The Asian Beerfest 2010 was held in Singapore recently, along the F1 pit straight and below the Singapore Flyer, an iconic setting for the City. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from such an event, given the love of alcohol from both local and majority of expats alike, but also given that the venue is pretty small. We dutifully booked tickets early and were looking forward to having a couple of free beers and immediate access to the festival site.
Well, what a trial! I’ve never known a harder situation to get a beer in such a small place. First, our bus was stuck in traffic that was backed up and bottlenecked on account of the road closures from the National Day Parade rehearsals, the weekly National Day Parade rehearsals, every Saturday 5pm – 11pm for two months. We arrived some two hours late. On the upside, we watched from a road-bridge while a column of tanks, cranes, jeeps and mobile rocket launchers rumbled their treads beneath us, their young drivers smiling through camouflaged faces.
Second, we arrived at Suntec Mall and walked for 20 minutes to the site, only to be directed by Festival signs around the F1 pit straight, around the back of the tents and then in a large circle back to where we started underneath the flyer. Grrrr...
Third, when we arrived, two hours late, we were met with a line-up that was 200m long. There were people still queuing, all with pre-purchased tickets, waiting to get in and the reason why? It was because there were two people checking tickets at entry, TWO! For the Asian BeerFest, it’s not a small event. If this is some indication of how logistics work (or don’t work) around a large event, I fear for the Youth Olympics where the volume of people will be much greater.
Fourth, and this really gets me to this day, we received our free drink tokens which could only be redeemed against specific free beers, mostly generic beers that the world has tried before. We’re not here to try Budweiser, thanks, we’re here for random brews from unusual countries; like Bali! The festival was a ‘no cash’ zone so you had to purchase more poker chips with cash and then carry them around the site exchanging them for beverages or food. Which is fine, it’s novel and easier than messing about with change, but what annoyed me was that you can only exchange chips for cash at the end of the night for 80% of their face value and only in whole dollar amounts, so my $4 of chips became $3.20 which then became only $3 in my pocket. I admit I’m tight when it comes to cash, but being short changed with a smile really, REALLY gets me.
Other than that, the crowded tents, the lack of seating, the scarcity of non-alcoholic beverages to rehydrate, the beer-stained concrete smelling of yesterday’s revelry, really gave it the sense of a thrown-together event. Not brilliant, but some tasty beverages none the less.
Shovel
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