Some familiar faces will be rolling back into town Thursday, June 11. The New Belgium Clips Beer and Film tour returns to Ah-Nab-Awen Park for its third year in a row.
At the event New Belgium will be offering some of their best sellers, as well as hard-to-find items like its dry-hopped sour ale and a peach ginger beer. The brewery will also be raffling off a brand new New Belgium Fat Tire bike.
For those unfamiliar with the free-admission touring event, here’s the nutshell: New Belgium travels from city to city, setting up tents and a blow-up screen outdoors. What ensues is a night filled with beer, camaraderie, bikes — and, of course, short films.
The event begins at 8 p.m. at Ah-Nab-Awen park. Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs (no seating is provided), stake a plot out at the park, sample beer, check out some food trucks and hang out until sundown when the hour-long block of short films start.
The films explore themes like beer, adventure, advocacy/activism and fun — all handpicked from a slew of submissions from all over the world.
| New Belgium CLIPS Beer & Film Tour A FUNdraiser for Greater Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition Ah-Nab-Awen Park, Grand Rapids June 11, doors at 8:30 p.m., film at 10 p.m. Free! newbelgium.com/clips |
On a nationwide level, New Belgium Clips has raised over $520,000 — via beer sales at the events — since its genesis for similar projects around the country. All proceeds from beer sales go to a local charity organization specific to the city the fest happens to be in.
For its Grand Rapids stop, New Belgium teamed up with the Greater Grand Rapids Bicycle Coalition (GGRBC), a nonprofit organization devoted to making Grand Rapids bicycle-friendly while encouraging residents to ditch the car keys and get cycling. As an added bonus, the GGRBC will be at the event offering valet bike parking services to those choosing to arrive on two wheels.
“Grand Rapids was really fortunate to be one of only 20 cities selected for this tour,” said GGRBC Executive Director Tom Tilma. “In every city New Belgium looks for a charity partner, preferably a local cycling advocacy organization. When we heard they were coming out to Grand Rapids we reached out to them immediately. We’ve had a great partnership over the past two years.”
In the first year alone, New Belgium Clips donated over $13,000 via the event. It then helped fund GGRBC’s Room to Ride campaign, a project that since its inception has managed to add over 60 miles of bike lanes throughout Grand Rapids and neighboring areas. But the work is not over yet.
“It’s very rewarding to work on a more sustainable transportation system at my day job,” Tilma said. “It’s really a dream job for me.”
For more information, visit newbelgium.com/clips.
