Well, we’ve been in business about 6 months now, and will be pouring at our first beer fest next weekend. (www.strangebrewfestpt.com)
Anyway, we’re looking for any suggestions you guys may have. It is nice that they will write me a check for all 6 kegs (1/6 bbl) as soon as we arrive.
Any and all thoughts are appreciated.
Everytime I show up a brew fest I realize I have forgotten something. Make sure you have tape, sharpie, scissors, paper, and of course signs/posters and good, quick descriptions of what beers you have on tap. A stand alone chalk board or white board works. People at fests like gimmicks and swag. Make sure you have extra Co2 and extra gaskets and all the fitting for your jockey box. Make sure you have a jockey box! 
One of the things we have done is to do a special beer tapping at a specific time (ie: Dark Hammer Tapping @ 7:30). It’s an awesome ego boost to see the line swell.
Thanks Keith-
We’ve gone to this beer fest for the last 5-6 years, it will be a little different this year going as a brewer. They will have a volunteer to help out, so that will still give us time to have some fun. (I hope)
If you have a website, facebook page, mailing list, etc. Make sure people can sign up with links, smartphone qr codes, etc. Get some long-term contact out of your time. Use a site like http://www.the-qrcode-generator.com/ to make one of those smartphone 2D barcodes out of your facebook page URL.
Thanks for the QR code link. that’s terrific. I always thought folks paid for those things…
Well, we survived our first beer fest. Had some problems getting the jockey box to pour nice, but we overcame that. They asked for 1bbl of beer, and we poured it all. Had to close our booth with a couple hours left. Beleive it or not, the Crab Stout was a great hit. (who would have thought)
I usually run my kegs at 5psi when at the beer fest.
Yes, when you’re pouring that fast at a fest you don’t really need to worry about the beer losing carb in the keg.
Congrats on making it through your first fest! I went to a beer fest in St. Paul this past weekend and was getting pretty amped at the prospect of pouring there in the future. It sounds like you had a good time and that people liked the beer. What more can you ask for?