Most media was sucked into the desired narrative, including the venerable The New York Times: "For the second year in a row, the music website Pitchfork and its spinoff 'beer culture' site October are hosting a festival that combines their areas of expertise. (Whether it's full or partial ownership isn't clear either way, it's clearly their vehicle.)īy funneling OctFest through October, few are able to discern Anheuser-Busch InBev's role in the event. But let me interpret for you: Anheuser-Busch InBev owns October. The lone bit of acknowledgment that I saw sits on the OctFest ABOUT page, where it says in a particularly tiny font, "AB InBev is an investor in October through its venture capital arm, ZX Ventures." That's meaningless word salad to most people, and conspicuously avoids the two most relevant words to American beer drinkers: Anheuser-Busch. You'd barely know from looking at the festival's website that Anheuser-Busch InBev (or its American subsidiary, Anheuser-Busch) had anything to do with the event. One of the common gripes against Anheuser-Busch InBev as it transforms itself from craft beer onlooker to craft beer juggernaut is a lack of transparency. And so it was with OctFest. So I wondered: to what degree was OctFest an Anheuser-Busch InBev marketing vehicle? But as has been made clear here before, where Pitchfork and October are involved, the interests of Anheuser-Busch usually follow close behind. That unto itself was no surprise. OctFest was "presented by" Pitchfork ("the most trusted voice in music") and October ("a leading beer culture website"). While perusing that list of 86 breweries and cider companies, something kept nagging at me: a lot of them seemed to be affiliated with Anheuser-Busch InBev. In addition to the sounds of Vince Staples (big with the kids), Jeff Tweedy (big with the non-kids), Yo La Tengo (best band ever) and The Flaming Lips (do you realize they've played every festival ever?), 86 breweries and cider companies poured their goods across two days on Governors Island, just off the southern tip of Manhattan. OctFest, which unfolded this past weekend in New York City, touted itself as "a one-of-a-kind beer, music and food festival."
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