After a year on hiatus, the greatest craft beer festival our city has to offer gloriously returns, bigger and better than ever! The Mission Valley Craft Beer and Food Festival will rock the Q on Saturday, April 4th! Lacking the eloquence to thoroughly evoke the fervent elation within you this news should bring, you’ll just have to trust me when I say this is a festival you must attend.

For a $45 ticket you will get unlimited (no, that’s not a typo) tasters from at least 35 craft breweries, 3 cider makers, 4 distilleries and unlimited small plates from at least 18 amazing food vendors. I say at least because that’s what’s been confirmed so far, there might be more. Yes, all of that, one ticket price, with, wait for it…, free parking! You don’t even have to drive, there’s a trolley stop outside the gate! Three bands will provide music as great as the beer and food being served. Three Bzine will be onsite podcasting all day and I’ll be joining them at one (or several) time(s)! This festival has always been a favorite of mine and is what lead me into blogging about craft beer.

If you have supported me for the almost five years I’ve been running this site you remember a time when I wrote about skateboarding and BMX more regularly. This festival was the first craft beer event I covered and helped bring my vehement interest of all things beer and brewing to the surface.

The founding partners of the MVCBFF have teamed up with Push Pins Media to keep this event truly local. It will all go down on the old Chargers’ practice field, in the southwest corner of Qualcomm’s parking lot. The space is huge, at over 100,000 square feet, this will not just be 20 booths with huge lines in front of them. If you were lucky enough to have the foresight to get VIP tickets you’re going to have the time of your life.

You can read up on my past experiences at this festival here and here. There are many, many craft beer events in our city. Very few are completely ran by San Diegans; this event is. We are witnessing the greatest boom in craft beer’s history and our city is the capital. It’s important that we support events and festivals that represent our local craft culture. We want a legacy of excellence on par with the quality of the world class craft beer being made by our breweries to permeate the entire scene.

This festival is a showcase of great breweries and amazing chefs, the location is easy to access and has free parking, you can take the trolley instead of driving, it’s a real local event ran by locals, and it’s all you can eat and drink. The extraordinary ticket value is clear, you will have a terrific day, stop reading and buy your tickets now! After you have tickets, be sure to follow me (@mkbain) to keep up with any changes and my day of antics.