Day Bracey Fresh Fest Digi Fest

Ep. 34 – Day Bracey shares all the details for Fresh Fest Digi Fest

America’s first Black beer festival moves online for 2020

by Stephanie Brea | June 4, 2020

Day Bracey shares all the details for Fresh Fest Digi Fest

Fresh Fest, the first Black beer festival in the country, is moving online due to COVID-19. In this episode, we chat with Fresh Fest co-founder and Fresh Fest Digi Fest organizer Day Bracey about how the pivot to digital will allow more accessibility and how he believes that digital components will permanently change the events landscape long after coronavirus. But what about a key aspect of this festival — the beer collaborations? Bracey has coordinated some special four-packs that will be available for purchase, so you can drink along from the comfort of your couch. For $10, Fresh Fest Digi Fest promises 54 total hours of available programming, including cooking demos, panel discussions, and live music. By going digital, both presenters and attendees are not constrained by geography, and as such Bracey is excited about some international voices entering the mix.

Wanna buy a ticket or follow along on social for updates?

And if you want more of Bracey talking about beer, check out the Drinking Partners podcast episode archives here.

It’s a match!

BikePGH recently announced a partnership with the national program Bike Match, which acts as a matchmaking service between people who need a bike, and people who have a road-ready bike sitting unused in their garage or storage unit. Both donors and those in need of two-wheeled transportation fill out a form; if you match with someone closeby, you receive an email with pertinent details and you coordinate a safe handoff. For those who have bikes to donate but need a little work to get on the road, Free Ride, Pittsburgh’s DIY bicycle collective will be accepting donations or encouraging folks to come in during a scheduled repair day to use the Free Ride tools and used parts to make the bike ready for donation.

Spirit Walls: Black AF Edition

Way back in 2017, Lawrenceville bar and pizza joint, Spirit, began offering up the side of their building to local artists for very large murals. The participating artists varied each summer. This year, the mural wall project will feature only local Black artists as part of an ongoing conversation to create a more open and inclusive art scene in Pittsburgh. Funds were raised for materials and to pay the eight participating artists. More information and the list of participants can be found here. Stay tuned to Spirit’s social media for updates on when the completed street art piece will be available for view (in the past, the live painting was a huge event open to the public, but due to COVID-19, who knows what changes will need to occur).

This episode was hosted by Stephanie Brea, recorded remotely, engineered and edited by Epicast Studios.

Header photo credit: Buzzy Torek, Epicast Studios

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Stephanie Brea

Stephanie Brea

Stephanie has been organizing events since 1998, starting with a series of motorcycle rides through the Arizona desert to support her father’s business. She’s probably crossed your name off a presale ticket list or served you a beer somewhere around town.

An undergrad degree in poetry means she has lots of unpractical knowledge about iambic pentameter, while a brief stint as a copy editor for Alternative Press taught her that twenty one pilots is stylized in all lowercase letters.

Wanna throw a party in a vacant parking lot? She’s interested.

At the onset of COVID-19, Stephanie took on the role of podcast producer for The Slaw. She’s pretty familiar with a microphone, thanks to that aforementioned poetry degree, and she’s got the wherewithal to ask Epicast Studios for help. She listens to too many true crime podcasts, and currently records from her bedroom.

If you know of someone who would be the perfect podcast guest, send her an email.

Download the Very Local app to stream all of the Very Local original series for FREE!

Download the Very Local app to stream all of the Very Local original series for FREE!