YPN brews up 4-B weekend - Barbecue, Beers, Bags, Business

[June 08, 2015]  LINCOLN - What goes with barbecue? Beer. And what do young professionals like to drink? Good beer. The idea was that simple for the Logan County Alliance’s Young Professional Network for their half of the weekend’s Pigs and Swigs Festival in downtown Lincoln.

“In splitting the Art and Balloon Fest Festival into four different weekends, it was important that we helped support this initial kickoff," Michelle Bauer, Swigs coordinator with the Alliance’s YPN said Saturday. “We didn’t want to compete with the wine that’s happening with Arts in the Park, and we wanted to make sure we were doing something to appeal to the YPN generation.”

So Friday and Saturday, downtown Lincoln became a block party centered around beer. Visitors were treated to a host of small, local breweries, a home brew competition, and a bags tournament.

Jodi Freiman with JT Walker’s Brewery out of Mahomet, served beers on Saturday, like she has at beer festivals across the state. Freiman said the first year of Pigs and Swigs can be counted as a success.

“This has been amazing,” Freiman added between topping off pints of JT Walker’s The Orange and Blue and The Chief. “Everyone here is so eager to make sure it runs smoothly.”

“I think (downtown Lincoln) could use a little more of this,” Kerry Pointer from Lincoln said as he sipped down an IPA on Saturday afternoon. “Beer, bags, and barbecue…Might as well have a few more parties.”

Pointer was one of a couple of hundred people to fill up the tents and chairs that took over Kickapoo Street for the weekend. “Our goal was to have 500 people come through the door. We had 200 Friday night,” Bauer said. “We sold more two day tickets than we thought we would.”

Bauer is happy with the turn out for the beer and the bags that made up Swigs, but she said the goal is to turn a weekend of beer into a future for business professionals.

“Logan County tends to be a county where you know all the major players,” Bauer explained. “The major players all know each other. And one of these days, some of us in the younger generation…we should know each other too.” The new Logan County Alliances’ YPN meetings, Bauer said, were originally designed for people under 40 who have a vision to build in Lincoln or Logan County. “But if you’re still excited, and you find yourself in a place where you want to see new, and exciting things happen…then come on in, we'll take you.”

[Benjamin Yount]