Middlesex Community College's Inaugural Festival: Red Moon Fest

Re-posted from my blog: Malted Musings.

This Saturday Middlesex Community College (in Middletown, CT) will hold its inaugural beer and wine festival, the Red Moon Fest, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM in Chapman Hall. Admission is $50 and the proceeds will support Middlesex Community College (MxCC) and the MxCC Foundation. This will be a festival of all things local to CT, whether grown, produced, or manufactured. This includes beer, wine, local food, and works of art.

I touched base with Greg Kline, the MxCC Director of Institutional Advancement, and he had plenty to say about this exciting new addition to the Connecticut beer fest scene. Up first, naturally, is the beer selection. As Red Moon Fest is all about capturing the flair and flavor of CT, they will be featuring three local breweries: Thomas Hooker; Cottrell; and Beaver Beer. If wine is more your style, Kline has you covered with offerings from four local wineries: Hopkins Vinyards; Miranda Vineyard; Heritage Trail Vineyards; and Sharpe Hill. 


Middlesex County is no stranger to high quality beer and exciting beer fests. To stick out in this crowded market, Kline is bringing in the Lost Acres String Band, to set the Autumn harvest theme, and is featuring a silent and a live auction. Due to the growing excitement, 200 tickets have been sold already. These sales have brought the new fest very close to its 300 ticket cap and Kline is hopeful that they will sell all the tickets by the time Saturday rolls around.  


The total ticket sales will generate around $25,000 (before cost), says Kline, which will support the college and its Foundation. The foundation strives to connect the college to the community by supporting school scholarships, institution upgrades, instructional upgrades, and public lectures.

There's nothing better than drinking for a good purpose, and it doesn't get much better than helping a local college enrich the lives of an entire surrounding county in Connecticut! If you are interested in purchasing a ticket or curious about MxCC Foundation Sponsorship, call Greg Kline at (860)343-6914 or drop him an email at gkline@mxcc.edu. Also, here are links for the silent auction and the live auction if you want to check out some of the winnable items.

For more coverage of CT's beer scene, be sure to follow me on Twitter, Blogger, and Facebook. Also, be sure to get out to as many local fests as you can and support your local community by drinking good beer!