Our History
How It Started
The Barrington Brew Fest began with a simple, very local idea: a handful of volunteers in Barrington, Illinois, who liked craft beer and wanted to do something useful for their community, decided that an afternoon of tasting was a better fundraiser than another banquet dinner. In the early 2000s, craft beer was still a niche interest in the northwest suburbs. Most people drank the same handful of national brands, and the idea of paying for a ticket to sample small-batch beer from independent breweries was unfamiliar to a lot of residents. The first festivals were modest affairs by today's standards — a short roster of brewers, a few folding tables, and a small crowd that mostly came out of curiosity.
What the organizers got right from the beginning was the format. Instead of a trade show or a beer garden, they built a walkable, ticketed tasting event where guests received a commemorative glass and moved from station to station, talking with the people pouring. Pour sizes stayed small on purpose, so guests could try widely and still enjoy the rest of their afternoon. That approach — relaxed, conversational, and built for the public rather than for industry insiders — is what turned a one-off idea into an annual tradition.
Growing Into a Summer Tradition
Word spread the way local events usually spread: through neighbors, coworkers, and the breweries themselves. Each year the roster of participating brewers grew, drawing not just from Illinois but from across the Midwest, and many of them started bringing limited or experimental batches made specifically for the festival. Food vendors joined, then live music, then sponsorships from area businesses that wanted to support the cause and reach a local audience. The event settled into its home in the center of town by the Metra train station, a location that made it easy for guests to arrive by train, by rideshare, or on foot from downtown Barrington.
By the time the festival reached its seventeenth year, it had become one of the most anticipated summer weekends in the area. General admission ran from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m., with a VIP ticket opening the gates an hour early at 2:00 p.m. for a quieter window with the brewers, access to a VIP-only tent, and complimentary food. Attendance was capped and tickets were sold in advance, which kept lines short and the atmosphere friendly. Volunteers from the community staffed the gates and the pour stations, and the crowd stayed a mix of longtime craft beer enthusiasts and residents who simply liked the idea of spending a July afternoon outside with their neighbors.
The Charitable Mission
From the very first year, the Brew Fest was a fundraiser, and that purpose has never been an afterthought. Proceeds from ticket sales, sponsorships, and on-site raffles have been directed to local nonprofit organizations serving the Barrington area, supporting causes that range from youth programs and family services to community health. Over the years the event has turned an afternoon of beer tasting into recurring, reliable support for neighbors who need it, and that charitable foundation is what has kept volunteers and sponsors coming back season after season, even in years when the logistics were difficult.
More recently, the festival came under the stewardship of Let It Be Us, an organization whose programs inspire foster care and adoption in Illinois. That transition gave the event a new beneficiary and a new group of organizers while preserving the character that made it work in the first place: a curated lineup of brewers, reasonable ticket prices, and a genuine sense of local ownership.
A Pause, and What Comes Next
In 2020, the seventeenth annual festival was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first time in the event's history that the gates did not open. Organizers weighed the health of guests, volunteers, brewers, and vendors, along with the economic strain on the small businesses that make the festival possible, and concluded that postponing was the responsible choice. The decision was disappointing for everyone involved, but it protected the thing that matters most about the Brew Fest: that it is a gathering people can feel good about attending.
The plan is to bring the festival back, with the same formula that has served it for nearly two decades — independent brewers, local food, live music, and proceeds that go back into the community. Breweries interested in pouring, businesses interested in sponsoring, and residents who want to volunteer are always welcome to reach out through the website. If you have poured, sampled, sponsored, volunteered, or simply bought a ticket over the years, you are part of this history, and we look forward to raising a glass with you again.
