Hickory Hops is the first relatively local beer festival of the year. It’s basically a ring of thirty or so breweries around one tiny little park.
This has never been much of an issue in the past but Hickory Hops has been growing rather quickly and I suspect they may need more space in the near future. One nice aspect of Hickory Hops though is that it is right downtown and you’re free to come and go (as long as your beer glass is empty). This allows you to eat at some of the local restaurants which is good filler in between 10 or 20 samples of beer.