What does a sold out Arizona Strong Beer Festival say about Phoenix? It’s more than just people liking beer.
Granted, beer is a popular beverage among many crowds. It doesn’t take much to get people to come to an event with more than 400 craft beers from 120 notable American breweries. That being said, the Arizona Strong Beer Festival celebrated its 15th annual celebration last weekend, and out of those 15 years only three festivals sold out, this year being the third.
Clearly, the event needed more than just strong beer to attract a crowd; it needed a crowd to begin with.
It’s no surprise that Phoenix has grown as an entertainment destination among Arizona locals. What was once just the home of business and a couple of sports arenas is now sprouting new limbs.
With an evolving dining scene, a tight-knit arts community and a destination for specialized education, metropolitan Phoenix has drastically changed over the past 15 years.
The crowd finally exists. There’s a crowd of locals who pay attention to the events happening downtown. There’s a crowd that is finally spending money and living again in our community.
However, let’s not paint such a pretty picture when Phoenix still has so much work ahead of it. While a deserted downtown has shifted to one that is somewhat occupied with nightlife, the changes are rather marginal in the grand scheme of things.
Last year Forbes named Phoenix the third fastest growing city in the nation, but it still has plenty to make up for against its other big city competitors.
Valley Metro had record-breaking ridership the Saturday before Super Bowl Sunday on Jan. 31, with 126,000 light rail boardings. According to an American Public Transportation Association report from March 2013, San Francisco Muni light rail had an average of 160,100 boardings on a weekday, under normal circumstances. In the same APTA report, Valley Metro had an average of 46,000 boardings on a weekday.
In May 2014, Phoenix’s Roosevelt Row landed itself on USA Today’s “10Best: City art districts around the U.S.A.” It spotlighted downtown’s First Friday art walk, which can draw crowds of up to 10,000 people, according to Metro Realty PHX. That being said, Huffington Post reported that Richmond’s First Friday art walk draws an estimated 20,000-person crowd to the monthly event.
Now, this is not to show how poorly Phoenix stands up against other metropolitan cities. This is supposed to be a look at the people who have helped us come this far and recognize those people who are bringing us to the forefront of a great perhaps.
Attending the Strong Beer Festival and seeing the influx of people and community enjoying the masses of locally brewed beers, as well as craft beers from surrounding states, was eyeopening.
I used to live across from Steele Indian School Park and I remember my excitement when PHX Renews, an initiative started by Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, brought a community garden to an empty plot of land in the park. My excitement grew tenfold while attending the Strong Beer Festival at the park.
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People knew one another. People drank together. People laughed and sang merrily with fellow locals. That’s something not every other metropolitan city has. Somehow Phoenix manages to grow each day, taking itty-bitty baby steps toward exciting new prospects while holding on to its familiar small-town culture.
More locally-created events that sprout up in our city will bring the change we desire. Brainstorming symposiums and elite member meetings that focus on the growth of our city won’t bring the type of change our downtown community needs.
City-level action is what will inspire our entrepreneurs, business-owners, students, creatives and other Phoenix folk to write the story of our city that we want to proclaim to the world. We can make a difference.
That’s rather special, I think.
Contact the author at angoe@asu.edu
