Dead of Winter

Remember that time Bockfest was cancelled by a giant blizzard? Steve Hampton does.

Hampton is one of the longtime organizers of Bockfest and the executive director of the Brewery District Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation and

If You Go

Precipitation Retaliation Happy Hour

Friday, Feb. 25, 2022 from 5–8:30 p.m.
Northern Row Brewery and Distillery, 111 W McMicken Ave.

Snowman burning will take place at 8 p.m.

Details at www.bockfest.com/pre-bockfestivities.html

In 2008, Bockfest was almost entirely shut down by the largest snowfall in 20 years.

“A few of us were sitting around planning the 2009 Bockfest after the blizzard almost wiped out Bockfest forever in 2008,” he says. “A few beers in, we were discussing the groundhog in Punxsutawney predicting the weather each year. We knew we wanted something more proactive than reactive, and in a moment –which I will proudly claim to my dying day–I said we should burn a snowman as a sacrifice.”

Of course, burning snow poses a host of problems. After a brief discussion of various chemical accelerants, Hampton and his compadres seized on the idea of burning a snowman in effigy.

That is how a snowman came to be set on fire at Grammer’s, along with much revelry. Thus a tradition was born, with good or at least not terrible weather, in the following years.

The proud and fiery legacy continues this year, as Bockfest returns to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

“I love this tradition, because it is an event that gets to the heart of Bockfest,” Hampton says. “It is ridiculous on the surface, people are passionate about it, it involves beer, and each successive person involved adds their creativity and spark to the event.”