Annual Street Festival Features Fun, Music, Food and More Beer Gardens Than the Bar Blogger Can See in a Day

AbbottKinneyJodiTrio — Hotties hanging loose in the Stella beer garden at the Abbot Kinney Festival.

By The PubClub.com Nightlife Blogger

I need to go back to the Abbott Kinney Festival next year.

That’s because I only made it to two of the three beer gardens.

And so let me raise my plastic beer cup to the organizers for having three beer gardens. I drifted off with Drifter Pale Ale in one beer garden for much of the Sunday afternoon and would have been content to spend the remaining time of the event there, but I was reporting on the event and needed to move on to other locations.

The event is usually the the end of September. It’s held along Abbot Kinney Blvd., in Venice, CA, which was once known as nice shortcut from Marina Del Rey to Santa Monica but is now filled with all sorts of shops, restaurants and a couple of hip bars.

AbbottKinneyOtherBeerGarden — Where there’s a beer garden, there’s fun!

AbbottKinneyBeerPour — Keep pouring please; the Bar Blogger loved the Drifter Pale Ale on tap.

To be sure, the beer gardens are not the only reason to go to the Abbott Kinney Festival. The event itself is cool, a line of tents for more than a mile along this eclectic part of Los Angeles in Venice selling arts and crafts – I bought a cutting board in the shape of a surfboard for the closing event price of $10 – with food and bands.

It’s like being on Venice Beach without the “3 t-shirts for $10.”

But, of course, I was primarily there for the beer! And when I discovered a beer garden strategically located next to a big stage, this seemed like an ideal spot to spend, oh, I don’t know, a couple of hours.

AbbottKinneyDJ — In the Stella tent, the DJ was spinning out of a food truck.

AbbottKinneyBeerDance — The Stella tent DJ inspired dancing in that beer garden.

AbbottKinneyWidmeirBeerGarden — One of the three beer gardens at the Abbot Kinney Festival.

AbbottKinneyStellaBeerGarden — In addition to dancing, the beer gardens have tables for bonding.

And so it was, but letting the afternoon pass without checking out the other beer gardens – the event ends at 6 p.m., and beer sales are cut off at 5:30 – seemed not to do justice to this article and its readers.

So I made my way to another beer tent. And here’s an interesting thing about this festival: You do pay a couple dollars for a beer garden wristband but you can buy a VIP pass which includes a beer and front-of-line entry. However, even with a slight line (about a dozen people) the tents are far from crowded tho two girls in front of me said they never did get into the third beer garden despite their friend inside telling them there was plenty of room.

One tent is more happening than the others. It has a DJ in people were dance rather than just sit at tables. I ran out of time to get to that third beer garden, which apparently has booze as well as beer, plus a DJ on an elevated stage. It’s by the entrance closest to Washington Blvd.

The main tent is located right next cool bars on Abbott Kinney Blvd. But you had better extract yourself from the beer garden by about 5:15, for by 5:30 there are 100 people wanting to go there, at least 50 of whom are waiting in not one, but two, lines outside. Like anyone is going to leave!

Faced with these post-beer garden options, I went a mile down the street to Baja Cantina. This used to be one of LA’s best Sunday afternoon/evening bars, so much so it was where Ron Goldman was headed before he was OJ’d. But that was then and this is now; the once lively patio is now filled with diners rather than revelers.

In all the Abbot Kinney Festival is pleasant way to spend an eventful day.