Beer Festival Asia is an annual festival held in Singapore over 5 days. It brings over 100 different kinds of beers from countries like, Mexico, Chille, USA, Indonesia, Thailand and etc to Singapore. The main purpose of the festival is to allow locals to taste and enjoy beer that they do not normally find and taste in Singapore. Each brewery was specially selected and invited to bring their unique beer to the festival for the 5 days.
The main marquee area
The stakeholders for the event include a number of people. Firstly the most important stakeholders will be the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the organizer of the festival. It is due to the support of STB and the organizer to the festival that makes the festival successful and happens every year.
Secondly the Singapore Flyer and the Singapore GP Pte Ltd are also important stakeholders too. It is because they provide the venue for the festival to happen. In addition, the Singapore Flyer also collaborates with the festival by given visitors free ride on the Flyer by showing the tickets to the Beer Festival. This in term make that event more attractive for people to go to.
Next will be the different beer companies. For example, Singha beer, Carlsberg, Chang beer and many more. Without their support the festival will not be successful, the festival will only be limited to a number of beers. In addition, the volunteers, crew members and the security guards are also very important. They provide information to visitors, answering visitor’s questions and also making the festival safe and enjoyable for everyone.The bands, DJs and MCs are also important factor. It is because they are the people that ensure the atmosphere is high and fun for everyone. The sponsors for the festival are also very important, some of the sponsors are Citibanks, FHM, B-Yond and many more. The sponsors are important because they provide the funds, manpower and equipments for the festival. For example, FHM will provide their girls to do advertising and promotions for the festival.
Lastly, the last stakeholder will be the visitors to the festival and the industry colleagues who attended the Trade Conference. It is because of the increasing numbers of people going to the festival that makes it so successful and happening every year.
The Beer Festival which is located beside the Singapore flyer was held in the weekends after 6pm, so that it will attract a lot of working adults to chill at the beer festival after work. The other reason the festival is held after 6pm is because it will be much cooler at night. People will not feel hot under the Marquee. In addition, as the next day people do not need to work, they can party late into the night. From what I observe, most of the people at there are working adults. Perhaps, it is because the beer festival is located near to the CBD (Centre Business District), working adult in the area will be more likely to visit. I also think that the reason for the event to be held beside the Singapore Flyer is because there are free shuttle buses that bring people to the flyer. Hence it makes the whole event become more accessible to the visitors.
The Flyer at night =)
Before entering the Marquee area, we were each given a booklet that shows all kinds of information of the Beer Festival. It provides first hand information for people on-site who did not go to their official website for the information. It also shows the bands that are performing on the different days, the types of beer, the programming schedule, the food, sitemap and the exhibition layout. I think that the booklet was very useful as it helps us to find areas where we can rest and chill when we are tired, and it also shows the different exhibitors at the different booths. This allow the visitors to move around in the Marquee and finding the booths they are looking for more easily and thus reduce congestion in the walkway.
Outside of the festival area
People buying tickets on-site The festival uses popular bands from Singapore and USA to perform a live band concert to attract people. Some of the popular bands that were invited include, Vertical Horizon and Hell’s Belles. The concert also makes the event more high and fun for the visitors. On different night there are different themes such as rock, blues and country, the bands will perform and sing songs according to the themes. This creates a variety for people to choose which nights they prefer and will want to go to. The concert stage was set up right at the centre of the Marquee, and there is open space in front of the stage to allow people to stand around to dance or listen to the band’s songs. From what I observed, people only started to crowd around the area late in the night. It is because the bands played slow and smooth songs at the beginning, they only played rock and fast songs later in the night which are more attractive to the visitors.
The Security Guy!! Scary!!The organiser also uses a method to reduce confusion, visitors to the beer fest will need to buy the credits in order to purchase the beer, cash are not accepted, this also help the vendor to minimise the lost of money or misallocation of cash that may causing any misunderstanding. The Beerfest currency Booths were set up at different entrances so as to reduce congestions and also reduce the queuing time for exchanging the credits.
The different beer companies also bring along their ‘beer girls’ to entertain and serve the customers, they are also used to provide information about the beer that they are representing to their customers. However, from what I saw I felt that this strategy is use to attract more males customers (who are also more likely to drink beer) to the festival. At around 10pm, when most of the people are tipsy and high, the beer girls are also ask on stage to dance and perform. The visitors were then asked to be judge by cheering for their favourite girls. The beer girl with the loudest cheer will be the winner of the pageant. This in term makes the event more fun and memorable.
The beer girls. yeah! 
The girls dancing off on the stage
And the Winner is........... The Singha Girl!!
In comparison, there is a similar festival in Britain compare to Beer Festival Asia 2009. The festival is call, Great British Beer Festival, which will be held this on this coming 4-8 August at Earls Court, London. For more information about Great British Beer Festival, please click on this link http://gbbf.camra.org.uk/home
Both of the festivals have some similar points. For example, both of the festivals are held through a period of 5 days. It showcases over 100 different beers from the different countries. Both of the festivals website allows advance purchasing of tickets at a discount rate. In addition, the two festivals also cater to corporate. On the opening day corporate employees are invited to join in the festival, and socialise outside of their office setting.
However there are also many differences in the two festivals. In Singapore, the beer festival is held during weekends from 6pm till midnight 1am. While at Britain, the festival is held on weekdays from noon to latest 10pm. I think that the timing for the two festivals is different perhaps because the two festivals have different target audience. In Singapore the target audiences are working adults and party goer. But for Britain the target audience may be older people or families. The other difference is that in Singapore, the live bands are more of rock and roll style. People will easily dance to the music and the music is much trendier. But in Britain beer festival, the live bands are much more of a country and blues style. The festival also invites more of live orchestra bands that play smooth and gentle music that caters to elderly and families.
One of the practice adopted by the Beer Festival Asia 2009, is that glassware and glass bottles are only allowed within the Marquee and plastic cups are to be use outside the main Marquee for safety reasons. The organizer reduces the use of glassware by filling beer in plastic cups and gives to people. If people were to bring glass bottles out of the main marquee, the security guards will ask the person to surrender it before going out. I think this is a very good idea, as it can minimise any cause of injury. As people in the festival will drink a lot, they may get drank and get into fight easily. The glass bottles and glassware may become a weapon in their hands. Thus the use of plastic cups by the organizer can reduce such threats.
The second practice adopted by the beer festival is that the purchase of beer has to be by using the beerfest currency. Visitors will have to buy the currencies which are buddle up in $10 or $50 booklet in order to buy beer. This will ensure that there will be minimum misallocation or misplacement of cash.
Lastly the organiser also makes an effort to reduce congestion in the ticketing booth on-site by allowing people to purchase the tickets earlier online at a cheaper rate. The early birds can get the tickets at $20; while on-site will be $35. This is done so to reduce the waiting time when purchasing the tickets on-site and also to ensure that it will not spoil the visitor’s mood when queuing for the tickets.Other amenities in the Beer Festival:
Huge LCD screen outside of the Maequee for people to see the band performing
The Sports bar! aka the game room
Food stalls outside the main Marquee 
Toliets anyone!?As the festival is held late through the night, hotels at the area may experience increase number of people staying for the night. It is because people in the festival may party late at night and drank too much. Thus staying at the hotel will be the best option for them.
Nearby pubs and nightclubs may also experience increase in people visit. It is because after the festival ended for the day, people may want to go for another round of drink. Thus they will want to visit these areas to get more beer or drinks.
The number of people going for a ride on the Singapore Flyer will also increase; it is because the Beer Festival was held just right beside the Flyer. At the same time, free rides were given to people who brought tickets to the beer festival. Hence the number of people going will definitely increase due to the free ride. As there were many people going to the beer festival, it resulted in congestion in the queue for food at the event area. Thus people will go outside of the event area to get food from the fast food restaurants around the vicinity. As a result, these fast food restaurants will experience a sudden boast in tourism receipt due to the influx of people from the beer festival.
In addition, if people are going to the beer festival via MRT train, they will definitely walk pass City Link Mall and Marina Square. People may shop around that area before visiting the beer festival. As a result there may be increase in revenue earn by the stores in that area.
Overall, I personally felt that the festival was really fun, enjoyable and memorable. I drank a lot of the different and unique beer that day. It taste rather different form the beer in Singapore, but I think it was very nice. I had also taken a lot of pictures with other people and the beer girls too. Everyone was very friendly, thus making my experiences even more enjoyable. The uses of space by the organizer are also very appropriate, the walk way was wide enough for people to walk around, and there were hardly any congestion. They also set up enough ticketing booths for onsite purchase of tickets to the festival which reduce queuing time. Most importantly, the portable toilets are easily accessible to the visitors and there are enough toilets for everyone at the festival. It was the first time I participate in the Beer Festival Asia, but it will not be the last. I am eagerly anticipating for the next Beer Festival. It is a very fun festival which I will recommend to everyone.
THAT ALL!! TAT TAT!!
