Beverage Distribution News
Lollapalooza and CITY Beverage-Chicago Join Forces Once Again For A Successful Three-Day Event
Fourth annual festival draws record crowd
September 8, 2008 Chicago, IL — Large scale special events require serious advance planning. For Lollapalooza, the annual music phenomenon held August 1-3 in Chicago’s Grant Park, CITY Beverage-Chicago (CBC) began initial logistical preparations the previous spring.
As the exclusive beer vendor for the three-day festival which drew 75,000 attendees per day, CBC provided over 620,000 16-ounce cups of beer to the thirsty, fun-loving crowd. “With three years of Lollapalooza experience behind us, CBC’s Sales and Operations Departments fully understood what was necessary to seamlessly service this year’s event,” noted CBC General Manager Mike Flynn. “Our team deserves abundant praise for their efforts to ensure that festival participants enjoyed a flawless event.”
The CBC warehouse was alive with the final preparations by mid-July, from organizing equipment to ordering more than 5,000 barrels of beer. With restrictions on setting up historic Grant Park until immediately before the event, this advance planning was vital given the abbreviated on-site timeline.
Once the festival began, 75 dedicated CBC employees worked extended hours to transport, supply and staff multiple beer stations dispersed throughout the enormous outdoor venue. The team utilized nine refrigerated trailers, seven “way-matics” or mobile draft distribution centers, and 160 cold plates to keep the taps flowing.
Their efforts resulted in a shining success. Music lovers from across the country enjoyed Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails and 115 other bands while sipping Bud, Bud Light and Bud Select. Several of CBC’s specialty beers, including Beck’s, Goose Island 312 and Hoegaarden, were also available in a separate tent.
“Successfully supplying an event the size of Lollapalooza requires a combination of organized, determined employees, the correct physical resources and detailed planning,” explains Flynn. “Congratulations to all our team members. They achieved the perfect balance.”
CITY Beverage–Chicago is an affiliate of Soave Enterprises, L.L.C., www.soave.com. Soave Enterprises is a diversified management and investment company founded by Detroit businessman Anthony L. Soave that provides strategic planning, financial and other management resources to its affiliated business ventures in the real estate, automotive retailing, beer distribution, scrap metal, industrial services and transportation industries, among others. Recently, Forbes Magazine ranked Soave Enterprises as the 251st largest privately held company in the United States.
