1st Alpen View Brew Festival (CLOSED. Success! Thanks!)

[Smertolina]

Martina gave Gus a H$20 tip and kissed him on the cheek, but as she was enjoying the beers, she was distracted away from them by her personal favorite band of the weekend taking the stage.

Starting in silence and darkness, a slow, clear intro of electric guitar and keyboard started up, and then the spotlights came up on statuesque singer Stefania Stefnevsky. Cascading long black hair framed her white skin and sky blue eyes, and she wore a form-fitting, low-cut red evening gown. She sang a high, crystal-clear soprano verse about a forlorn lady longing for her lost love, the opening to the band's single "Blood and Honor".

As the lights flashed up, the speakers exploded with a crashing metal riff of the rest of the band. The men of the band all wore studded black leather longcoats, vests, pants and boots, and had long hair and jaw-length mustaches. Mikhail Markov's thundering, elaborate black and chrome drum set surrounded him and shook the stage. Rhythm guitarist and male vocalist Gunther Strohm growled and roared along with Stefania, singing of the lady's love fighting for her honor on a battlefield in the valley of the shadow of death.

The emotional metal epic wound on, and at the end, the lady's hero perished, but the land was free and the memory of his honor lived on.

The set continued in this vein, the rest of the band joining in with Stefania's vocals for certain verses and choruses, sometimes harmonizing, other times howling and growling discordantly to represent lines sung by the devil, a dragon, or a dark pagan god. When the drum, bass and rhythm guitar were pounding together, the entire festival ground vibrated. In addition to their original metal epics, Von Todt also played their metal versions of several proto-goth 80s pop tunes, and even a couple of dramatically warped Broadway tunes, to show off Stefania's range. Lead guitarist Viktor Vodyanoy windmilled his long blonde hair, his long fingers flying across the frets, playing clear notes at impossible speeds and combinations.

On the pavilion, Princess Martina went berserk, whipping her bangs forward and back

[Neu Engollon]

At The Main Stage:

The crowd was going wild for Von Todt. It was their first performance in Neu Engollon and many die hard fans, not even beer aficionados, had traveled from all over the nation to see them. The crowd moved and swayed to the music, then whipped their hair during headbanging, glorious riffs.

At the Pavilion:

Gus nodded and bowed. He touched his cheek where the Princess had kissed him and smiled.

"Thank you milady, I will get your next batch for you, unless you need a change up, have special requests, or would like some liquor or water."

She seemed distracted by the band, so he wasn't even sure she would answer back.

At the BB Tent:

The lines were long as they had been all day, now as things were winding down, they were still grabbing their last rounds. The other tents as well were getting a long form up of lines. There would be a bit of a DJ set afterwards from DJ Cherovnika, and there were plenty of people that wanted to stay for that, but there was also a few older folks ready to pack it in after Von Todt was done playing.

[Smertolina]

As Von Todt wound down their set, DJ Charovnika and her assistant finished setting up. She wore a fur hat, a white lab coat over a white catsuit, and LED-illuminated earphones and goggles, while her subdued assistant wore plain black clothing and earphones. In addition to her monitors, her goggles had a heads-up display. As the cheering for Von Todt died down, she started up a piece from a Smertolinan classical symphony orchestra, then slowly brought up the volume on a dance beat, which then whooshed and crashed down into a thudding dubstep mix.

At first apparently emotionless, as the music livened up, Charovnika began to bob her head and rock her hips in time.

The remaining partiers danced and spun as Charovnika's set veered through remixes of popular dance tunes, dub and trance mixes of Eastern European folk tunes and symphonies, and mash-ups of just about anything with everything, inserting brief bursts of film dialogue, well-known rock tunes, and short samples of Alpen Folk Circle, Vechirek, and Von Todt. Two beermaids removed their skirts and go-go danced on the sides of the stage in bodices and thongs.

As an example of the kind of mash-up mixes Charovnika does:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JrlLVP ... ata_player

[Neu Engollon]

The crowd swayed to DJ Charovnika's beats, gyrating more to the fast parts. The lines started to dwindle until finally, special red flags were put out on the counters of many of the tents, signalling last call. Some of the rockers had headed back home or to their hotels, but a few stayed. Lots of little cheers went out when bits of the songs from bands that had played that night were discerned in the mix.

The music went on as the tents closed up shop for the day. They looked forward to a full day tomorrow and another wave of Festival goers. There were many 1 Day tickets out there, waiting to be used.

[Neu Engollon]

The Judging has been completed for the next set of categories. Congratulations to the winners and runner-ups!

Pale Ales/IPAs/ESBs:

1 Valkyrie Golden Ale (Boar's Head) 14.475
2 81 Ale (Burgunden) 14.325
3 Frolls (Kruetnisch) 13.875
4 Tamekrd Delight Organic Ale (Boar's Head) 13.825
5 Omholt's Pale Ale (Omholt's) 12.750


Porters/Scotch Ales/Browns:

1 Pmylg Buum Porter (Boar's Head) 15.475
2 Tyng Dark Porter (Boar's Head) 15.275
3 Omholts Golfers Delight Scotch (Omholt's) 14.075

[Neu Engollon]

The third day went by without too much hassle, many of the staff were very worn out from the first couple nights. The crowds were lighter as there weren't too many full Festival pass holders, but it wasn't empty by a long shot either. They'd had a good rush the first couple days, but now it was past amateur hour and down to the die hards. There would be another spike on the last day, but the fourth day was the hard core drinkers and even the musicians on stage seemed a bit more ragged and rough around the edges. The Smertolinans, both those manning the tents and the VIPs in the Pavilion seemed to be hanging in there with the toughest of the Burgunden natives. The evening party was just beginning...

[Neu Engollon]

The Judging has been completed for the final set of categories. Congratulations to the winners and runner-ups!

Doubles/Imperials:

1 Catfish Dark Ale (ENBC) 14.575
2 Ferme Hades (Burgunden) 14.200
3 243 Ale (Burgunden) 14.150

Stouts:

1 Whedab Isk Dark Star (Boar's Head) 15.775
2 St Chris Catacombs Prem (St Chris's) 15.600
3 Medium Stout (Apsdaaler) 15.350
4 Nebelander Stout (Kaiser's Own) 15.325
5 Upceteyh Obsidian Stout (Boar's Head) 14.600
6 Schiele Stout (Burgunden) 14.575

[Neu Engollon]

The wrap up of the Festival went on without too much hassle. A closing day of the March of the Madcaps happened, with a little less enthusiasm by all the greatly hungover staff and die hard attendess.

Before the last of the bands played and the last DJ set, Minister Toft and his brother, Jan, made speeches to thank all the participating brewers, vendors, entertainers, sponsors and especially the attendees. The end participation was not as great as expected, with much lower numbers, but still, overall, it was a success. Breweries earned the recognition they deserved. Everyone packed up and headed off, to their breweries, homes, hotels and some, to the airport. They went off warm, fuzzy (buzzy) and content.

[Smertolina]

The remaining Smertolinan festival-goers, staff and officials enjoyed a much lower-key last day, sitting and conversing in friends' and rivals' booths. The exhausted and hung-over partiers were increasingly grateful for Iron Eagle's caffeinated water. The officials beamed about the awards Smertolina's beers had won. This had been the nation's first international event since the civil war and Martina's accession to the throne, and they hadn't been certain they were ready, but now they were hammering out plans with ministers back home over the phone to open international storefronts and expand brewing for exports. The musicians of Vechirek encouraged their new friends with Alpen Volken Circle to do a tour of Smertolina. At the closing, Princess Martina wore a black uniform criss-crossed with gold braid and ribbon, and dark aviator sunglasses, and smiled quietly before leading out her contingent of officials and assistants; she had tipped another thousand Helveti to be divided among the pavilion staff, with another hundred specifically for "Gus". Archbishop Orlock pronounced a blessing on Neu Engollon and the fairgrounds on his way out. The next day, the black-uniformed workers dismantled and packed their remaining equipment and hurried away. As beautiful and hospitable as Neu Engollon was, everyone wanted to be home in time to watch the Olympics