This will be my third year attending the festival. I go once on Friday night with friends, braving the Frat Boy contingent, and once to the Connoisseur Session on Saturday with my Mom. If a quieter, older crowd and room to move is your thing, definitely shell out the extra 10 bucks for the VIP session.
Beerfest is exactly the kind of thing that's good for Anchorage. It's a fun, adult-focused festival that celebrates one of the things we do best, beer! It encourages our craft brewers to get better, learn from each other, and it helps them make a living making AK proud. We can mature as a beer city and measure up to the international scene, I believe it. This event therefore typifies the kind of growing up our town needs to do. And, unlike my previous sentences, the event isn't pretentious!
My only concern is that it remain a safe, security-light event. Eat a loaf of bread beforehand if you have to. But hey, even if you do vomit in the street, at least it freezes fast. So there's nothing not to love.