Join in the Brew Haha at the Convention Center This Weekend
It’s here.
The Atlantic City Beer & Music Fest is taking place this Friday and Saturday. Thousands of ale aficionados, melophiles and dad bods will descend on the Atlantic City Convention Center in search of their favorite suds.
Every expedition is likely to succeed, given the fact that more than 100 brewers will be serving approximately 400 beers.
Ever wander the aisles of your favorite purveyor of brewskis, grab a $20 four-pack of a new microbrew, and spent the night being totally disappointed?
If you are wondering what to stock your fridge with this summer, this is the fest for you.
Plus, it’s about as good a time as you can have while not on three wheels!
The fest is the brainchild of production company Good Time Tricycle’s founder Jon Henderson. Although this festival focuses on the beloved beverage, GTT also puts on a seafood festival, a cigar social, a tattoo expo and a Halloween bash filled with “broos & spirits.”
GTT, a company that was started with a $5,000 loan from Henderson’s father, is even consulting for North to Shore this summer.
Jon, often with his wife Carol, also can be seen supporting area venues, nurturing the community with a high tide raises all boats mentality and giving advice on panels at business evets around the city.
BreakingAC had a chance to ask Henderson a few questions about the festival scene in the area where he is a major player.
BreakingAC: Can you take me through the decision to leave casino hospitality and take the leap of faith to start you own company?
Jon Henderson: I was the business development director for Caesars Entertainment. I produced a handful of events for them. At the time I was doing the tattoo expo as well as the Atlantic City Beer Music Festival. That's when I opted to introduce the Seafood Festival to the mix. It was a lot. I was doing probably 120 hours a week. Good Time Tricycle really started to catch on. I wasn’t so subservient to that casino paycheck. I wanted to do it on my own.
Was it nerve wracking? Yes. Is it still nerve wracking? Yes. I decided that for my sanity, my time and my ability to kind of develop events without distractions that it's best that I jump ship. It was time. I had been with Caesars and the casino industry at that point for 15 years.
BAC: How did you learn to do it?
JH: I'm a planner by nature. I have an innate ability to kind of go out and see all the moving parts before they're actually moving together. Where it comes from? I have no idea. But following trends has always been natural.
BAC: How did you come to participate in constructing the guidelines for New Jersey festivals?
JH: I tend to raise my hand a lot when it comes to simplifying things or processes of how things should run. I also lead by example. In 2008, a lot of groups saw what we were doing not only in New Jersey, but Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York. The floodgates opened and there was no actual criteria. There was no playbook on how this should work.
West Geiselman reached out to me. He was at the time the attorney for the ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control), and said, “Can you talk through your processes?” We sat down and had an honest conversation. And I inadvertently gave the entire state of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware the playbook to be my competition. I essentially gave them a playbook.
BAC: Can you explain the name of your company?
JH: My wife and I were at Cobweb Corner. It's a small antique shop in Absecon. My wife was looking for somebody else's junk to put in our house. I was outside with our with our daughter, Mackenzie. She was playing around on this old tricycle. Carol told her to get off and that you're going to break it or hurt yourself. I said, “Let her go. Somebody probably had a good time on that tricycle.” And it clicked. It clicked in my head.
BAC: What is your favorite event that you produced so far?
JH: You never want to say one of your children is prettier than the other, right?
Seafood Fest has always kind of been my favorite, OK? Only because it's always the less stressful. Because you have beer fest and Witchcraft ... a lot of people are drinking. Micro wrestling is aggressive. Seafood Fest was that first chance I got to bring my entire family. Plus, it's one of those festivals that is truly a community event. If you look around all the bands that are playing from the area. All the restaurants that are there are from the area. All the breweries that are there are from the area. You know, all the vendors are all from the area. So it's that one that is really for me.
BAC: Are there unique challenges to working in A.C. and the surrounding area?
JH: Every area has its issues. It's not like there's one that lets you pop up and it's without challenge. That’s the nature of bringing thousands of people into a space from a security standpoint.
Atlantic City tends to be the most challenging. Atlantic City is an expensive place to do business. We suffer from a stigma. Witchcraft is out in the middle of nowhere, and it's unaffected by its surroundings. But my job is to get people from Philly, North Jersey, Central Jersey and New York to come to Atlantic City.
Essentially, I’m a tourism group without kind of getting state subsidies. It's just a kind of box we ended up building for ourselves and I don't regret it.
BAC: Do end users come to you with concepts now?
JH: Everyone has an idea. But nobody knows what it takes to bring these ideas to fruition. I have a very kind of standard answer. How much money do you have? What do you see as our role in this?
I have to feel passionate about everything I put my hands on. More often than not, when you break it down and they see how much work goes into it, I don't hear back from them.
BAC: What’s the five-year plan of your company?
JH: I don't know that I'll ever have the capability of retirement. I'd love to retire. I'd love to sell everything and get an RV and never be heard from again. I’m sure there's a Reddit page about 50-year-old guys disappearing.
The five-year plan always changes. There's a vision. We've been a company producing events for 19 years now. So the vision always changes. The five-year plan always speeds up or slows down based on the market. You're constantly bobbing and weaving.
You're probably the first person I've ever said this to: I have to get more involved in the direction of Atlantic City. We need to change the perception. It's not something I want to do, but probably something I might have to do — get folks together.
Everybody suffers from what we call the white knight syndrome. I want to be the one to save Atlantic City. You can be the white knight. But we need a King Arthur and a round table where everybody gets together and it talks about what needs to be done. Raise your hand instead of having your hand out.
BAC: Jon Henderson for mayor then?
JH: No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
There are three sessions for the Atlantic City Beer & Music Fest:
Tickets are available at the door until they sell out. Designated driver tickets do not sell out.
