MUSKEGON, MI - The Burning Foot Beer Festival is returning to the shores of Lake Michigan next month for a full day of good brews, art and music.
Thousands of beer and music lovers are expected to flock to Muskegon’s Pere Marquette Beach on Saturday, Aug. 26, for the eighth-annual festival that kicks off at 3 p.m. and comes to a close at 10 p.m.
This year, festivalgoers will have the opportunity to taste beer from 100 breweries, which organizers say is a first for the event since its inception in 2015. Although many are from Michigan, a number of the breweries will be hailing from Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.
Lakeshore Brewers Guild Board Member Jimmy Hegedus said the headliner for this year’s festival will be Julian Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley, whose sounds of roots-reggae music will be a change from recent years.
Also joining the stage will be Tropidelic, a six-piece band from Cleveland, bringing a unique mix of genres like reggae, hip-hop and high-energy funk.
“We’re going back toward a beachy vibe versus the 90s rock that we’ve had in the past,” Hegedus told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. “We’ve got quite a bit of positive feedback from it. You just have to keep expanding and bringing something new.”
RELATED: Thousands pack Lake Michigan beach for Burning Foot Beer Festival 2022
The festival will feature food from local Muskegon restaurants like Hamburger Mikey and Tiki Boiz, overnight camping options and art installations, including the legendary Flaming Hop Tower and Graffiti Wall.
Some of the featured breweries that will be handing out samples include:
- Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.
- Untitled Art
- Revolution Brewing
- 3 Floyds Brewing
- WarPigs Brewing
- Founders Brewing Co.
- Bell’s Brewery
- Starving Artists
Additionally, festivalgoers can partake in many fun activities like a dunk tank, axe throwing by Muskegon Axe Throwing and walking through a spooky tent by Haunted Acres and Starving Artist Brewing Co.
General admission tickets are $60 each, which includes a tasting glass and 15 sample tickets. Limited VIP tickets are $150 and include early access, an exclusive VIP member area, dinner, specialty beers, a S’mores bar, and more. Designated driver tickets are $40 and do not include alcohol sampling tickets.
For those who choose to stay overnight, there will be 300 campsites available along Pere Marquette Beach, as well as 30 RV sites down the channel. Tent camping is $75, while RVs are $150. See here for tickets and more details.
Organizers are expecting around 7,000 festivalgoers this year, which is an increase from last year’s 6,000 people.
“We have been selling tickets to people all over the country, from California to even Texas and Oklahoma,” Hegedus said. “It’s pretty cool to see what our actual reach is. Get your tickets now and come down and enjoy our great event on the beach.”
Shuttles for the event will run to and from three locations in downtown Muskegon from 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. There will be a shuttle running from the parking lot by the Delta Hotel to the Grand Trunk Lot on Lakeside and another that runs from The Grassy Knoll Dispensary at 2125 Leonard St. back down to the beach.
Burning Foot Beer Festival has been hosted yearly at Muskegon’s Pere Marquette Beach since 2015. As Michigan’s only barefoot beer festival, the event is one of the largest beer festivals in the state with breweries hailing from seven states.
Learn more about the annual event here.
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