This past weekend I took part in the curbside beer pick up. Great concept, particularly since the actual festival was cancelled. It was great opportunity to support our local NC breweries.You can pick up an assortment of beers. I ordered a 5 pack of sours for $18. The only issue were the lines were quite long. I was in line, probably 2 hours in my car to pick up the drinks. In the future, it would help to have multiple pick up spots. This was a fun alternative in the setting of social distancing. read more

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There are things I love about Brewgaloo and things I hate, but overall, from a participants perspective, it's good enough to have brought me back three years in a row, so I guess that deserves a four star rating. Anyone you talk to that's been to Brewgaloo will agree that the event is utterly disorganized. They encourage patrons to buy tickets ahead of time BUT DON'T! The will call line is always 3-4 times longer then the usually nonexistent 'day of' line. Honestly, the confusion is ultimately in the purchasing and ID checking of the event. I'm not sure if the staff doesn't know what they're supposed to be doing or don't communicate, but it's just a cluster f. Don't purchase full pours. This is honestly in your best interest since the 3oz pours are never under, rather they're almost always over. Sometimes the beer tents even give you a full pint for funzies. Not sure how people are making money with this event; I've heard it's by how ever many empty kegs you have at the end, while others have told me it's through token collect. Either way, the breweries themselves don't seem to be regulating the process very well. In addition, I have run into more then one tent where they're giving away free samples! One of the reason's I love Brewgaloo is that I'm paying for the exact amount I want to drink. I'm not paying $50+ a ticket like most of the local beer fests. Rather, I'll buying however many $1 3oz pours or $5 pints I can drink. It's much more financially friendly for those of us that don't go crazy at festivals like this. Last year, like many of the reviews stated, vendors were running out of beer and it was getting messy the later it got. This year, it was drizzling rain during the whole event. And while I thought that would keep a lot of people at home, it kept about 1/4 of the regular crowd home. If you're going to this event and it's a nice day out, expect LONG lines for beer and food. It's just that kind of festival. Finally, if you don't like drunk people, this would be an event to avoid. Other then that, come on down to Fayetteville and enjoy music (some so loud you won't be able to hear anything else), beer from what must be every single brewery in North Carolina and even some liquor! The variety of food trucks but most of all, the gathering of groups of friends, looking to have a good time. See you next year! read more

Brewgaloo - They've got water! - Festivals Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

This is just an amazing event to spend time with friends, family, or to even meet and make new friends. Awsome event the entire state gets behind. Tons of vendors serving food, craft beers, ciders, other drinks like sparkling wines, milkshakes, fruit smoothies, etc. (Something for everyone). They have tents set up where they sell merchandise, clothing, jewelry, nic-nacks. Live music on either end and a dj in the middle. I mean, c'mon......this is just something you need to experience. This is my 2nd year and i look forward to many many more. Not to mention all the stores, bars, restaraunts all up and down Fayetteville St. are open and the party goes well into the night!! read more

Brewgaloo - Festivals Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

I'd like to think that the complaints from previous years have been heard as the organizers were incredibly helpful and we were able to purchase tix online while on line to save time. Buying the bundle package of $25 for 25 tickets was pretty awesome bargain, especially for a light weight such as myself. I enjoyed both the live music and DJ as well as the non beer and food booths. Cupcakes, cookie dough and beer? Yes Please! And oh, Nick P, no offense fellow elite, but life doesn't stop once you pop out a nugget, and luckily Raleigh and Cary embrace this lifestyle so that I'm not stuck at home like something out of a Mad Men's episode. The only thing I found 'more annoying' (please note the sarcasm) than other kids in strollers and lots of pups were younger millennials misquoting Billy Madison. If you're gonna quote a Sandler classic, make sure you do it right. We'll be back next year for sure! read more

Brewgaloo - Enjoying our time at Brewgaloo! Chardonnay Beer from Skull Camp Brewing for the win!!! - Festivals Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

What a wonderful event in downtown Raleigh!! Brewgaloo was local craft beer festival held on a Sunday afternoon in City Plaza, on Fayetteville St between Davie and Lenoir. Food trucks lined the road and were staggered between beer tents. The lines to get beer tickets at the beginning of the event were a bit long, but they moved quick and were well managed. You could purchase $1 tickets for 3oz. pours, or $5 tickets for a pint. There were about 20 local NC breweries serving several varieties of their tasty brews at this event. The food trucks were quick and delicious! I hope DTR has more events like this!! I believe it was very successful and well managed, and there was NO cover fee! You even got a free acrylic pint glass to taste your beverages at different vendors. My only request next time is to use another block to have the event because the area got quite congested with the large turnout. Loved it!! read more

Brewgaloo was the most disorganized beer festival that I have been to around the area. Likes: -Wonderful selection of craft beer and cider, they even had liquor -Tons of food trucks, we got delicious sliders at Cockadoodlemoo -Tents to purchase locally made items such as dog treats, sunglasses, shirts and more Dislikes: -Entry into the festival, the lines were not clearly labeled nor was the staff informative (it would have been easier if they put a sign above the tent showing will call and purchase tickets here) -Since they are unable to regulate the amount of attendees, it got packed and the lines got long -Restroom line overlapped with wristband line which led to confusion -A few of the vendors were not set up yet when it first started at 2pm I opted for 25 sample pours instead of doing the pints option, I think that this is the best bang for your buck. Plus, I left feeling a bit tipsy.. read more

The four stars is per boyfriend since he is the beer drinker. I'm just the dd. Don't mind me. April 2016 We got to the festival around 3pm and were fully planning to pay exorbitantly for parking, but free parking is available at the parking garage about a block away. The festival sprawls about three blocks horizontally and features a woeful short supply of portajohns with terrible lines. Make sure you check for all the lines. We found one that was maybe 5 people deep and kept it a big secret. I liked to smell all the soaps that were for sale and ogle at the food truck menus. There was one beer I liked, a tequila something from Ass Clown. We waited forever (~20 min) because there were a million unapologetic people inserting themselves into the line. The lines were really something at Brewgaloo. There were also so many lines to get tickets. It looks like the line to buy tickets had the same amount of disgruntled folks as the line to pick up tickets already paid for online. Equal amounts of confused patrons approached both lines asking what the line was for. Everything was hearsay. Luckily we were in the correct line. Word on the street was that there are other lines to buy tickets. The food left a lot to be desired. We had bulgogi, baked potato, and kimchi mandu. I liked the kimchi mandu ($7 for 4 pieces) but that was about it. At around 7pm, the crowd grew insanely. It was like being on the dancefloor at a crowded club except nobody is dressed fashionably. Boyfriend got progressively cuter as he continued to drink so yeah, I'd probably drive him back up to ths festival next year. That'd be worth it. read more

The ticket price methodology confused a lot of my friends but let me explain: you can buy tickets in sets of $25 online that come with a cup and avoid the line at the event - however there's an $8 convenience fee and you still have to get in line for a wrist band. Each beer is $5. There's another line where you can just buy as many tickets as you want. Pro tip: Get in that line and say "I want two beers" and they'll ask you for $12 and give you a cup and 10 tickets. Brewgaloo is fun! Be prepared for: very drunk people, packed street, lines of 2-10 people for beer, having no shame. This event is fun because you can pretty much assume everyone is as sauced as you're about to get. That said: don't bring children, be wary bringing a dog, have a way to get home - it's easy to get carried away here. Don't worry about long beer lines too much, if you're in dire need of a beer there's always a tent with a smaller line. But if you came to try specific beers this is a rowdy festival. Hard to notice the flavor with the crowd and noise! read more

Brewgaloo - Unknown stout, and unknown IPA. At 6% these got us tipsy! Might have been more... Fun times were had. - Festivals Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

2019 was crowded as ever! But still a great time sampling great local brews and eating good local food. The breweries from places distant from the Raleigh area were the real treats. It was nice to have all of them come to us! $30 + fees to buy 25 tix in advance and pick up at Will Call. With the fees it's a bit pricy, plus you still have to wait in a long line because they have to ID you. 5 tix for a pint, 2 for a sample. Samples are the way to go. If you're nice to the folks they usually pour past the sample line. Overall, it was a lot of fun and totally worth the lines and kinda pricy tickets. read more

Brewgaloo - Taken early in the event. By 5p people were shoulder to shoulder. But if you love beer & have good people to hang with then it's all good. - Festivals Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

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I had a blast. Yes it was cold and wet but I managed to make the best of it with my friends. I was so happy with the variety of food trucks. I think I tried at least a dozen. We would order something and my group would taste it. My favorite vendor was OMG Chicken and Oak City Meatball. Oh and I can't forget Bo's diner... I love Korean food. read more

Brewgaloo - Best meatballs ever! - Festivals Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

I would love to give this a higher rating because it is a fun concept but it was packed there. You could barely walk through the streets. Fayetteville is closed off and there are a ton of food trucks and breweries. There were long lines but if you keep walking you will find a shorter one. The weather was awesome so it was nice to be outside. Purchase tickets ahead of time. It's a little cheaper and you go to will call to get them so the line is much shorter than having to purchase tickets there. $30 for 25 tickets. 5 tickets gets you a pint. 2 tickets gets you a 3 oz taste. You can bring dogs but I don't think I would. Overall it was fun. read more

Brewgaloo - List of vendors - Festivals Near Me - Raleigh, North Carolina

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I loved the festival last year but this year it was way more crowded. It seems like they had more food vendors which causes a little more congestion and crowdedness. It also seems like there were more people, several brewers begin to run out of beer around 6/7:00. The map of breweries was very useful and the entrance line wasn't bad. I did enjoy that local places had tickets for sale Prior to the event I just wish you could buy add on tickets to the standard 25 because everyone in our group did not need 25 each. read more

There seems to be a couple of these beer fest type events in Raleigh and Durham spread throughout the year and this seems to be the spring edition. Pros: -Great selection of NC beers and food trucks. -Relatively cheap ($5 for 5 tastings of 3 oz pours or $5 for a pint). The tasting pours were easily half a pint at some places so it's definitely worth your money. -Great weather (unlike Durham World Beer Fest which was dreadfully hot). -Beer alternatives such as cider and liquor drinks for those who don't drink beer (like me) Cons: -A bit disorganized - I tried to find a list of beers available with no luck -SUPER long lines - there were some places that we waited a solid 15-20 minutes for a pour and let's not even talk about the food truck lines. Though the place I ate at (Chai's) was ridiculously fast and efficient. -Some places ran out of beer or certain beers pretty early on. We arrived right before 5 PM and there were a few places completely out and a couple of places with only limited selection remaining. The event is supposed to last until 10 PM. Verdict: All in all, it's a good and fun way to spend an lazy afternoon. You will run into just about every person you know in Raleigh here. read more

First, the negative: There were very long lines at food trucks and at beer tents. The token system was a bit of a joke, when many tents were pouring half a glass or more for a tasting ticket. At the end of the night, I was getting free pours and gave away my remaining tokens. On the flip side, I love events like this that bring some life to downtown Raleigh. I also got to try a couple new beers and have a good time with many of my friends. I'm curious how Brewgaloo could possibly improve the crowds and lines. But, they need to do something. Maybe they need to expand the festival area so there are more places for people to enjoy their beer and food truck treats. read more

If you like craft beer and you like food trucks, Brewgaloo is the place to go. If you don't like crowds, Brewgaloo is the last place you want to go too. I had the ticket with 5 full beers so before I got a single one I walked back and forth down Fayetteville St twice to get the full lay of the land. After that I picked out the beers that I wanted to try (basically matched up the brewery with the length of the line). I would have love to gotten some Lonerider or NODA brewery but their line were crazy long. I ended up mainly going with Double Barley (which has become a new favorite of mine) and Foothills (which had like 4 tents so their lines were not that bad). I loved that just about every food truck in the triangle was there and there were plenty of options that it was not but so hard to get something that you would enjoy. I ended up going with Belgian Waffology. Now I am not the biggest fan of Waffles but I could smell the truck every time I walked past so I decided to give it a shot, and I am glad I did as it was extremely tasty and filling. I do wish they would somehow work the lines better at the festival, as I found myself cutting through lines just to get down the street, but other then that it was a fun time had by all. read more

4.5 - Brewgaloo - you were awesome! So - my husband and I were at a local brewery lamenting about the fact that we had to miss the Raleigh World Beer Festival. Luckily for us, our neighbor at the bar overhead us and told us about Brewgaloo - the weekend or two after Beer Fest and we got excited. My husband went online ahead of time and purchased tokens electronically - this is a great idea. You still have to stand in line to pick up your tokens but, this line is shorter. Since we arrived right at the start of the event - this went very smoothly. The token process went well. I think that we bought 4 silver tokens (worth a full beer each) and probably 10 wooden tokens (each wooden token was worth a taste sized pour). I definitely used more taster pours than full beers. Social media - I found Brewgaloo on Facebook and "liked" their page a few weeks before the event. They did a great job getting me excited. They posted about beer lineups from the brewers for weeks ahead of the event - this got me excited to seek out various breweries that I may have walked past before. Keep up the great social media work next year Brewgaloo. It was awesome! Beer - All of the breweries were from NC. My husband and I seek out breweries and there were many that we hadn't heard of before. It was awesome. Between the breweries, food trucks and vendors (think cool tshirts, etc) - the event took up the entire part of Fayetteville Street between Tasty 8's/Capitol end and then all the way down to City Plaza. Food trucks - Also an awesome line-up. A few of our favorites were Chicken-que (try the Bird's Next - fries topped with chicken bbq and cheese), Baquett-about-it (not sure on my spelling on this one) - really great. I think I liked the Model UN - a tasty chorizo sausage in a wonderful baquette with a great chimichurri sauce. Yeah - lots of great options. My favorite "brew" of the event goes to Urban Orchard. They are a cider group out of Asheville. They had a cider called Diablo and it was amazing. It was a light, sweet cider with a kick of spice on the end - perfectly done. I need some more. Too bad they are four hours away! We will definitely try to return to this festival and we highly recommend it. Despite a rainy Saturday - the streets were packed and we stayed out there for hours. Great job Brewgaloo! read more

An NC craft beer festival held during NC beer month? What can be more awesome than that?! I haven't had a chance to check out other beer festivals so I have nothing to really compare this with, but I had a blast! Yes, there was a long line to get beer tokens which was annoying but in the span of the entire event, I found this to be only a small annoyance. I will say this was definitely an oversight on the staff as there was only one person processing and handing out tokens for those of us who bought them ahead of time (which was a lot of people!) and three people doing the same for those who bought it at the event (which weren't as many, at least when I was there). I was pretty nervous that I'd have to wait in long lines for beer but this really wasn't the case. Sure there were lines with a wait of 10 minutes at the most, but nothing outrageous. I took advantage of this event to try out breweries I'm not familiar with or had never heard of before. So that meant I tried Brueprint (Apex, NC), Twin Leaf (Asheville), Ass Clown (Cornelius/Charlotte, NC), and Starpoint (Carrboro, NC--in my neck of the woods! Go figure!) My favorite by far was the IPA from Twin Leaf! I was disappointed that they ran out so quickly as I was at their booth early when they were only serving samples at the time and was hoping to come back and grab a full pint later, but oh well! Onto the other breweries! Ass Clown had some unique flavors but I wasn't feeling the Jasmine Tea IPA I ordered. I was actually surprised to find a local brewery in my own town (Carrboro)! But that's why I love going to these festivals and learning about the smaller breweries! The food truck scene was amazing! I really wish I wasn't so full of beer that I could have tried out other trucks but I settled on baguetteaboutit since I still haven't tried them out and wanted something that wasn't as messy as a sandwich. The Talking To Me was delicious and hit the spot! Sadly, there was on-and-off rain throughout the event so that made it a little bit harder to enjoy but my group and I still had a blast! There was also a fun photo booth where Adam and I took several goofy pictures. Overall, there was plenty to eat, drink and do! And with no entry fee, I feel that Brewgaloo gives other beer festivals a run for their money. I will definitely attend next year! I just hope they're a bit better with processing and handing out the beer tokens. read more

Beer fest + food truck rodeo + NC shops = Brewgaloo. While a lot of the breweries stuff can easily be found elsewhere around town, I love getting to try some of the smaller ones without paying a ton of money. Granted the affordability comes with the price of it being a bit more crowded, but I've never felt like it was worse than any other similar event. I'll definitely agree that their ticketing process needs to get way more streamlined. I ordered early enough to get them in the mail, but didn't receive them. Picking them up at the Shop Local tent was easy enough, but I then had to go stand in line for 30 mins. just to get a wristband. Why not have my wristbands with everything else I had just picked up? Ticketing snafus aside, I'll most likely be hitting up Brewgaloo next year for another great sampling of NC beers. read more

Don't go. Worst run brew event I've ever been to. The lines were horrible. The breweries ran out of their beer early and the beer was warm as the event didn't think to get cooler trucks to serve out of. These poor breweries were giving beer out of kegs sitting in a puddle of ice when it's 95 degrees out. This event is like the lemonade stand those kids put up at the corner of the block except you don't have to stand in a line to buy tokens to stand in line to drink warm beer. Give it up Brewgaloo or get your shit together and do it right. Greed is not the reason to throw a beerfest. read more

not bad! brewery turnouts and brew selections were excellent. i look forward to next year when the glitches may finally be ironed out. One poor victim of the disorganization paid $5 each for taster tickets - which had be distributed when the taster cards were stolen! This mishap bumped the entire festival upside down - and each of the widely dispersed ticket locations started making their own rules. By the way - why did i purchase tickets online to save time - when the "will call" line was twice as long as the non-prepaid one? read more

This was the most disorganized mess I have ever been to. Some good breweries and beers, but ridiculous how poorly organized it was. They weren't selling tasting cards when we got there, which was frustrating since we were on a tight time schedule, so didn't get to taste as much as we would have liked. Whoever the event coordinator for this was should get an assistant. read more

Enjoyed the wide variety of beers and food trucks. Lines for will call tokens were horrendous and customer service by the token vendors was atrocious. Tips- get there early (30 min prior to start) and buy 3oz sample tokens rather than pint tokens read more

I love the idea of Brewgaloo. Shop local, local beers, local food...it's truely something I love to support. I love something unique to Raleigh. As my husband volunteered for the Aviator tent, I heard plenty of complaining about the event, mainly the long lines. This is Brewgaloo's 2nd year, I believe. I just think it needs some time to work out kinks and get better ideas on how to handle the traffic flow. Overall, I drank too much craft beer, ran into too many people I knew, and had a great time. read more

Pretty cool event, but long lines to get in and get your drink tokens which seemed to take forever. Once inside a lot of Fayetteville Street felt cramped with people, and the different beer vendors and food trucks. The beers were hit or miss. I tried some I liked, and some...not so much. I did like the sandwich I got at the Deli food truck. The bands I heard were interesting. read more

This was the second annual event, but my first attendance. Great beer good food. The tasting option was best at $5 five three oz pours. Only complaint, the ticket lines were long. Maybe expand onto more streets. read more

Some of the other beer festivals in Raleigh just did it better for me as far as the long lines and beer selection (many at Brewgaloo ran out before the event was even halfway over). There was a huge turnout, and a large selection of food trucks. The event was enjoyable if you have no expectations. However, HERE is the unfortunate reason for the negative review and what ruined my experience: rude organizers. I do not know who actually runs the event as that information was either a pain to find, or it was too crowded to find an information booth. But, I did ask a "volunteer" a question regarding timing ("When do the biggest crowds normally come through?") We arrived around 5pm and were already dealing with beer trucks running out. She replied in the rudest tone I could imagine, "There's no way to know, but it was clearly written on the website to arrive early. That's why we have a will call line." As someone who heard about this event through the grassroots grapevine, information being posted on a website wouldn't help. With an event ending at 10pm, I would have thought 5pm was a fair arrival time. For an expensive experience, I would have expected a nicer response, and it put a damper on the rest of my evening. I work in events, so I understand the stress but I ALWAYS hide it from the attendees as they are the entire reason an event is successful. Did some research and found out my rude volunteer was the Director of the whole event. GO FIGURE. read more

This review is for being a vendor at Brewgaloo working on a food truck. 2016 was awesome and it may have been to the glorious weather we had on Saturday. 2015 was a bit rainy and there were many complaints about the token system since the lines were so long. This year, Shop Local and the organizers or Brewgaloo did a fantastic job and the tickets were mailed out before the event. This gave attendees a chance to get their beer right at 2pm when it all opened and were able to get a head start on Fayetteville Street. The parking passes for vendors was also a big plus. I thought lines moved quickly and there was great music, food and beer for all. There was a huge basketball tournament going on in the convention center, proms, and even a wedding celebration. All of this attributed to a fantastic turnout and Fayetteville street was packed with people all day long. We are super excited about next year and think it keeps getting better and better. Thank you, Shop Local and the Brewgaloo team for organizing such a great beer and food truck festival. read more

For the love of everything craft beer, FIX THE TICKET BOOTH SYSTEM. It's year 5, guys, you gotta start to catch on at some point. If you weren't there by 2:15, you were screwed and in line for over an hour. After you fix that, find a way to allow buying MORE tickets that doesn't include the ID and glass line - a "repurchase" booth for those who'd like to stick around longer than originally planned. read more

They drew us in with false advertising. Their website says buy online to skip the lines. Not true. We bought our tickets online and they made us wait in a roughly one hour long line to turn that ticket into a different ticket. The line to convert the online ticket to a real ticket was just as long buying a new ticket. That would be fine, but don't lie about no lines if there is a massive around the block line. The event is cool otherwise, but crazy crowded and massive lines for everything. read more

Attended tonight with 5 gal pals. We probably would not go back but we did have a good time. We are in our 40s and it was a much younger crowd. I'd rather go to an individual brewery but if you are a student this is the place to go! Lines were not terrible, porta potty's were well used , and the large crowds were very well-behaved. One thing we all noticed- irresponsible dog owners!!! Brewgaloo is no place for dogs. Their stupid owners were busy talking and drinking while the dogs were getting stepped on. I saw one dog yelp twice while the dumb owner was oblivious-until I said "whose dog is that?" Trying to call her attention. At which time she rudely answered "mine" and continued to talk. When the dog got stepped on a third time she potato-sacked the poor little dog over her shoulder-where I have no doubt he eventually fell off her shoulder down the street by the way she was not even concerned about how she was carrying the poor little guy. Please ban dogs next year. It's not like it's an open park, where you sit on the grass and the dog can enjoy themselves.We saw several dogs that were just miserable and scared to death and their stupid drunk owners were completely self-absorbed and unaware. read more

Brewgaloo has the genius concept (for a beer festival) of pay by the pint/taste. This is a great option for someone like me who cannot quite drink their fill for a $40+ beer festival ticket. There were also local food trucks and vendors galore. As the day went on, some of the more popular tasting stations got dry fast so if you find a particular beer you like, make sure you get your fill early on. I think that the price is a bit high for the five tickets you have to spend for a full pint and the measuring seems to differ from brewery tent to tent. But on the other end, I like how they offer an even smaller sample pour for two tickets which is great if you want to try a lot of different beers but have a low alcohol threshold. Brewgaloo is very similar to the other beer festivals held in the area but can you really have too many beer festivals? The pay-by-the-pint is probably not worth it to someone who wants to try every beer, however, Brewgaloo also offers other event options where you can pay a flat price for the beer tastings. I would of course suggest online purchases to save time standing in line for the tickets as it was quite long. read more