Beer. Bourbon. BBQ. Bacon.
What’s better than each of those things on their own? Well, bringing them all together of course. And that’s exactly what is happening at the Old Trolley Barn in New Haven on Saturday, March 22nd at the 4B Festival.
For the price of admission ($75) you get to gorge yourself on all things bacon and BBQ and wash it all down with an amazing array of beer and bourbon. Seriously, there’s going to be over 65 vendors and the list keeps growing. Plus, there’s going to be live music, a bacon-eating contest, home brew competition and more.
We got the chance to ask a few questions of David Salinas, the mastermind behind the 4B festival and CEO of Digital Surgeons. Here’s what we had to tell us.
Designing a celebration of the 4Bs – Was it a divine epiphany or are you just an evil genius?
We’ve been looking for the perfect event to throw that would bring people to New Haven, since many don’t know that New Haven is an incredible city and considered the culinary capital of CT. We feel that Beer, Bourbon, Bacon and BBQ perfectly complement each other really well and each represent popular food and drink that we personally love and believe a lot of people do too.
The choice of location is pretty cool. Tell us a bit about it and why you chose it?
As Connecticut’s culinary capital, New Haven has a tremendous amount of diversity and quality in its cuisine, so it made sense that this festival happen here and stay here. The Old Trolley Barn was a natural choice given it’s location and size, and most importantly because it’s a bustling creative space for entrepreneurs, start ups and other like minded businesses and people. The space has a huge tunnel-like hall with 30-foot high ceilings and over 20,000 square feet of common space, where over 4,000 festival goers can come together.
You’re on a deserted island and you can only bring one of the 4Bs, which one would it be and why?
My current love is Pumpkin Ale, but I’d likely choose a 20 year old Pappy Van Winkle, since I just got my hands on some.
There’s been a real surge of craft breweries, distilleries and food artisans in Connecticut. It seems like the perfect time for this festival. Would it have been as possible to gather so much amazingness in one place say five years ago?
Definitely not. In the past few years, New Haven has attracted some of the best chefs, brewers, distilleries and artisans, each of whom are delivering incredible products to our city and showing this commitment through their participation in our festival. I’d challenge any culinary aficionado today outside of our city to compete for my tastebuds, and I’m certain New Haven will win.
What are you most looking forward to at the festival?
I’m really excited to bring the tastes and flavors from all our vendors to the people of New Haven and beyond. We have 4B connoisseurs coming from all over the map – as far as Phoenix and Chicago – joining us to indulge. So not only will our guests get to enjoy incredible food and drink from our area, they’ll get a taste of New Haven like none other, which is great for our city in terms of tourism.
How many vendors have you lined up? Are there any you’re really excited about?
We’ve locked in approximately 65 vendors to date and the list keeps growing. I’m excited about each and every one of them, hands down.
The event was originally sold out, but don’t despair you can still get on the waitlist! As tickets become available (and they are becoming available) the folks on the waitlist get first dibs.
Here’s all the info:
4B Festival
Date: 03/22/14
Time: 1st session 12-4 pm; 2nd session 5:30-9:30pm
Location: The Old Trolley Barn, 1175 State Street, New Haven, CT
Cost: $75 regular admission