Bell's Brewery To Take Part In Summer Beer Festival After All
YPSILANTI (AP) - A well-known Michigan brewer that had said it was pulling out of a major beer festival because of planned political fundraising at the event did an about-face, announcing Friday it was back in.
Bell's Brewery Inc. will participate in the Michigan Beer Guild's 16th Annual Summer Beer Festival in Ypsilanti this weekend, the Kalamazoo Gazette reported.
After learning about the Protect Michigan Craft Beer Political Action Committee's plans for political fundraising, Larry Bell, the brewery's founder and president, said he found it "distasteful" to involve politics in the event and that he didn't want to be part of trying to raise cash from "drunk or slightly intoxicated people."
But on Friday afternoon, Bell had changed his mind.
"An agreement has been reached with Bell's and the board of the (Michigan Beer) Guild," he said. "Bell's staff is on its way to set up and be there."
Bell said the agreement calls for the PAC to limit its fundraising activities at the event to a dunk tank - those being dunked are brewers.
Scott Newman-Bale, treasurer of the Michigan Beer Guild, said that always was the extent of the PAC's planned activities.
"I am happy to have them back," he said.
The Protect Michigan Craft Beer PAC operates independently of the Michigan Beer Guild, whose mission is to introduce people to Michigan beer.
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