Tailspin 2020 is later this year, but will be back with a bang March 7

Hello: Tailspin Ale Fest

@tailspinalefest_official

Named a Top 10 beer festival in America in a USA Today poll, Tailspin Ale Fest has been pushed back a bit this year when compared to the mid-February fests of the past. This year’s beerstravaganza is set for March 7, and we’re looking forward to it. Hard to believe this festival is in its seventh year.

There’s a reason for that. Co-organizer Tisha Gainey (she organizes the event along with partner and co-founder Trevor Cravens) said the move to March 7 was due to an out-of-town beer festival booking Feb. 15, which was the original date for Tailspin 2020.

Logistically, it would have been extremely difficult to pull off, she said, so the date changed to March 7.

“It was in our best interest to move it, and we had the flexibility to do it,” she tells Hello Louisville.

 VIP tickets are already sold out (no surprise), but general admission tickets ($50) are still available.

Tailspin is still a winter warmer festival, so expect plenty of big beers, barrel-aged and otherwise. It’s again 100% outdoors and back again at Bowman Field Airport, which is celebrating its 100th year in 2020.

New this year will be an ESPN Radio Sports Bar with multiple TVs showing college basketball, joining old favorites like the Bourbon Barrel Beer Bar, Cox’s Smokers Outlet Cigar Bar, Cider and Sour Bar and plenty of vintage planes on display.

Oh yeah, and beer. Lots and lots of beer. Expect at least 250 again this year from 75 different breweries, and that includes plenty in the Kentucky Heritage Tent, which will feature breweries from all over the state like Against the Grain, West Sixth and plenty more.

Gainey said West Sixth will offer variants in its Snakes series of beers, while Against the Grain will bring a version of There Gose the Neighborhood aged in tequila barrels. Meanwhile, Sun King Brewing of Indianapolis will feature a caramel apple Belgian tripel.

Whether the festival will return to its familiar mid-February slot next year is still undecided.

“We’ll see how this year goes,” Gainey says. “We’re hoping for better weather.”

From a photo booth to live tunes from 100% Poly to a silent disco, Tailspin 2020 is shaping up to be another memory maker. Or memory eraser, depending on how many beers you sample.

(Photo courtesy of Tony Bennett)