Brewfest Returns: New Date No Problem

DOWNIEVILLE — The Downieville Mountain Brewfest held on Saturday, September 21st, was a success, with over a dozen brew vendors and the Nevada County Home Brewers taking over Main Street while Bob Mora & the Third Degree band provided their blues music. This year’s event was the first to be moved into the fall from the previous July date, but still, it welcomed approximately 600 attendees. Proceeds from the event will benefit the future Downieville Fire Station Building Fund.

The Downieville Improvement Group (DIG) coordinated and planned during the past year for the festival with its core members being Cherry Simi, Stephanie Villa, 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 of not mentioning someone who volunteered and provided their assistance, we would also like to personally thank and give a shout-out to Greg and Connie Johnson for cooking a private luncheon served to the brew vendors and volunteers from our renovated Community Hall Kitchen.

Michael Taylor and Stephanie Villa co-chaired the event, with Stephanie revamping the downievillebrewfest.com website and their online ticket system. Stephanie was also instrumental in promoting the event with social media and advertising.

Besides filling in for any unassigned tasks, Cherry Simi, the President of DIG, managed the supplies and ordering of merchandise. Kathy Whitlow returned to town and, along with Cherry, provided additional cooking for our food court during the event. Kathy also helped with pours of donated kegs from The Good Wolf and Rebellion breweries.

A thank you to Liz Halliday for managing the registration along with Stephanie Villa, Karen Galan, Jennifer Moore, Bette Joe Lang, and Brenda Black; Richard Halliday for the help with the setup and servicing the brewers with ice; Karen Galan for setup and managing the merchandise table along with Christina Galan, Grace Galan and Elise Galan.

Karen Galan was also in charge of the food vendors, with a priority on supporting local businesses and groups as much as possible. A Thank you to JADAA’s and Sabrina’s at the Forks for being our primary local food vendors at the event. Michael Galan was in charge of the hydration stations.

Thank you, Brenda Black and Cherry Simi, for heading up our security and monitoring the event; Cindy McCreary, for donating several needed miscellaneous items and the use of the plaza parking area; James Berardi for allowing the use of the school blacktop area for vendor parking and helping with the pours for Crooked Lane; The Huck family for the use of their garage; Dan Farrington and Ingrid Larson for the use of their property for additional parking for our brew vendors.

Thank you, Golden Rays Patty Gingg, Dillon Cranahan, Kathy Williams, Greg Johnson, and Billy Epps’ Big Boulder Adventures, for shuttle services to/from Sierra City and Indian Valley areas. A thank you and shout-out to the entire Downieville Volunteer Fire Department led by Steve Folsom and Robert Hall for their help with the setup and teardown.

It really did “take a village,” so there are many people we are not explicitly thanking, for which we apologize. Thank you to the entire community: even if you did not lend a direct hand, your patience and tolerance for us taking over the town for the day is greatly appreciated.

The tentative planned date for next year’s Downieville Mountain Brewfest is Saturday, September 6th, 2025.