Lake Zurich village trustees approved plans for a local brewer to hold “Bushel of Apples Fest” beer festival in early October at Paulus Park – expanding the event from a private parking lot to the public green space.
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The event, approved at the Aug. 2 Village Board meeting, is set to take place Oct. 2-3 and is the brainchild of Lake Zurich brewer Evan Morris of Phase Three Brewing. The festival kicked off last year in the parking lot of the brewery, located at Donata Court. But this year, expecting bigger crowds and with larger ambitions, Morris sought village permission to bring it into a public space.
“The Bushel of Apples Fest would promote their special beer release and local brews at Paulus Park with family-friendly activities such as face painting, a pumpkin patch and magician for younger fest goers,” Trustee Greg Weider said when he introduced the measure to the board for approval. “The event would be free admissions with attendees to purchase food, beer to consume on premises and packaged beer to go.”
The festival will run in the park next to “Jack O’Lantern World,” a monthlong fall event, and Morris said he expects both festivities to attract a big crossover crowd. The brewer said he plans to erect temporary fencing so families who don’t want to go to Bushel of Apples Fest won’t drop in mistakenly.
Morris said he’s expecting possibly as many as 700 people to attend. Last year, he explained, some 250 people attended, and the brewery ran out of beer.
“The response was insane,” he said. “We got picked up by Fox News, the Herald, and it hit us like a ton of bricks. … It sold out faster than we could have imagined.”
He said the attendees last year weren’t just beer snobs.
“It was not beer nerds. It was moms, dads, uncles and it was really exciting to see,” he said.
This year, he’s set his sights higher, and he expects in years to come, the festival will only grow – both by word of mouth and through the brewery, which has its own members.
“We also have a really robust membership group,” Morris said. “The beer kind of draws people in and we’ve gotten really good at making it a no brainer, where you jump in your car from Indiana, Chicago or Wisconsin and come enjoy a beer our here.”
Hence the need to move the festival to a larger space.
Morris said he wanted to move it out of his parking lot out of respect for his neighbors and also as a way to enlarge the event and give back to the community. Besides beer, the festival will offer non-alcoholic drinks like cider and hot cocoa, as well as food and family entertainment. The festival will be held rain or shine.
This year he is partnering with the Chamber of Commerce to host the event.
Morris said he will again donate a portion of sales to The Chicago Food Depository, a Chicago-based food bank. He said he’d like to significantly increase the contribution over last year about $4,200 was raised.
“This year we’d love to see that get to $10,000 but we understand the weather could crap out on you,” he said.
Jesse Wright is a freelancer.