Brewfest Returns to Downieville After Two-Year Hiatus

DOWNIEVILLE - This year's Downieville Mountain Brewfest, held on Saturday, July 23rd, was a success with over sixteen brew vendors taking over Main Street while the 49 Crossing Band provided their blues infused music.

New this year, we had the Nevada County Home Brewers Club join the festivities with twelve of their members providing a variety of home brews adding an additional 30-35 gallons of suds. The Home Brewers held a vote from attendees, with an American Strong Blackberry Ale being the clear first place winner People's Choice Award.

This year's event had welcomed over 600 attendees and grossed over $18k. Proceeds from this year's event will benefit the future Downieville Fire Station Building Fund. Funds from previous events paid for the construction of the gazebo in Gold Rush Park and a donation of $70K towards the Downieville Community Hall Renovation Project.

The Downieville Improvement Group (DIG) coordinated and planned during the past year for the event with their core members being Cherry Simi, Michael Galan, Karen Galan, Michael Taylor, Teresa Taylor, Liz Halliday, Richard Halliday, Greg Johnson, Connie Johnson and Brenda Black.

While we are totally at risk at not mentioning someone who volunteered and provided their assistance, we would also to personally thank and give a shout out to Kathy Whitlow who returned back to town and stayed up all night, along with Cherry, cooking and preparing the Brewers Private Luncheon which was served in the Masonic Hall.

A thank you to Jim Johnston who also returned to manage the parking at the school with students Landon Jackson, Mia Martinelli, and Natalie Rust, raising $370 for the Downieville School Student Body.

Michael Galan and Michael Taylor co-chaired the event, with Michael Taylor primarily responsible for the permits, insurance and recruiting the brewers. Michael Galan was in charge of the setup, hydration stations and arranged the tubs and Cherry is the President of DIG and besides filling in for any unassigned tasks, managed the website, Social Media, Music, presale tickets, advertising and supplies.

A thank you to Liz Halliday for managing the registration along with Karen Galan, Connie Johnson, Cheryl Good and Sharon Ranzoni. Thanks, as well, to Richard Halliday and Greg Johnson for helping with the setup, parking area and servicing the brewers with ice; to Karen Galan for setup and managing the merchanise table along with Sue Haddon, Ava Connolly, Bella Churchhill, Grace Galan and Elise Galan.

Teresa Taylor was in charge of the food vendors with priority and attention to offering a variety of food choices and supporting local businesses and groups as much as possible.

In addition to Sabrina's Cafe and Feather's La Cocina providing outside food services within the lineup of brewers, Sandy Sanders provided Asian inspired dishes, Josh & TJ Donovan with hotdogs, brats, nachos and salads, followed by Loren and Laurie Kelly with their Assembly of God members providing BBQ hamburgers and other delights. Also providing tasty treats were Party Pop Popcord from San Diego and local baker, Keri of Bread Money Baked Goods.

Thank you, Brenda Black for heading up our security and monitoring the event.Thank you Mindy Strine, for your help and support with the Community Hall. Thank you, Cindy McCreary for the use of the plaza parking area.

Thanks to both James Berardi and Shawn Maple for their coordination of school playground area use and to the Folsom family for the use of the Masonic Hall and the Huck family for the use of their garage.

Thank you Golden Rays, Doug Peterman, Chris Strine, Billy Epps and Big Boulder Adventures providing shuttle services to/from Sierra City and Indian Valley areas.

A thank you and shoutout to the entire Downieville Volunteer Fire Department led by Steve Folsom and Robert Hall for washing down and helping with the setup and teardown.

It really did "take a village" so there are many we are missing and not explicitly calling out, which we apologize in advance.

Thank you to the entire community, if not for lending a direct hand, your patience and tolerance on us taking over the town for the day is greatly appreciated.