“This event is about friends, good music, raising money for the Land Trust and having a good time,” Dayhoff said at the seventh annual festival, which took place Friday night at Uplands’s Bloomington Brew Pub. The profits from the festival are donated to Sycamore Land Trust.
This year, Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys, T.V. Mike and the Scarecrowes and Glass Mountain took the stage as the sun set over the brewery’s parking lot. The show ended with the headliner, Larry Keel Experience.
Attendees listened on lawn chairs, drinking beer and eating tacos, corn and drumsticks.
“The people who we like to make beer for are the same people who like to come to an event like this,” Chris Stealy, an Upland cellarman, said.
He explained that the festival is a good way to show the company’s “biking, camping, outdoor ethos.”
Stealy said it is important for the brewery to recognize its Bloomington roots.
“Even though we’re sort of expanding into regional brewery status, I think we’re still trying to balance that growth with the notion of local first, or the notion of community or the notion of promoting local and regional music,” he said.
Dayhoff became involved with the Land Trust, a land conservation organization, when he and his wife worked with them to preserve a piece of their property. Dayhoff is now on the nonprofit’s board of directors.
Christian Freitag, the executive director of Sycamore Land Trust, said he feels the two organizations have compatible missions.
“We’re really involved in the same endeavor,” Freitag said. “Upland is about local people, local employees, local product. Sycamore Land Trust is about preserving and celebrating the things that make southern Indiana special.”
