July 21, 2015
Rhythm & Brews Festival to offer music, microbrew in Manhattan July 31-Aug. 1
It's not just about music anymore. Manhattan's annual live concert series is expanding its horizons by pairing a variety of music genres with your choice of Midwest homebrews.
The Rhythm & Brews Festival consolidates the annual Brew 2 Shoe races, Hail the Ale homebrew contest and the Little Apple Music Festival into one eventful weekend. The festival caters to those who like the classic summer combination of exercise, beer and live music. The festival is friendly to families. It includes a photo booth, balloon artist, face painter and an inflatable bounce house for festivalgoers with children from 5-8 p.m. Friday, July 31, at City Park in Manhattan.
The festival starts at 7 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, with the seventh annual Brew 2 Shoe races beginning at the recently opened Tallgrass Taphouse in downtown Manhattan. Following the races, festival attendees will be able to taste regional microbrewery samples from 1-4 p.m. at the Hail the Ale competition in the GTM Family Center at City Park. Four-ounce microbrew samples are available to those who take advantage of the $25 day pass. Passes are limited to the first 300 sold. Compliment your samples with Cox Brothers barbecue and Friendship House restaurant's specialty bierocks outside the Family Center.
End your evening at the music festival featuring an Americana powerhouse, vocal trio Red Molly. The music begins with rhythm and blues band MaDame Groove at 5:30 p.m. followed by Daniel Dissmore and the Jazz Ambassadors of Manhattan, neo-funk Charles Walker Band and headliner Red Molly at the Larry Norvell Band Shell.
The free annual music festival is part of the city's Arts in the Park series. The event is a collaborative effort between the K-State Student Union Program Council and the Manhattan Parks and Recreation Department. Other sponsors are Manhattan Convention and Visitors Bureau, Fort Riley's MWR, the Dow Chemical for Multicultural and Community Studies, Ag Press, Holiday Inn at the Campus and Little Apple Toyota Honda.
About Rhythm & Brews Festival: In 2000, UPC partnered with the Midnight Blue Jazz Quintet and the International Association for Jazz Education to showcase jazz in Manhattan. The K-State Student Union Program Council and Manhattan Parks and Recreation worked together in 2005 to include the Little Apple® Jazz Festival as a part of the Arts in the Park summer concert series in City Park. Three years ago the festival morphed into a music festival with the goal of attracting even more people to the event. This is the first year it has been named Rhythm & Brews Music Festival to coalesce the Brew 2 Shoe and Hail the Ale events.
About Union Program Council: The K-State Student Union Program Council plans more than 150 entertaining, educational, cultural, and substance-free events for K-State students and the Manhattan community each year. For more information see a complete list of UPC activities, or call the UPC office at 785-532-6571.