Summer Swelter Craft Beer Festival
Total Turf Sports Complex
614 Lambs Rd
Pitman, NJ 08071
Festival Date: August 28, 2021
We (being The Beer Posse) were so excited to hear that the Summer Swelter Festival was a go for this summer. With everything shutting down due to Covid-19 in 2020, I think everyone was anxious to visit our favorite beer festivals! And although we had a small contingent of The Beer Posse in attendance (Pretzel, The Stoutmeister, The Mole Slayer, and The Queen of Funk), we know the others were with us in spirit. Nanny Franny and The Wrangler had to work. leaving the Rabbit on daddy daycare duty, Princess and B3 absconded to Canada, and The Good Neighbor and The Tinkler were missing-in-action.
There was not a whole lot of sweltering going on at this years festival, and the heaven’s decided to bless us with rain most of the afternoon. However, this did little to dampen festival-goers excitement! The rains opened up as we all stood in line for the VIP opening. As we all stood dripping in line, mapping out our game plan on which breweries to hit first, there were no cross words regarding the weather. It was just something we would all bear in order to try some delectable beers and seltzers. There are several things that make Swelter Fest truly unique.
- They focus purely on NJ breweries
- The venue is divided into 2 physical areas. One is inside the Total Turf sports complex, and the other is outside in the parking lot behind Total Turf
- Swelter Fest is a non-profit beer festival, with all proceeds benefiting the Pitman Chamber of Commerce which in turn supports small businesses in their town.
- It’s the only beer festival (at least that I am aware of) that takes place in a dry town.
So while most of the attendees immediately headed to the inside venue to dry out from the rain, and check out the breweries, the diehards stayed outside to get first crack at those breweries. Below are some video and photographs of our outing.
There were food trucks, live music, live cigar rolling, axe throwing, and many vendors. When The Mole Slayer, The Queen of Funk and I compared notes at the end of the day, I was surprised to find that we all had the same “favorite beer of the day” – Westville Brewery’s Orange, Passion-fruit, tropical hard seltzer slushy! YUM! Of course, I won’t hear the end of it I’m sure, since on one of my last posts, I ranted on about how I didn’t like Seltzer and that we are The Beer Posse not The Seltzer Posse. The Queen of Funk and I were rocking with the music and dancing up a storm in the rain. We also tried our hand at the Axe Throw by Primitive Axe. I’ll admit, I was pretty good, The Queen of Funk not-so-much!
So it was another great day at the Swelter Festival. See y’all next year!
Photo Gallery: