Looking for some fun for “Thirsty Thursday” this week? Well, maybe you should head on down to Grand Rapids' sprawling riverside park, Ah-Nab-Awen Park, where a beer and film festival will be taking place. The event, entitled the Clips Beer & Film Tour is sponsored by New Belgium Brewing Company, a craft brewery located in Colorado. This year marks the sixth time that this event has been held here in Grand Rapids, and plenty of people are already very excited for this year's Clips Beer & Film Tour. The tour will be hitting a total of 20 cities across the nation this year, and Grand Rapids is always happy to host this enjoyable event.
On June 11th, (this Thursday), Ah-Nab-Awen Park will likely be packed with microbrew fans vying to sample the seventeen craft beers on tap. The Clips Beer & Film Tour will also feature 20 independent short films (projected onto a massive inflatable screen in the park).
The beers, all of which are New Belgium brews, will include Cocoa Mole, Film Noir Imperial Milk Stout (which is only available at Clips events), La Folie, Pear Ginger Beer, Rampant Imperial IPA, Skinny Dip, Somersault, Transatlantique Kriek, Trippel, 1554, Blue Paddle, Fat Tire, Ranger IPA, Shift, Slow Ride Session IPA, Snapshot Wheat and the world debut of Hop Tart from the Hop Kitchen Series.
The event is being billed as family-friendly (as well as dog-friendly), so state-issued identification will be required of those who wish to buy one of the amazing beers on tap at this event. Three ounce sampler cup tokens will cost $1.50 each, while twelve ounce cup tokens will cost $6 each. Attendees are encouraged bring a short lawn chair or a blanket to sit on while watching the films. Those more interested in which independent shorts will be showing than beer can watch a trailer featuring the film selections to be shown this year.
One of the best things about the Clips Beer & Film Tour is the fact that 100% of the profits from the beer sales will go to help the Greater Grand Rapids Bicycling Coalition, whose Facebook page can be visited here. There is also a Facebook page for the event itself where readers can RSVP and get additional information about this awesome annual event that helps makes Grand Rapids “Beer City, USA.”
The “doors” open at 8:30 pm and the film screenings will start at 10 pm. Food trucks from A Moveable Feast and Gettin' Fresh will be onsite to provide event goers with delicious, fresh food. There will also be several bikes available via a raffle, with ticket proceeds going to support the Room to Ride campaign. The Room to Ride Campaign is working to ensure there are 100 miles of bike lanes in the Grand Rapids area by the end of 2015, which is an excellent cause, sure to make West Michigan more attractive to environmentally-conscious people.