This weekend there was a Micro-brew and Music festival. I cannot turn around without another beer festival just waiting to pounce on my innocent wallet. General admission was $25 per person which included two drink tokens that entitled the holder to about 8oz of sweet sweet beer. Barely enough to get the take the dust off my tongue. Drink tickets cost $3 each or two for $5. Each ticket was worth a half pint of beer, so figure you are paying $5 a pint. Hungry? No outside food allowed but for 2 drink tickets you can get a snack from a local food truck.
As the costs racked up in my head I estimated that it would cost between $60 and $75 to have a good time. I considered not going but could not stand the idea of drunk single women going through an entire beer festival without being indiscriminately hooted and hollered at by yours truly. Instead of giving into despair, I did a little research.
On the festival's web page there was a link to sign up as a volunteer. There were all sorts of different tasks available which would grant free admission. I signed up to work the brewers hospitality tent since I assumed they would have access to the most beer. Possibly all the beer. Maybe even the most delicious type of beer ever produced, free beer. I was not disappointed.
When I arrived at the hospitality tent the women in charge was a bit stressed out with all the preparations so I got right to work helping set up. Our main charge was to ensure that all the food on display was hot and ready to eat. I once worked as a banquet waiter so it was really easy to set up the line and make everything presentable. After that our only responsibility was to ensure that everything stayed stocked. This gave me plenty of free time to wander around the festival searching for that special someone. The brewers even provided kegs of beer for the tent so I drank for free too.
In exchange for a small amount of my time I ended up getting to enjoy the festival for free. I was able to meet some cool people and even do a little networking. I did have to go buy some throat lozenges the next day. Probably from all the Hollering. There are plenty of upcoming festivals this summer and I plan to deploy this strategy again while I continue to let my wallet rest easy.