The Hangar 24 Airfest and 5th Anniversary Celebration took place on May 18th at the Redlands Municipal Airport and boasted amazing aerial acrobatics, live music, activities, food and of course … beer!

The wait was at least 30-45 mins to get in, but that’s shame-on-me for not getting a pre-sale ticket. That line was super short. The pre-sale ticket was $5 and the door ticket was $8, yay for being so cheap! Cheers to the volunteers and workers who were pouring beer. They were working hard and doing a great job at keeping the lines moving.

I wandered the event and really enjoyed all the displays of the vintage planes and had fun shooting them. I had missed the daytime airshow by only an hour but had fun looking at all the planes.

The proceeds of the event was going to the Hangar charities which provide for the local orange groves and they had their vintage farm trucks and beautiful wooden boxes.. I chatted with the owner of the trucks and we agreed that the wooden crates were wonderful. I explained that if he ever wanted to sell them he needed to call me.

The scenery was majestic. The background of the sprawling mountains was breathtaking and once the sun was setting I couldn’t stop myself from taking a ton of photos.

The beers I had were the XPA which was a drinkable experimental IPA that Hangar is playing around with. They apparently are going to brew another variation of that soon in an effort to make the best IPA they can based on this beer’s feedback. I tried the Slow Roll Anniversary beer which was a Belgian golden aged in bourbon barrels but it tasted more like a dubbel to me because of the massive sweet, almost raisin flavors.

Overall the event was enjoyable and people worked really hard to provide a fun experience for all the attendees. I only wish there had been more food vendors. I waited over an hour in a food truck line only to be told they had run out of food and their fryers were cold. I always expect a few hiccups at a massive event like the Airfest. The concept and venue were great and the hard work that was put into it was obvious. Based on the comments I saw from social media the people of Redlands really appreciated it. Can’t wait for next year! I will come earlier and bring granola bars.