Re: Real Ale Fest

I wish it were that easy. The RAF organizing committee has looked everywhere. There are a couple more criteria: o We need to have the facility for a whole week, for stillaging. And yes, we are open to facilities where we would only stillage in a portion of the place for the whole week, and then use the rest of it for the fest sessions - such as partitionable banquet rooms. o Needs to be close to frequent public transit. CTA prefered, but could be a Metra line if the trains run frequently. o City preferred, to be close to the attendees. We tried the suburbs. The one RAF we held in Westmont had a huge problem - nobody came. o NO union rules requiring union workers for schlepping and for bartending. (This rules out, for instance, McCormick Place and big hotels, as well as some very nice union halls on the city's near West Side.) o Must have its own liquor license o Must be willing to negotiate any corkage fees as a part of the whole rental package. o Must have a "bad" floor - i.e. no fancy carpet, finished wood, etc. We have found several very nice facilities in Chicago which had beautiful wood floors, whose owners had apoplectic fits at the thought of us spilling beer on it for a week. Bare cement preferred. We remain open to ideas. Finding a venue has been the big stumbling block. Holding another Real Ale Fest is truly a Holy Grail. The lead time after securing a facility is about 9 months, so to have one in Spring 2007 we would need to have it nailed down before Summer 2006. In the meantime, there will be another Night of the Living Ales in 2006. Roger Deschner rogerd(a)uic.edu ==== Cellarmaster, Bottle-Conditioned Real Ales, Real Ale Fest 2003 ==== On Tue, 13 Dec 2005, Rich wrote: proper RLF in 2006? Who are the specific people in charge of organizing it? If a venue that doesn't have the liquor license issues is all that is needed, why don't they hold it outside of Chicago city limits? I would think some place could be found.