'It has grown immensely.' Why Bockfest is Cincinnati's ultimate survivor

On Friday, Feb. 26, 1993, a candlelight parade started off from Arnold’s Bar & Grill as revelers ushered a keg of Christian Moerlein’s newly minted bock beer to be blessed at Old St. Mary’s Church in Over-the-Rhine.

Two bands – the Mad Bulgarian String Quartet, which specialized in "gypsy rhapsodies," and the Chris Miller Chorale – provided the music as the rag-tag group marched through what was then a very different Over-the-Rhine than the one we know today.

The event, dubbed Bockfest, was meant to celebrate both the coming of spring and Over-the-Rhine's brewing heritage. At the time, Christian Moerlein, then owned by the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Co., was one of just two craft beer companies in the United States, the other being the recently closed Anchor Steam brewery in San Francisco. So the release of a new style of beer, based on a very old style one once enjoyed during Lent by fasting German Monks, was cause for celebration.

Saturday featured a gallery walk that ran until midnight. Jim Tarbell, then the owner of both Arnold’s and Grammer’s, offered roasted goat and suckling pig at the former and piles of sausages, including bockwurst, metts and andouille, from Avril & Son butcher shop (now Avril-Bleh) at the latter. At the old Tower Furniture warehouse on Main Street, The Beaumonts sang the blues in what was then described as ”a cafe setting,” that was also the first official Bockfest Hall.

Things have changed in the 32 years since. These days Bockfest attracts around 30,000 people over three days of drinking, eating and celebrating. There's a sausage queen competition, a "beard baron" competition and a brewing competition. To ward off inclement weather (like the snowstorm that canceled the parade in 2008) a snowman is burned in effigy prior to each Bockfest weekend during what's dubbed as the Precipitation Retaliation Happy Hour. Instead of one bock beer on tap, there are dozens.

Bockfest changes for 2024

Instead of one Bockfest Hall, this year there will be three: one each at Moerlein Lager House, Rhinegeist and Northern Row. There are also two marathons associated with the event: the Bock Beer 5K at the Banks, and the far less demanding Bockfest .05K in OTR on Sunday. For a full schedule of Bockfest events, visit bockfest.com.

“It has grown immensely,” said Steve Hampton, executive director of the Brewery District Community Urban Redevelopment Corp., the event's organizer since 2006. "It started as a happy hour on Friday night and has grown into a three-day event." Hampton also hopes the original goal of Bockfest to celebrate the city's brewing history won't get lost in the revelry "We are doing tours and bringing in more of the heritage," he said.

Bockfest, which is sponsored by Servatii this year, is indeed growing. But Hampton said its traditions are important to him. Despite the growing crowds, he is determined to keep it based in OTR, instead of moving it to a larger venue. "It's always a struggle when you plan something big like this," he said. "You don't want to take away the traditions. We can't move it to The Banks because it wouldn't be the same. We have to keep it at places like Arnold's, because Arnold's is the spirit of this festival."

He points to another beloved Cincinnati festival that once felt home-grown and organic before it got to big for its britches. "When Mid-Point changed their model, they lost their spirit," he said, referring to the ill-fated music festival that went poof after the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra purchased it and moved it from Over-the-Rhine to Downtown.

There are still plenty of Bockfest naysayers. Some long for the more intimate Bockfests of yore. A Reddit commenter recently lamented the loss of the old Moerlein brewery location, noting that the festival hasn't been as interesting, nor a fun as it used to be since moving to Findlay Playground. Another said she felt like the festival was on its last legs.

But in some ways, Bockfest has always been on its last legs. It has always faced challenges then pivoted to deal with them and survive. When its original sponsor, Hudepohl-Schoenling, fell on hard times, Bockfest found a new sponsor in the old Barrel House Brewery. When Barrel House left Over-the-Rhine in 2005, Bockfest seemed doomed again. But thanks to proponents that include the nonprofit Brewery District CURC, it continues to cheat death and keep on growing.

Finding a home for Bockfest Hall

During its first two decades, Bockfest Hall was located wherever organizers could find a space to have it. Unlike now, there were plenty of abandoned buildings and warehouses to choose from in a pre-redeveloped OTR. After its tenure at the Davidson Furniture factory, the hall bounced around from the Emery Theater to pre-restored Japp’s to the current Louvino space. It wasn't until 2007 that they found a permanent home in the Christian Moerlein brewery on Moore Street in Over-the-Rhine. But when Moerlein sold it off in 2021, the location was no longer available.

For the past two years, "the hall" was housed in a large tent and a big patch of grass at Findlay Playground, which wasn’t always a safe bet in the month of March. Take last year, when heavy rains turned the playground into a virtual beer-soaked swamp.

“There aren't any empty warehouse spaces in OTR anymore,” Hampton said. “[Findlay Playground] was the space that was available and the space worked because it was near Findlay Market and the Brewery District. But it was still a tent on grass and with the weather, it was not great."

They also lost one of their biggest forms of revenue: Beer sales. "We lost Friday night," Hampton said. "We managed to make it into the black last year, but it was a big wake-up call. We could have been wiped out.”

Even if Bockfest wanted to use the playground this year, it’s no longer available since the Cincinnati Recreation Commission is partnering with the Cincinnati Center City Development Corp., or 3CDC, to build a new community center there. This led Hampton and other Bockfest supporters to work with three local breweries, Moerlein House, Rhinegeist and Northern Row, to expand the hall into three halls with three very different experiences, all of which can be accessed via the Cincinnati Connector streetcar.

The hall at Moerlein House is geared more toward traditionalists interested in brewing history, traditional German music and classes. There will be plenty of bock beers on tap to sample, as well as a bock beer competition open to both commercial and home brewer and a speaker series by local Cincinnati history and brewing luminaries.

Northern Row will offer a dozen bock beers on tap throughout the weekend, as well as German music. The parade awards will take place there on Saturday, and a family friendly goat petting zoo happens Sunday. The brewery will also host the annual Bockfest .05K Fun Run.

Meanwhile, Rhinegeist will offer 21 bock beers on tap, host the Sausage Queen finals and have plenty of live music.

While the popular Bock Beer 5K will take place at The Banks this year, Hampton said he hopes to bring it back to OTR next year.

Will there ever be a permanent location for Bockfest Hall?

Hampton is hoping the fate of Bockfest Hall might run full circle now that CinBev, the owner of Christian Moerlein has been purchased by John Richardson, the chairman of SugarCreek, a Washington Courthouse-based food company.

Richardson is in the process of completely restoring three historic breweries in Over-the-Rhine: Clyffside Brewery, Felesnhaus and Jackson Brewery. Once the $30 million restoration work is completed, Hampton hopes CinBev will host a Bockfest Hall at at least one of those buildings since it will bring the festival's original sponsor, Christian Moerlein, back into the fold. (Note: While Moerlein Lager House at the Banks is owned by former Christian Moerlein proprietor Greg Hardman, it is independent of CinBev and the Christian Moerlein Brewing Co.).

"The goal is not to find one spot," Hampton said. "There is no indoor space that we can get a thousand people into like Moore Street. With CinBev opening new facilities, I think we will be splitting it around, see how to works for all of our partners. I think all of them have their own unique take on it."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bockfest beer festival is Cincinnati's ultimate survivor