Authored By seanphippster

A new craft beer and food festival is coming to the Southside.

Brew Skies will take place April 8 on Chestnut Street near Chattanooga Brewing Co. and Finley Stadium. Proceeds from the festival will benefit Chattanooga Breakfast Rotary Club’s local and global service projects.

The festival will take place from 12 to 4 p.m., and admission is $25 per person.

Initially, only 200 tickets will be sold to the event. Click here to purchase tickets.

“We were trying to figure out what our next big fundraiser would be and noticed there were no beer events in the spring,” festival marketing chair Natalie Cook said. “We’re hoping [Brew Skies] will fill a bit of a void, although we’re starting as a small event.”

In addition to local breweries, Brew Skies organizers encourage homebrewers and both professional and amateur chefs to compete in several competitions. Winners of the homebrew and slider competitions will be determined in both people’s choice and judge’s choice categories.

Homebrew vendors must be able to supply at least 5 gallons of beer and the necessary equipment to serve it to the public. Chefs seeking to participate in the slider competition must provide at least 150 sliders and serving equipment.

A full list of vendor requirements and a registration form are available here.

Brew Skies has already teamed up with Heaven and Ale and Chattanooga Brewing Co. for the event.

Cook said they are waiving vendor fees for the inaugural festival, hoping to spur interest from chefs and homebrewers in the first year.

“This year, we’re just hoping to drive participation and awareness,” she said. “We’ll have fun awards for ‘most spirited team’-vendors who offer the best booth decorations and swag. We’re really hoping people kind of get into it.”

Chattanooga Breakfast Rotary is one of the smallest arms of local Rotarians. They are the only group that holds meetings for breakfast instead of lunch, hence the name. Cook said the club’s service projects include both local and international efforts.

“We’re heavily involved in Hixson/Rivermont in the schools with citizenship and literacy programs,” she said. “One of the other big ongoing service projects is building latrines in mountain villages in Haiti.”

She said the club has helped install 125 outdoor toilets to provide proper waste disposal, in addition to sponsoring and assisting in the repair of more than 120 water wells to provide clean drinking water for villages.

Updated @ 4:53 p.m. on 2/21/17 to correct a factual error: Chattanooga Brewing Co. and Heaven and Ale will participate in the event; Heaven and Ale is not the “main sponsor,” as originally reported.