part, are patient folks. I think for the most, once we were in and had some beer, it was all good. After 2:30pm, the wait for the lines were no more than a minute at just about any booth. I saw many happy faces and loud voices. Lots of yelling, like any other fun festival. At least someone was having a good time.
With that said, I think it’s a learning experience for the organizer. I’m not sure if this was his first one. There definitely were mis-​steps and I hope he learns from this experience.

I have been going to and working at beer festivals for twenty years. This one was, by far, the worst one that I have ever attended. I could just tell by the way this festival was being promoted that something was fishy. I should have gone with my gut.
The gates were supposed to have opened at 11 a.m. for VIP’s. We got in the incredibly long line at 11:15. They didn’t start letting people in until about an hour later. As we approached the gate, we had to sign a waiver (this was a first for me) and we received thimble-​sized «mugs». All of the Karma Media Group employees displayed bad attitudes and weren’t apologetic in the slightest. Once we were inside, we were met with long lines at every beer station. After we got a two ounce beer sampler, it was time to get back in another long line for the next taste.
Don’t believe the hype about why the afternoon session was cancelled. Not only did I not witness any «unruly» behavior, I was surprised at how reasonable the crowd was. I think the angriest people just lost their patience entirely and left. I don’t blame them. I really feel bad for anyone who paid full price for this debacle. $ 75! Disgraceful.
Bad karma, Karma Media Group. Bad.

I was going to this event as an option because the Ultimate beerfest at the Rose Bowl was cancelled last month. Unlike most people, I work weekends and have to specifically ask if I want it off. Well, I got it off, checked my email for updates, printed the tickets, went for a run, cleaned myself up, and had our designated driver take us to the OC Fairgrounds for session 2.
As we near the parking entrance, a sign says, «ULTIMATE BEERFEST CANCELLED.» Wtf?!! I check my email and a notification was sent at 3:30. Cancelled once, understandable. Canceled twice, unacceptable. I want a refund. I would’ve been better of going to a brewery.
They should call it the Ultimate Beerfest Rip Off.
After emailing Groupon customer support back and forth, they gave me Groupon Credit.

This event doesn’t even deserve ONE star, but in order to post this I guess I have to give it a minimum 1 star. Everything already posted is exactly what happened. At one point, my sister and BiL both went up to the front to offer to pass out the waivers because we’d heard that this was part of what was holding up the line. They were told «no», something to do with having to have them signed at the table. When all was said and done, once we got up to the front, we discovered it was a free-​for-​all. The people at the table were just giving out the wristbands, punchcards and the sampling glasses with complete disregard for who was a VIP, let alone who had signed a waiver.
Now, let me touch on these so-​called ‘taster glasses’. These were plastic TEENY little beer mugs. Some people here are saying that it was supposed to be a 2 oz mug. I’m sorry, but these things were lucky if they were ONE ounce mugs. They’re very reminiscent of one of those tiny mugs that they put on souvenir mardi-​gras beer-​themed necklaces. Most beer tasting events have at least the 4 ounce beer glasses for tastings.
The punch card thing went right out the window. None of the vendors were given hole punches or markers to keep track of how much was tasted. We also found out that a lot of people pulling the beer were just volunteers. This brings up another thing. Apparently those 4 poor women that were at the entrance table were just found on Craigslist that morning.
As to the remark about ‘misconduct’ guests at the first event… this is a fabrication from the promoters. Considering that all of us in the VIP line waited for well over 1.5 hrs because of health code issues, etc, everyone was extremely patient. Even when they finally started letting people in, no one stampeded. People were still very courteous. This whole thing boils down to terrible organization and abysmal management. What did make the event were the vendors who were there trying to make the best of the event.