Stu sent me this as a very worthy worst, the shambolic Perth Beer Festival but he covers the topic in more detail on his own blog, and even spots a fashion crime outside The Queens, where he more sensibly decides to drink rather than under the brutal sunshine of the esplanade. And yes we should be able to organise a beer festival here. I was wondering myself why a beer festival would have the same beers you could buy in the pleasant atmosphere of a pub. Was there a Swan Draught tent? A Speights pavilion? Stu says…
This has to be a contender for worst of Perth 2009 and we’re only a few days into the year. The Perth International Beer Festival.
What a joke, hour long queues to get in, half hour queues to get a beer and then find out the beer is warm because they’ve run out of cold ones 2 hours in. I’ve bitched about it a whole lot more here but fuck me this is Australia, surely we can organise a fucking beer festival.
Cheers, Stu I’m Fucking Parched As.(my new surname)
perth beer fest blows
The Worst of Perth 
A commenter on Stu’s post also relates how a girl passes out just as she finally gets to the front of the warm piss queue. The yeasty humanity!
For international Worst watchers, people here are queuing in temperatures of 36/37 degrees C (Pretty close to 100 degrees farenheit) to drink beers they could get at their own pubs.
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Ahh, shades of the Fremantle Sardine Festival where people would queue up and pay money for a slice of Italian bread with a tiny bit of sardine on it.
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But Frank: there was no shade.
What the?
I thank you.
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And at Pearce RAAF Airbase the Temperature is 39.8 degrees C.
I’m pretty sure the area was fenced off because of the liquor laws which surround licenced events where a fee is charged.
And note the event was sponsored by Bogan FN aka 96FM, the home of one G Shannon and the sister station of 6PR – sums it up really.
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Bet the Cuolo Stritti were skimping on the Marquees, or that they couldn’t get any extra ones as this time of the year they’d be booked out for every event on, including Skyshow etc.
Tip for organisers – do NOT hold such events in January, UNLESS you have enough shade and ICE to cater for the crowds and the heat.
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I’m sure She-Ra would have been hoping for people to kick on to vandalise the Ferris Wheel.
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And check out the Sponsors.
http://www.beerfest.net.au/sponsors.html
I’ll be watching Ch 9 News at the earlier time of 5pm to see how they spin this :-)
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Though I note the event wasn’t sponsored by the City of Perth – which is just as well.
hmm, check out the conditions.
So it ends at 10pm tonight – I’ll be listennig to Westrail Transit guards to hear them deal with all the drunks :-)
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“No pass outs”
What about the poor girl in the queue??? Did she get tossed out for passing out?
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heh heh. I’ll give you that one.
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Oh and good luck to those getting a bus to an outer suburb – don’t they know Public Transport is almost non-existent on a Sunday Night, especially in the hills – plus the trains will be running hourly as well till midnight.
I wonder if Beaumont and his Kahunas will take calls whinging about this – somehow I doubt it considering the commercial arrangement with his employer and the organiser :-)
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Dont worry about “dealing with all the drunks”. In order to get drunk at all you would need to line up for a beer immediately after buying 2 beers. Consume them in the line, repeat.
With an hour between the front of the line and the back of the line, you’re never getting drunk.
We saw a guy turn up drunk, at first we thought the guy was a tool. After 20 minutes inside I picked him for being a downright genius. Sure as sh1t, he was the only bloke in there getting rotten.
We pulled the pin on it after our first beers and went to Durty Nelly’s for a feed and a moderately price pint.
$10 for a 500ml bottle of beer I can buy at my local bottle-o for $4.75? Errr no.
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Niz, and no ferris wheel kick-on? This sort of disaster is what Twitter would be good for.
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I sent the organisers an email congratulating them on their recent graduation from the school of faux event management.
Only Christopher Skase has suceeded in swindling money out of people at a greater rate.
We were going to hit up the ferris wheel VIP cab, but we couldnt decide on a DVD short enough for us to play on the cabin entertainment system.
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What a pointless exercise. Surely we can do better than this.
Not neccessarily for my sake; I’m more of a whiskey person, myself. However, Stu said it best: Australians of all people should be able to organise a beer festival.
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Even Michelle Roberts can organise a better piss up :-)
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And what’s a crap event without Courtney Murphy.
http://www.beerfest.net.au/entertainment.html
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I didn’t even know there was a beer fest in Oz. I’ve been meaning to get over to the German beer fest for years, but now got another reason to visit Australia
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Ha! No Eric I think you’ve misread the tone of the article ;) THAT pile of doggy do is no reason to visit Oz my friend
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People who go to an open-air event at the peak of summer and complain about the heat, the lack of shade and things getting ‘warm’ are the same idiots who say they enjoy summer when they really mean they enjoy air-conditioning.
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What pissed me off about the whole thing is that the organisers don’t know what a BEER festival should be about. If they wanted to showcase beer from around the world they should have had stalls/bars from each country, with bartenders dressed up in national costume, serving their national beers AND food.
It should have been $10-15 to get in and ALL samples FREE. If you liked what you sampled, you’d then purchase the beer from that stall. Instead of charging $25 for a ticket at the door PLUS $1 PER TASTING and ontop of that $7-9 for a party-sized cup of the exact same beer you can buy from the pub. That’s ripping us off. $25 for the PRIVILEGE to simply enter through the gates?
No people under 18. Sorry to the parents, but it’s a BEER festival. Alcohol. There’s things for kids and families to do to entertain themselves. A BEER festival should not be family friendly, with rides and kiddie areas. There will be drunk people there – it’s no place to bring a child. 10 year olds dancing onstage? That’s not the kind of entertainment adults want to see.
I hope the organisers take the complaints seriously, because that “Beer festival” was a complete joke. I can’t believe how wrong they got it.
What angers me the most is that they made more of a profit than what they would have done had they done it right – people were forking out the $20-25 and then leaving half an hour later in DROVES. Not much alcohol would have been sold to those people. Shameful! Who organised this anyways? 17 year old TAFE event mangement graduates?
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Soul of Panther: Yes. The organisers don’t HAVE to also do a shit job though. I like your blog.
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But the organisers aimed it at the 96FM Bogan market wh o have young families and the kiddies would’ve flocked to see their Perth Reds, Glory and Western Warrior heroes to get their autograph etc, I’m surprised they didn’t book Fat Cat, or in Ch 9’s case Humphrey B Bear or Hi 5 or New McDonald’s Farm for the kiddies.
Obviously they were trying to create the Mandurah Crab festival for the CBD crowd who are afraid to venture past Wellington St Station.
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And if you would personally like to abuse the orgasioners fro organising a joke of an event, their contact details, including their direct number :-)
http://www.beerfest.net.au/contact.php
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Soul of Panther, you’re right but the heat is not the complaint, as above it’s the organisation of the thing that’s the gripe. Though the heat should be taken into consideration when organising this sort of thing.
Heat aside it seriously was a crappy beer festival, if you’d been to the Freo versions you’d appreciate just how bad it was.
Embarrassing for Perth is what it amounted to
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I’ve never had so many complaints about an event on my website before. 9 and I’m sure more to come http://www.enjoyperth.net/2009/01/perth-beer-festival-january-09/
A friend worked there as a bartender, and when I spoke to her late last night she said she was selling $10 beers, and people were asking about the $1 tasting and she didn’t even know where to send them!
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Simone, re: A friend worked there as a bartender, and when I spoke to her late last night she said she was selling $10 beers, and people were asking about the $1 tasting and she didn’t even know where to send them!
I hope she had thew good grace to tell them “taste my arse”.
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Stu, I think you are confusing organisation with content. Ref., sows ear/silk purse. You can’t sell premium imported beers at less than 10 dollars. Try ordering tea-beer from the Belgium with a ten dollar note and see how far that takes you. Anyone who compares anything to the Mandurah Crab Festival has low standards. And everyone who still imagines that Perth can’t attract premium acts does not know Tegan & Sara, Underworld or Public Enemy. Or probably deserve a second-rate beer fest.
Anyway, I had a fun weekend riding the Wheel of Excellence and standing around waiting for lifeguards to let me back in the water.
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I hereby pronounce every day ‘Beer Festival Day’.
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And TWAT have also done a puff piece on this “event”
http://www.watoday.com.au/entertainment/perth-international-beer-fest-20090105-7af3.html
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Did you people learn nothing from the Fremantle Beer Festival (for which I believe the organiser’s sign is still up in the wilds of Subiaco?
All the same complaints were made then (with additional complaints about all beer being served in plastic cups).
You should have your own beerfests. The International Beer Shop (google it) in Wembley(?) or the Beer Store in Dianella are more than fully stocked to cater to your wishes.
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Soul of Panther
No I’m not actually, go read my original blogpost http://yelpar.blogspot.com/2009/01/perth-beer-festival.html you’ll notice that my complaints are about how hard it was to get into the venue, how hard it was to actually get a beer and then being served a hot beer because they ran out of cold beers = piss poor organisation
As for the costs, it’s a festival, it’s meant to promote International beers. This is where the International Breweries take the opportunity to promote their wares, so yeah they could offer a fucking beer for less that $10. But they didn’t and why cos they weren’t even there.
It was and is a joke
Perth can attract quality acts, never said they couldn’t I just said they couldn’t organise a beer festival to save their arse and you acknowledge it was a second class festival so I guess we now agree :)
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Even non drinkers are saying they heard it was shit.
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This is the email I sent to the organisers of the event just minutes ago
To Alek and Lisa,
I must start by saying that I went to the International Beer Festival on Saturday afternoon and was most disappointed with what I saw.
If the Belgian Beer Cafe, Bobby Dazzlers, the Lucky Shag and the Brass Monkey were all full by 6pm on a Saturday afternoon, full of people who had LEFT the festival, then this is a poor indication of the ability of the festival to operate. Even the Paddington Ale House had a larger Saturday night trade than usual, because people wanted to be able to drink a quality beer that they hadn’t tried before. I spoke to about 50 people after leaving the festival and I did not hear a single positive thing about it.
I’m going to raise a number of issues in this email, detailing what was wrong with the festival and how to improve it in the future.
1. The location – Langley Park was a bad spot to have the festival to start with. If you had held it in the Supreme Court Gardens or the Esplanade, it would have been much easier for people to get to AND it would not have been anywhere as easy to dissuade people from going on the walk back to the public transport.
2. The Lines to get in – If you are expecting thousands of people to turn up to a festival such as this, it would have been a lot easier for you to separate out the 6 entry points from the line to purchase your tickets. I waited in the line for 30 minutes just to get in the door
3. Range of beers – An International Beer Festival needs to feature beers from all over the world. Mauritius, Germany and the United Kingdom does not make an International Beer Festival, it makes an outdoor pub. Further to that, I did not see any Jarrah Jacks at any of the stalls on Saturday. Where were all the other Western Australian microbreweries? There was no Little Creatures, no Gage Roads, no Nail, no Matso’s, no Duckstein, no Elmars; the list goes on and on. It is clear that the Brewers Association was not brought into the loop until much too late and whatever deal that was offered to them by you was not good enough to get the breweries on board.
4. The amount of beer/supplies – There is absolutely no excuse for running out of beer at a beer festival. While this did not happen to me, I have friends of mine who I met later that evening who waited for a warm beer in a plastic cup topped up with ice. This is an absolute disgrace.
5. The Lines to get a drink – There was no way people should be waiting up to 90 minutes for a beer that they could get at the pub. For a beer festival to operate properly there should be enough tents or alcohol outlets to ensure that people can actually get a beer and walk away.
6. The tastings – What happened to the advertised “drink tasting tickets starting at $1”? I certainly didn’t see any of these and no-one I spoke to found them either.
7. The rides – What was the purpose of having the rides there? I know this was supposed to be a family event, but for goodness sakes, it felt more like a school fete than a beer festival. When there are more stalls for generic fete-like products than beer stalls, then you can’t call it a beer festival.
8. The entertainment – This should have been a no-brainer. If you are going to put on girls in bikinis as part of a fashion show, you don’t put them on first, and you certainly don’t put 13 and 14 year old girls on stage at a beer festival. Why do you think all the men that flocked to the stage for the swimsuit section moved away as quickly as possible once the girls that opened the Christmas pageant got on stage? This was a very poor choice of entertainment. A number of modelling agencies and fashion outlets could have been called upon for this portion of the festival and would have provided much better entertainment.
9. The “family event” – I don’t care what you say, a beer festival is not for children. If you had not approached it as a family event and instead tried to pitch it in the same vein as a wine festival or Spring in the Valley, then you may have had more beer tents.
The lesson that you need to learn from this is that if you are going to run an international beer festival, you need to be consulting with the Brewers Association right from the beginning, rather than bringing them in after you have most things organised.
The Fremantle Beer Festival held in 2006 was an enormous success featuring a large number of breweries, a big range of beers, good quality bands and entertainment, places to sit, a good range of food. I have heard rumours of the return of the Fremantle Beer Festival and if that is the case, I sincerely hope that people’s experiences from the weekend do not detract from the possibility of an actually good beer festival in the future.
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I nominate Chris to run the next Beer Festival!
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Stu, TLA, thanks for a great Worst – I threw up a link on The Perth Files and have hawked it around a few media contacts.
Interesting to see the Glory was a sponsor. While the Beer Fest crowd limped home sober after a few warm ones, I was sipping chilled Becks in the corporate area watching the boys have a rare win on the paddock.
Ahhh, Perth…
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And what’s the bet there were no Glory Players present on the Sunday.
Another suggestion, do NOT schedule events when it clashes with any sporting event which involves one of your major sponsors.
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Hilarious. I really see why Australia needs another special event to promote beer.
After all we’re renowned as a nation of spritzer-quaffers, and beer is a new & exotic product that average people are intimidated by when they see the baffling range of brewed golden drinks with labels that say ‘beer’ in their local cellarbrations, and the imported stuff is SO difficult to source at the bijou wine bars dotted all over town, so we really do need extra encouragement to sample it at an organised event.
And I wouldn’t have been able to read stu’s fantastic rant without it so I’m glad the organisers majorly fucked up.
oh and: Public Enemy? Underworld? I hope that reference to first-rate acts is ironic.
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Underworld have moved on since Underneath The Gaydar. I hope the organisers aren’t planning on organising a prostituion festival. How embarrassing if we also can’t organise a root in a brothel.
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Who remembers the old joke about how Bondy went broke by selling beer to Western Australians.
Well now we have the organisers of a WA beer festival who are:
(1) Willing to rip people off, and;
(2) So friggin’ incompetent that they can’t put on a half decent show for the country’s biggest boozers.
So, the Bondy spirit of entrepeneurialship continues. Good to see not much has changed in Perth over the past two decades…. Hell, I think we should forgive Burkie and David Parker and put them back in charge of the Labor Party. God knows they’ll be welcome by the time the Barnett-led Coalition self destructs.
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And does “Retravision Warriors” sound a bit underneath the gaydar as well? Now The Archie Martins Warriors is a name I could get behind.
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Underworld are nevertheless a +10-year-old rave act who were already bald old almost-beens lucky to get a 90’s revival after being too cringingly 80’s for the 80’s in the 80’s.
I read somewhere that Perth was the only place in the world that Underneath the Radar was a hit. “There’s no way that you’re ever gunna get far.” What the?
OK Public Enemy are something else, but really whatever happened to pop being ephemeral? Why are these people still plaguing us with their tours. I’m not going anyway, but I do like to complain.
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That is indeed correct and it spent 7 weeks at No 1 in 1988. You can blame 96FM for flogging the shit out of it at the time, especially the Album version, which is longer than the 7″ version.
They also hit the charts with Show Some Emotion, Stand Up and of course Born Slippy, which featured the line “Lager, Lager”, over and over again – rather apt for this joke of a Beer Festival.
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Someone just posted this on teh blog:
‘I went to the Perth International Beer Fest and I thought it was a superb event, organised extremely well, with plenty of food, cold beer and entertainment.
Well done to the organisers.’
Isn’t it good to know that at least one anonymous soul enjoyed the day – and made sure they used the correct title for the event.
Anyone seen this exact post replicated elsewhere as yet?
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I’m a bit vague on this one, but I’m pretty sure Rage also had something to do with Underneath the Radar becoming a hit. I remember the song at the time, but I always made a point of not listening to 96FM – gave up with the station in 1983 when the jocks used to tell us to put on the headphones, pump up the volume and listen to stuff like Styx….
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96FM in it’s original Gary roberts incarnation were always an elitist station – Steve Gordon was almost sacked for actually playing a Kylie Minogue track during the weekly Top 30 Album countdown, despite the station also playing during Said Countdown,tracks Rick Astley & Bros whose “Albums” were also charting, though not on the regular playlist , as a result Steve was no longer allowed to present said program, though on the plus side he got a letter from Kylie via her management for sticking his balls out and playing the song.
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I saw Underworld play in Amsterdam in 1987 – complete with frilly shirts (but I don’t wanna be a pirate!)
I have only just realized via Wiki they are the same lot that became Born Slippy triphoppers.
I also saw Public Enemy play Challenge Arena in 1992. A half-empty basketball hall full of middle class white kids dressed as gangstas. Before the gig I saw two of the roadies walking through the audience, checking out the crowd, shaking their heads and muttering ‘…fucking hell…’
after that gig they got the fuck outta Dodge and I don’t think they have returned since
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If me memory aint too burnt out, the first song the station (96) played when it debuted in Aug ‘1980 was Steely Dan’s FM. Not bad, opening its assault with a tune that was first released in 1978 as part of a soundtrack for a forgettable B-grade movie (plus, I must say, its not one of SD’s more memorable tunes).
Indeed, wasn’t 96’s initial promise that it wasn’t going to play the usual AM crap? Surely that was a plus.
Elitist or not, the station’s first year was a damn good one. After all, can’t it take its fair share of credit for properly introducing many in Perth to The Clash?
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Yes, that is indeed correct on all counts but Steve exposed the hypocrisy of the Album Chart show by only playing tracks from “Playlist Friendly” Albums on the Chart, rather than just biting the bullet for one shift and just play the chart as is – it would be like 92.9 editing Take 40 Australia and removing the charting songs which don’t fit the format – you either do it properly, or not at all.
Sort of like the Beer Festival :-)
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You dissin Styx My Ning? Domo Arigato Mr roboto!?!!!
You’re dead to me now Ning.
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Yep, only 6PM started playing The Clash when Rock The Casbah was released as a single, and then again they tewaked their turntables up 2% so it sounded faster than anywhere else.
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Styx are no 10cc.
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Yew know it’s yew babe.
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Mr LA
You surprise me – I thought you’d hate Styxx after the Barnster was heard drunkedly singing one of their songs to Brendon at an OBH Sunday session after last year’s election win:
“A gathering of angels appeared above my head,
They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said:
They said come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me……”
Or was he singing: “Welcome to the grand illusion?” Jeez, now I’m confused…..
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Only in Perth could a discussion of a failed event movie into “classic rock of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s” (if I have my radio slogan on the ball).
Styx.
For fuck’s sake. What’s next?
Iron Butterfly headlining East Perth Oval Members Equity?
Styx and 10cc …. and not one mention of the lack of A Certain Stout at the above beer festival from Mr Moore’s former pupil, My Ning.
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I went to the Perth International Beer Fest and I thought it was a superb event, organised extremely well, with plenty of food, cold beer and entertainment.
Well done to the organisers
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How does a critique on a failed beerfest turn into a discussion on rubbishy rock musicians?
It’s like a dispute over the relative merits of Commodore, Valiant and Falcon.
How can you possibly discuss something that is non-existent?
Merits? My arse!
The whole of that popular rock culture was commercially controlled crap.
And still is.
Only the mentally adversely affected could enjoy it. Hence the proliferation of mood altering substances. Reality was too painful.
Folk who were happy in their own skins needed neither smoked herring nor hard rock.
Cynicism Rules! OK?
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Well 96FM under the auspices of Fairfax Radio and Declan Kelly did sponsor this debacle, which makes me wonder if 96 was still under the Patronage of Gary Roberts, whether they would want their name and image associated with such an event – though considering it was his idea to introduce us to the horroe of Skyshow – that is a moot point :-)
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Grrr – Stormin’ Norman was my headmaster, not a teacher. He ended up marrying the school’s grade seven teacher who, some 32 years later, got him into all that trouble over share ownership. Who would have suspected all of this drama would have unraveled way back then… (she was probably the one who also pushed him into getting those Rottnest tickets a few years ago as well- a low rent Lady Macbeth to be sure).
And I hate to say it, but I didn’t even know this fucking beerfest was on….
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Speaking of 96FM, I can distinctly recall them simulcasting the 1985 or 86 WA Rock Awards from the Conccert Hall where there were thje creme de la creme of WA Music talent performing, including V Capri who were the only act who mimed thier performance of “Thats The Way”, complete with Coreographed Karate Exponents on-stage.
I think it was the only night that WA Indie musicians got any airplay on either commercial radio or TV.
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My Ning – I had heard something. I think that we both missed it is a good thing.
For $300 (which was mentioned above, or at Stu’d excellent blog) I could have the most awesome beer fest in my lounge.
Crap Perth bands need not apply.
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I was flicking radio stations there was a call to the ABC by a rather annoyed chap was not happy,on 6PR Beamont apart from mentioning Burkie nothing I heard on their about it,
I think Beaumont copped a caning about Burkie I know I sent about 4 or 5 e mails that never made it to air,when he got back he said he was trying to work out whether it was organised or not.
He left it well alone to day after the reporter did a cross from the court I always thought they could not run a piss up in a brewery in Perth.
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Or Styx Grrr? You tellin me if Styx offered their loungeroom services, you’d turn them down?
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Would this be a good time to mention Status Quo?
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Who weren’t even good enough for 96FM if I recall correctly – U2 on the other hand were the darlings of 111 Wellington St :-) As were the Oils, heck even Kids In The Kitchen got a good run, despite having Top 40 leanings.
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John,
Like I said I’ll bet Beaumont was ordered to leave it alone as Fairfax media, via 96FM werre one of the vsponsors – you don’t want to upset the boys in Sales, especially a Mr L Yorke :-)
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if we could move the conversation back to beer:
did they have any of Dorothy Goodbody’s Wholesome Stout?
http://www.talkingretail.com/products/drinks-news/10397-dorothy-goodbody-takes-top-bottled-beer-award.html
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Nope, they had only FOUR beers available – see Stu’s blog for which ones, and enjoyperth’s blog.
http://www.enjoyperth.net/2009/01/perth-beer-festival-january-09/
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Hmm, just found the Perth City Council minutes on the proposal for this “event”
http://www.perth.wa.gov.au/documentdb/816
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hmm, from the above document.
So it was mooted back and June, but the applicant asked that it be removed from the agenda ? I wonder why this was the case ? Were they having problems finding suitable beers back then ?
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Anon
I went to the Perth International Prostitute Fest and I thought it was a superb event, organised extremely well, with plenty of beaver damming, blow jobbing and cork soaking.
Well done to the organisers
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According to the October Council Minutes, the organisers sought Sposorship from the PCC which they wisely declined :-)
http://www.perth.wa.gov.au/documentdb/1007
This is the telling bit :-)
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frank, what was the scanner traffic like? Lots of angry non drunks?
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Virtually none at all which is very strange – even for a Sunday Night.
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back to the Pissweak Wheel:
who’s going to christen it?
http://www.watoday.com.au/travel/young-lovers-caught-out-on-melbournes-wheel-20090112-7end.html
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I love capitalism. Next time I’m chucking an event which promotes and is sponsored by major corporations, i might try hiring a publicly owned venue then ask the government for funding so it can pay me to hire the venue from it.
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For 15 bucks? I don’t think so. I can get a six pack for that much money. And drink it in the park in front of the wheel for free.
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Lazy Aussie
Anon
I went to the Perth International Prostitute Fest and I thought it was a superb event, organised extremely well, with plenty of beaver damming, blow jobbing and cork soaking.
Well done to the organisers
______________________________________________
hahahah I see what you did there :)
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Just had this comment left on my blog
Anonymous said…
serves you right for going you pack of tragic clowns.
_____________________________________________
he/she does have a point, best comment thus far
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Stu,
Did Lazy Aussie forward you the full City Of Perth proposal for te funding of the event – the tossers even promised “Free Shuttle Busses”.
Were there any on the day ?
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Oh my, you’d think the organisers would come up with a different response for every blog that’s posted about this calamity rather than cutting and pasting the same thing.
Has anyone seen any further commentary supporting the statement that this was a “superb event”?
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Can someone with full access to the ASC PLEASE do a full search on who else is behind this mob of no-hopers ? I’m hoping there is a high flying”Perthonality” in the mix.
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Frank
yep LA sent it to me, awesome read, didn’t exactly go off as planned did it.
and there was no sign of shuttle buses as far as I could see, mostly taxis doing a roaring trade running people to the Queens and The Belgian Beer Cafe ha!
maybe the buses where all being used to shuttle in more hot Boags from the local Liquorland
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oh I just noticed this choice bit in the council minutes
Acos Events Management was established in 2007. The Perth International Beer Festival will be the first event Acos Events Management has organised in Australia.
The director of the company previously organised similar events in Serbia
__________________________
haha anyone have a contact in Serbia, we need to know how there festivals go
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Yep, and a very wise move by the Coun cil to knock back sponsoring the event. And John Ryan’s comments re 6PR’s reaction to the complaints is telling as well, a classic case of do not bite the hand that feeds you, though I’m surprised 6PR weren’t sponsors and offered Tod Johnston to do a live Broadcast of The Big Weekend, hence 96 only being able to do a live broadcast on the Saturday was because 6PR needed the OB gear for the Soccer on Sunday and couldn’t afford the ISDN charges for both events :-)
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Read Page 17 of the Committee Report :-)
Click to access 975.pdf
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hahah, my personal favs are
“The event will increase visitation to the city and add vibrancy to the foreshore.”
and
“The event may or may not be cultural or arts based”
I’ve whacked a few choice extracts up here http://yelpar.blogspot.com/2009/01/perth-beer-festival-update.html
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I’m waiting with baited breath for the organisers to cite “the world economic downturn” to justify the crapiness of the event and the lack of beers available.
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Surely they would have made a lot of money?
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On Ticket Sales both pre and at the gate- definately as well as on the Kiddie Rides, though how much was spent on hiring the bands, paying 96FM for the live broadcast etc they wouldn’t have made much of a profit.
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Gee whiz didn’t this one have a touch of the “boxing promoters” about it. A couple of third rate clowns get punched in the ring together with third world catering. Pissup brewery , root brothel come to mind. Not only queues a mile long , warmpis , stupid rules , lack of sun protection , children’s rides , crap bands , but worst of all a complete failure to get local brewers involved. An insult to the intelligence of all involved.
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Re: Pissup brewery , root brothel
Don’t you mean “Root – brewery, piss up – brothel?”
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Getting punched in the ring sounds almost as painful as being picked up by the fuzz.
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Root – brewery, piss up – brothel Festival 2009, now that’s got a ring to it, Sponsored by root brewed brothel piss.
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haha, this must be why I drove by a booze bus after going to ride the wheel with my friend (it was ok-ay, for all it being slammed as too small). Considering it doesn’t sound like many people got beers, there were a good deal of cars that had been pulled over (i.e over the limit).
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This was me on the wheel after I got an absolute skinful at the Fest.
VIP capsule, of course. Well done to the organisers.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/travel/young-lovers-caught-out-on-melbournes-wheel-20090112-7end.html
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And as predicted, “Jason” has posted a glowing report to Simone’s Blog – and it is almostr a word for word copy of the various “Anon Posts”.
http://www.enjoyperth.net/2009/01/perth-beer-festival-january-09/#comment-32175
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I’m finding these “the festival was excellent” posts that are popping up everywhere to be fucking hilarious. Maybe this tactic worked in Serbia where they no doubt screwed that one up as well.
“YOU had a good time YES”
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How hard would it be to write a convincing supporting comment?
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Questions need to be raised in parliament : was this event part of the construction She-Rainian piss weak world on the foreshore ?
Where’s the quality control on these “events” ? Where’s the responsible public health stuff : alcohol use and sun wise ?
Where’s DFOC when the outrages are being done ; has he been paid off by Big Media ?
And all of this she-mozzle happening under She-Ra’s rain . Yes a truly She-Rainian event aided and abetted by a couple of deranged Serbs.
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I’ll check my bank account.
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As Frank ferreted out some comments ago, the She-Ra faction dodged a bullet by not supporting (ie giving cash) to this disaster.
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Maaaaate. I thought Julian had made that clear. No bank accounts, no receipts.
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I think Bill may be on to something
with the Pissweak Wheel, the sideshows and the beer tents She-Ra is slowly recreating Claremont Showgrounds on the Perth foreshore with a view to providing a venue for the Big Day Out
I look forward to the Wild Mouse ride being rebuilt around the Bell Tower
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Maaaaate. Should I check the shoe-box/garlic bag/behind the cistern?
My sources tell me the hopless beer event could be covered in south-of-the-river meedja. Someone is on the case.
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I just hope Barney & Co can do a better job at promoting WA for locals than this mob.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/14/2465739.htm
Though somehow I fear it will be a repeat of the Elle Mcpherson Debacle, and I seem to recall that a certain former Headmaster of one My Ning was Tourism Minister at the time.
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That’s a real piss-me-off, Frank.
During normal trading circumstances businesses do their damnedest to minimise their taxes, often improperly; but, come a rough patch, they come out demanding that the public purse be used to bail them out.
Business is business and should maintain the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest.
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D. Cohen your sources would seem to be on the money, I signed off on a phone interview with a certain publication yesterday.
I look forward to reading my misquotes, not sure if they are coughing up any mullah for the use of my photos but I’m okay with that ;)
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Don’t look here, Rolly.
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Yes, Snuff, that one arrived in my e-mail last week.
Very much to the point.
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Snuff, were you going to send some sister city /Belmont stuff?
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Sure, TLA. Give me a few minutes to get them together, and I’ll send them tonight.
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Contact:
_______________________________________________
Stuart,
Thank you for your feedback. Acos Events apologises for your disappointment.
Please forward your banking details for a refund.
Acos Event Management
_______________________________________________
I wonder if they are responding to every email complaint in this way, anyone else receive a reply like this?
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Congratulations! Power to teh people! Was just thinking about the blog coverage vs the usual suspects on this and how totally different it was. The blog comments were basically 100 percent angry and negative (minus a few fake pro commments), something not picked up by papers/tv. Even your interview came via your blog to a journo rather than other way round.
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And not a peep from Fairfax – especially 6PR – which is telling as they were one of the sponsors via 96FM. Why wasn’t Sattler on the case ? If John Ryan is correct, then the Kahuna Beaumont must’ve gone off the scent once he was told who pays his wages :-)
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Spot on TLA – even if there had been no negative coverage in traditional media at all, the caning this event got via the blog network alone has done the damage.
The fact that the organisers have trawled through one blog post after another to cut and paste their “superb event” response is testament to the power of teh interwebs.
A lesson for everyone that if you post the same response on every site (as per spammers), you will be exposed.
On the other hand, if our festive friends had come out using their real names and responded to the crticisms offering genuine comment and taking it on the chin, much of this prolonged bashing would have been avoided.
A comment to the effect of, ‘As the organiser of the event I’m very sorry it didn’t live up to expectations and would be happy to offer you a refund’ would have helped retrieve the situation somewhat.
Pretending to be a satisfied punter simply threw fuel (not warm beer) on the fire.
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Or “Thanks for your comments Stu. Yes, obviously we could have done some things a lot better, and we will be looking at all the feedback to make sure next years festival is really fantastic. We will be sending you a bunch of free passes for 2010…
It’s too late now. They’ve already received all the bad publicity, so they might as well have saved their money. If they had offered a refund BEFORE he did a newspaper interview, they could have got some credit for that too, but too late.
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“Stuart,
Thank you for your feedback. Acos Events apologises for your disappointment.
Please forward your banking details for a refund.
Acos Event Management”
There’s more than just a little hint of a Balkan variation on a well known Nigerian scam in that response.
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Yep, and those who bought tickets via Ticketek should go there and seek a refund and/or go to DoCEP.
Sounds VERY fishy to me.
Methinks this sounds like a job for Today Tonight – don’t bother with A Current Affair as Ch 9 were the media partner, plus 7 would LOVE any excuse to bag Ch 9 :-)
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just had this comment posted on my blog, good to read this angle as well and confirms that the cost of stalls excluded the smaller players.
________________________________________________
As a WABA member and the Manager of one of WA’s small microbreweries it was saddening to read of everyones experiences on the weekend.
We were quoted in the region of 10 to 12000 dollars for a stall which is well beyond our budget. Not to mention the cost of stock to be used for sampling.
As such, you didnt see the likes of Feral, Matsos, Nail, Jarrah Jacks etc there. From memory, we were notified of the events planning early in 2008 and were pretty pumped about it until the details and pricing were released.
It sounds a lot like the 2006 festival that I had the pleasure of working, and I thought that event was stretched to its limits. At least it was attended by the WA’s excellent micro-breweries.
We considered 2006 to be a successful event for the brewery even though there were a lot of organisational issues that were obviously repeated last weekend.
When the queue to buy beer becomes too huge, the pressure mounts on breweries promoting their product to pour samples at pub speed. The main reason we attend beer shows is expose our products to you the beer drinker. Its also a great opportunity for us to meet you and talk about beer in general, given the chance.
Believe me, Im sure the poor bastards spruiking all that mainstream rubbish were having as shit of a time as you. Except they were getting paid.
______________________________________________
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i think its a huge dissapointment
what a fantastic chance to offer all the likes of the swan valley and margaret river breweries / microbreweries in the city for the weekend…
i thought it would have been a great opportunity for the microbreweries to promote their products – because as we all know they are being crushed by the new taxes on alcohol…
if it was too expensive for people to pay for a stall, and too expensive for people to go in and check it out.. then how on earth did it go ahead in the fist place.
i am sure i would be able to single handedly hold a successful event, with great marketing benefits for sellers, a great time for visitors and all proceeds going to chartiy…
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I haven’t received my email to apologise or offer a refund. I’ve even spoken to the group that staffed the bars, set them up, etc.
I’m not expecting to get offered a refund unless I ring up.
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Daniel,
Thank you for your feedback. Acos Events apologises for your disappointment.
Hey guys, this is what I received from those clowns at Acos. I’d love to be offered my money back but instead got this…..
“Obviously things went wrong but were rectified as soon as it was possible. I can assure you we have learnt from this event and the next will be great.
Your name has been registered for complimentary tickets for next year where it will be bigger and better.”
Acos Event Management
Ticketek sent me this reply FYI ….
“For formal complaints please write to: Ticketek – Beer Festival ComplaintsGPO Box 210Burswood WA 6100”
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HEY, isn’t that strangely close to what I wrote they should say a few days ago, including that there’s no point in refunds?
“Or “Thanks for your comments Stu. Yes, obviously we could have done some things a lot better, and we will be looking at all the feedback to make sure next years festival is really fantastic. We will be sending you a bunch of free passes for 2010…
It’s too late now. They’ve already received all the bad publicity, so they might as well have saved their money. “
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there is an article in today’s Voice about the festival (page 4) with Stu’s interview and a comment from the organiser that they lost a lot of money
also, opposite that story on Page 5, two photos of the Curtin Shortarms statue, one with a traffic cone on the head, one with a glove puppet on the hand.
Twop sets the agenda
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Hi, we are putting on a beer Expo in melbourne March 20-21 this year.
The Beer & Brewer Expo has presentation areas for live demonstrations on beer & food matching, home brewing and beer tasting master classes to educate and entertain. Beer will be from local craft brewers and imported and is sure to be an enjoyable event.
Please see http://www.beerandbrewerexpo.com for more info
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Pingback: All time Most Popular Worsts « The Worst of Perth
Obviously this years version of the beer festival is rapidly approaching as I am getting massive spikes in traffic on my blog, most of this is beer festival related.
Looking forward to seeing the “improvements” for this year.
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oh and I might add, they’ve pushed it back to Feb 20 – 21, upped the admission price by another $5 and have gone into PR overdrive. They’ve made a number of promises….
http://yelpar.blogspot.com/2009/11/anyone-up-for-perth-beer-festival.html
and then
http://yelpar.blogspot.com/2009/12/perth-international-beer-festival-2010.html
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I see they are trying to organise another one in 2010.
Methinks I shan’t be going!
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They do claim to have addressed the problems as stu says. Have to wait and see.
http://yelpar.blogspot.com/2009/12/perth-international-beer-festival-2010.html
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I’m going to organise a Goon Festival – a celebration of plonk in a box. I think it’d be a huge hit.
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Just with the bags, no boxes. See who can guess the region. The vintage should be fairly easy.
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I have got THE perfect set-up… imagine 200 Hills Hoists, a goon bag in each corner…every punter with their own glass in a leather holster & neck strap.
C’mon Perth, it’s GOON OF FORTUNE TIME!!!
http://bit.ly/8oualw
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Oh! How bluddy cunning of you.
I’ve been assiduously avoiding following all links to the Firth Piles but now you’ve caught me with a poxy shrunken address line.
Shame on you.
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Well thanks for that Rolly, I’m so glad to know that my writing has such a profound impact on you. We should catch up for a latte one day at one of those swank new inner city bars.
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The only bars you’d be likely to find me in, cooky, are the sand ones off Scabs beach.
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You mean the sand dunes off Swanbourne don’t you?
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With rifle over my shoulder, possibly: I never was much into spectator sports.
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You are a visionary, Cockster – you should be Premier!
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Now if we can get him pre-selected for Fremantle and defeat Queen Adele and then organise a seamless handover to Eric….. :-)
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Eric? Not on my patch Frank. Can’t you guys find someone worthy?
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I meant from Eric :-)
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The member for Freo – has a nice ring to it. Would I get free seats at Docker’s games?
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Of course as Local Member you would be the No 1 Ticket holder :-)
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Of course you’d be the biggest member there ever.
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I’m not going this year. Was a complete disappointment the previous yr. Just a money making event.
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Did anyone go to the ’10 festival last weekend?
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I went to the ’10 festival on the 20th of Feb. After what I’d heard about the 2009 festival, I originally wasn’t going to bother, but I’d heard some promising things from people in the know so I thought I’d give it a chance.
After spending over 3 hours there, I can safely say that it was a huge improvement on 2009. There was over 60 different beers on offer at perhaps 25 different tap points. Beers were available in 60mL, 200mL or 400mL servings. The line to get it was about 10 minutes, and I never waited more than 5 minutes for a beer. It was a bit pricy, but overall a well organised event. They should be going ahead with a festival in 2011 and I will certainly be attending.
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Did they have the rides again? I remember fondly the year that the authorities obtained the Octopus for our school fete. A rider was seriously unwell over the side… I will say no more.
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Oh Wow.
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Expect more action here in the next couple of days…
I’ll be very interested to see how it goes this year. They certainly got another stinking hot day…
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ahhh I wondered why I was getting heaps of hits on my blog from this post. I hadn’t paid much attention to it this time round. I seriously do hope it goes well….but god have mercy on them if it doesn’t ;)
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http://www.perthbeerfest.com.au/index.html
what a bunch of loosers
blue hornet isnt playing, note they do have wife carrying races though
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