Riverside’s Hop Stop craft beer festival took to Guthrie Park and the Riverside train station on Saturday, Sept. 26, from 3-6 p.m.
Featuring offerings from 15 breweries, cideries and distilleries and five or six more for food, music and entertainment, the annual festival offered a chance for residents of all ages to share in good company for an afternoon of fun, with alcoholic offerings for the adults and face painting, balloon art and lawn games for the kids.
“The weather was perfect,” said Tim Ozga, an organizer of the event through the Olmsted Society. “A lot of young families were there. I saw a lot of kids having a great time, and I really think that the non-children, the adults, were having an equally good time. Our vendors again provided a fabulous assortment of some interesting, crafted beers that you might not get on the shelf.”
Hop Stop is organized jointly each year by Riverside Foods and the Olmsted Society, which receives all of the revenues generated by the festival to fund its workdays and other conservation efforts.
“The fact that we have more of a communal, family-approach beer festival is what sets the bar above and [makes it] a great fit for Riverside,” said Peter Boutsikakis, the co-owner of Riverside Foods and another of Hop Stop’s main organizers. “We’re doing it in Guthrie Park and the train station, which is a great space, and in benefit of the Olmsted Society. Literally, you’re enjoying this festival, and then your community benefits after from the funds raised from it.”
General adult admission, which included a commemorative wristband and tastings from all of the alcohol vendors, cost $65, while designated driver tickets without access to tastings were available for just $5. Children got in free, but it cost $5 for a ticket that included face painting and balloon art. Red tartan blankets with the event’s logo were also available for purchase ahead of time and at Hop Stop for $25.
Ozga said Hop Stop is a great fit for Riverside’s ethos.
“I’ve been working with the Olmsted Society for 25 years now, and a lot of people think of us as, Olmsted was the designer of Riverside, so there’s a lot of history, or we do things with the trees. But at the same time, a lot about what Olmsted was doing was for the community,” Ozga told the Landmark. “Having an event outside in the center of Riverside with the entire community is what it’s become.”
The event got its start in 2015 inside the train station before expanding outward into Guthrie Park in subsequent years, he said. The first Hop Stop had about 150 attendees, Boutsikakis said, while last year’s 10th endeavor saw attendance of about 750.
This year, about 700 people attended, Ozga said, raising more than $10,000 for the Olmsted Society.
“There was a fellow, Rob Dixon, who was on our board of the Olmsted Society and also had a little bit of a beer tooth, if that’s such a thing, and he always envisioned a fundraiser that was like a craft beer festival,” Ozga said. “He was always kind of nudging [Boutsikakis] to see what [his] level of interest was.”
“This is a generational business here, Riverside Foods, and when I first started getting involved, craft beer” — which Boutsikakis described as a “personal interest” — “started getting involved. Back then, you could count the craft breweries available on two hands,” he said. “When I found out more of what the Olmsted Society did, it was a perfect [beneficiary], and Rob Dixon’s enthusiasm helped us put it on, the first one.”
From then on, “We couldn’t stop,” Boutsikakis said. “People wouldn’t let us stop.”
Hop Stop made use of about 30 volunteers, Ozga said, for setup, takedown and to pour beer for some of the vendors who could spare product but not people or even for those with attending staff, allowing them to mingle and enjoy the afternoon, too.
“All these brewers are ones that we carry every single week and have relationships with, so it’s really a reciprocal effort,” Boutsikakis said. “There are a couple breweries that don’t have the boots on the ground, but they’re able to send the stuff, so these volunteers are great.”
Boutsikakis said he looks forward to a special feeling that finds him at every Hop Stop.
“There’s a moment, like three-quarters of the way in the festival. It’s always in Guthrie Park where the sun hits the right way, and you see everybody having a great time, and you’re like, ‘Shit, this is it,’” he said. “You just see neighbors and kids, people enjoying a nice beer, and it all makes sense. It’s very Riverside.”
Ozga said he most enjoys the sense of community that Hop Stop fosters each year.
“It’s that feeling of being in a backyard party with your friends,” he said. “I see all the smiling faces. You have children dancing around to the music. If that doesn’t bring a smile to your face, I don’t know what will.”
