Quench Your Thirst at Firkin Fest
Kathy Clayton
The Ashland Beacon
The Eighth Annual Firkin Fest returns to downtown Ashland on October 14 with some fun additions this year. The 2023 event is billed as a Craft Beer and Food Truck Festival.
Firkin Fest will still feature the favorite beers that everyone expects with several breweries offering samples of over 200 individual craft beer creations, including six from Kentucky – local favorite Eridanus Brewing, West Sixth, Country Boy, Sawstone, Lemons Mill and Sterling. Breweries from other surrounding states will also be represented.
“Not all of the 200 beers will be available at the same time. These are small breweries with small kegs. When they run out of one, it might be replaced with something different,” explained Brandy Clark, director of VisitAKY. “One thing new this year is that at the end of the event the brewers will be able to sell 6-packs of their beers.”
“This year, we’ve turned it into more of a food truck and beer experience,” Clark said. “It’s a family friendly event with entertainment and food. You don’t need a ticket to come and sample the food trucks and music.”
Clark noted that there will be 15 food trucks, and they will offer smaller portions and lower prices. “That will let people sample more of the food available.”
“We moved the date from Father’s Day weekend in June to October for more of an Oktoberfest feeling,” she explained. “It was just too hot in the summer, and we’ve moved the time from early afternoon to later in the day.”
The event has also been moved from Winchester Avenue to the 14th Street parking lot next to the Paramount Arts Center. Clark said there will be more parking available this year since no streets will be closed for the event.
Entertainment for the event includes the Ashland wind ensemble Oompah Outlaws performing traditional European Oktoberfest music followed by the Lincoln County Cloggers during the second hour. The headline act is Lincoln Mash and the Heather Alley Band, a bluegrass group.
“The weather looks perfect – 68 degrees,” Clark remarked. The festival has drawn 400-500 people in the past, and we hope to have that many or more this year. We hope the new changes we’ve made will encourage more people to attend. We just want everyone to come out and have fun.”
VIP ticket holders can access the event at 4 p.m. with general admission entry open at 5 p.m., and the event ends at 8 p.m. VIP tickets are sold out, but there are still general admission tickets available for $40 and $50 the day of the event. The ticket price includes sampling of 15 craft beers.