It was great to be at the Festival and meet so many very cool people who are interested in mead. We had a wonderful time, and the new venue at the Sheraton Denver West Hotel. The Festival room was awesome and affords us room to grow even more in the future.
We were featured in the USA Today Calendar Section, and also got four live spots on the local Denver morning news. Within moments of the broadcast the Meadfest.com website was inundated with visitors and by afternoon there were already 300 tickets sold in advance. I saw the line of people waiting to get tickets at the door as well so I'm guessing that this was by far our largest festival to date.
We had quite a party in my room on Friday night after the tastings on the Festival floor were over. It was great to put some faces with names, but there were a couple of folks who I wanted to meet but didn't see all weekend. Our first party night wrapped up at about 5:00 AM, and at one point we had about 30 or 40 people in my room drinking and raising hell. It was GREAT! You know there is some serious drinking going on when you see a commercial mead maker (who shall remain anonymous) boosting your coffee pot and filling it up with some mead! LOL
Special thanks to Ken Schramm (the Man, the myth, the legend), Gordon Strong (God of the BJCP), Susan Ruud (BJCP Assistant Director, and an extremely gifted mead maker), Mike Faul (a fun guy to drink Mead with and owner of Rabbit's Foot Meadery), Paul Holm (LONGGGG ISLAAAANDDD Meadery), Harrison and Gretchen Bliss (Spruce Mountain Meadery both just wonderful people to party with), Curt & Kathy Stock (their recipe was the 2006 mead day recipe), Glen and Dani Exline (the party Vikings and makers of several excellent meads), Ben and Becky Starr (winners of the HMMC 2006 Best of Show), Julia Herz (the current Marketing Director for the Brewers Association and former partner in Redstone Meadery), Marie Bird-Struckman (Judging Director for the IMF Commercial Mead Competition and Great American Beer Festival) and too many more to name, who were all sitting, standing, staggering or leaning on something and drinking mead, beer, wine, and other beverages in my room. Wow, with A-List names like that it makes a feller feel pretty humble to be in that kind of talent pool!!
If you weren't there you really missed out. What a very well behaved group of people as well. Pictures of the aftermath will be going up shortly.
Thanks to one and all for being there and sharing their knowledge, ideas, experience and oh yeah .....mead!
Cheers,
Oskaar
We were featured in the USA Today Calendar Section, and also got four live spots on the local Denver morning news. Within moments of the broadcast the Meadfest.com website was inundated with visitors and by afternoon there were already 300 tickets sold in advance. I saw the line of people waiting to get tickets at the door as well so I'm guessing that this was by far our largest festival to date.
We had quite a party in my room on Friday night after the tastings on the Festival floor were over. It was great to put some faces with names, but there were a couple of folks who I wanted to meet but didn't see all weekend. Our first party night wrapped up at about 5:00 AM, and at one point we had about 30 or 40 people in my room drinking and raising hell. It was GREAT! You know there is some serious drinking going on when you see a commercial mead maker (who shall remain anonymous) boosting your coffee pot and filling it up with some mead! LOL
Special thanks to Ken Schramm (the Man, the myth, the legend), Gordon Strong (God of the BJCP), Susan Ruud (BJCP Assistant Director, and an extremely gifted mead maker), Mike Faul (a fun guy to drink Mead with and owner of Rabbit's Foot Meadery), Paul Holm (LONGGGG ISLAAAANDDD Meadery), Harrison and Gretchen Bliss (Spruce Mountain Meadery both just wonderful people to party with), Curt & Kathy Stock (their recipe was the 2006 mead day recipe), Glen and Dani Exline (the party Vikings and makers of several excellent meads), Ben and Becky Starr (winners of the HMMC 2006 Best of Show), Julia Herz (the current Marketing Director for the Brewers Association and former partner in Redstone Meadery), Marie Bird-Struckman (Judging Director for the IMF Commercial Mead Competition and Great American Beer Festival) and too many more to name, who were all sitting, standing, staggering or leaning on something and drinking mead, beer, wine, and other beverages in my room. Wow, with A-List names like that it makes a feller feel pretty humble to be in that kind of talent pool!!
If you weren't there you really missed out. What a very well behaved group of people as well. Pictures of the aftermath will be going up shortly.
Thanks to one and all for being there and sharing their knowledge, ideas, experience and oh yeah .....mead!
Cheers,
Oskaar
