Hey, Midland. After a few days of reflection on Saturday’s event, let’s talk about Tapped. Long post ahead, but we feel it’s important to share the full details of the event from our perspective and some additional info for next steps.

The day started off wonderfully – a little hot, but what better weather for a tasty brew, right? Beer was flowing; people were laughing; we were L-I-V-I-N. Then, almost without warning and in true Michigan fashion, Mother Nature swooped in quite unexpectedly and rained on our parade. Well, kinda.

About 30 minutes into Wave 2, we were faced with the ultimate event planning nightmare: severe weather. Storms moved in and, although it didn’t rain almost at all, lightning was observed and continued to flash throughout the event. The inclement weather policy for Tapped states that the event would be postponed by 30 minutes from the first sight of lightning, with every subsequent strike resetting the clock until no lightning is visible for 30 consecutive minutes. (This is the same policy that the City uses for Parks and Recreation adult softball leagues and is fully in line with inclement weather policies used by professional and amateur sports and other outdoor events around the state.)

After ushering our attendees to safety, our team huddled under the Poseyville Bridge for nearly an hour while anxiously watching the sky, our hearts sinking more with every new lightning strike. Finally, at about 6:30 p.m. and with no progress made on the lightning timeline, we made the gut-wrenching decision to call off the event entirely. This decision was not made lightly and, given the potential consequences of *not* making it, we stand behind it.

You might be asking “Why not just extend the party beyond 7 p.m.?” While we would have LOVED to spend all night with you, it’s simply not possible to change timelines on the fly for an event of this magnitude. To make events like Tapped happen, details are planned down to the minute to make it run smoothly. We had vendors scheduled to pick up porta johns, Parks staff waiting in the wings to clear fencing and stages, and volunteers who’d pulled all-day shifts needing to leave. It just wasn’t an option.

We can understand why Wave 2 ticket holders may feel frustrated or upset by our decision to cancel. When you pay for a ticket to an event, you expect the day to be as magical and fun as you imagined it. Believe us: Nobody was more heartbroken to cancel than the staff that put this event together. We put countless hours, funds, sweat (so much sweat), and tears into making this event amazing for you, so the last thing we’d ever want to do is not see it become the rocking party you all deserve. At the end of the day, though, the safety of our attendees is the most important consideration we have to make – and, on Saturday, continuing the event would have put people in unnecessary danger.

So now what? We wouldn’t be transparent with you if we claimed to have the final answer to that question today, because we don’t. This is a complex issue with a lot of moving parts and we’re still working through the details on how we make this as right as we can for our Wave 2 guests. (No, unfortunately we can’t host a private 2-hour Tapped 2.0 event on the Tridge. We tried, but that’s apparently not allowed.) We’ll be communicating directly with those who were impacted by the weather cancellation once we’ve finalized our plan.

Thanks for understanding. We love you, we love beer, and we hope you’ll join us for an even better – and hopefully less eventful – Tapped Craft Beer Festival in 2022.

Cheers,

Downtown Midland & the Tapped Team

Thank You To Our Sponsors