Tired of winter? This new Columbia festival will give you a taste of summertime

Living in Columbia, most know the weather doesn’t always line up with the month. Columbians also know that just because it’s 70 degrees on one January day doesn’t mean it won’t be 30 the next.

Craft and Draft and Music Farm Columbia are teaming up to guarantee folks a summer day on Saturday, Jan. 20. With beer.

The June in January Beer Festival will give Columbia a taste of summer no matter what the temperature outside ends up being.

As the festival touts, “Attendees will enjoy unlimited samples of the finest fermentations available in a summer-themed oasis that is sure to heat that wintery shiver right out of you.”

A couple of winter beer festivals in South Carolina were canceled this year, so Craft and Draft decided to fill that gap.

“We are doing a summer-themed beer festival,” says Andrew Johnson, one of the founders and co-owners of Craft and Draft. “We’ll have a beachfront area, beach balls, some summer decorations…”

And beer.

About 40 breweries will be represented, with close to 100 different types of beer, including stouts, IPAs and specialty sours. In other words, there will be something all beer drinkers will enjoy – even if they’re not craft beer connoisseurs.

“This is not a beer nerd-type beer festival,” Johnson says. “You don’t even need to like beer to enjoy yourself.”

But if you do like beer?

You’re going to be very, very happy.

“We’ll have some rare-release stuff, some one-offs and some seasonals,” Johnson says. “We do have some stuff in store that we think will be big hits, some rare kegs. We thought this will be a good time to break out some of the good stuff.”

They’ll be using a few lighting tricks to make it feel like summer inside Music Farm Columbia.

“Whether it’s cold outside or not, you’ll feel like you stepped back into summer,” Johnson says. “That’s the whole point behind it.”

Mystic Vibrations will help. The local band will be playing all day, filling Music Farm with the sounds of summer with its reggae music.

“We’re going to have good music and good beer,” Johnson says.

If the music, beer and food aren’t enough to summer-relax you, there will be a massage chair as well.

Among the breweries attending are Lo-Fi Brewing, Holy City Brewing, Terrapin Beer Co., Highland Brewing Company, Legal Remedy Brewing, Conquest Brewing Company, Columbia Craft Brewing, Swamp Cabbage Brewing, Palmetto Brewing, Stone Brewing, Thomas Creek Brewery, RJ Rockers Brewing Company, River Rat Brewery, Wicked Weed Brewing, Brewery 85, Bold Rock Hard Cider, Catawba Brewing Co., Hi-Wire Brewing, Southern Barrel Brewing Co., Red Hare Brewing Company and Specialty Reserves from Goose Island.