ROCKINGHAM — Hoptoberfest, Richmond County’s craft beer and chicken wing festival, has been canceled for this year — and, likely, for the foreseeable future.
The Richmond County Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the event, made the announcement on social media late Tuesday morning.
This year’s Hoptoberfest had been scheduled for Oct. 7 at Rockingham Dragway.
The news was met with comments of disappointment from those who have attended the event in years past.
Chamber President Kristi King said the future of the event has been in discussion since the last festival in October 2022 and there are several reasons for the decision.
While King admitted Hoptoberfest is “a great event,” she said it doesn’t fall in line with the Chamber’s mission to “to represent and support our members and to strengthen our county’s economy and business environment,” and vision to be a community service organization for local business.
“I think it’s a fantastic event for the community,” King said, adding that many ticket buyers were from outside Richmond County. However, she added: “It doesn’t line up with our mission…it’s not really a Chamber-focused event.”
Hoptoberfest was started by the Chamber in 2015 and for the first several years was held in the parking lot of Richmond Plaza. By 2019, the event had outgrown that space and moved to Rockingham Dragway and was canceled the following year due to health concerns and government restrictions in response to the COVID pandemic.
The festival, which also included a chicken wing-cooking contest, bounced back in 2021 and 2022. Last year’s event was pushed back a week because of predicted showers associated with a hurricane.
The event featured craft beers from dozens of North Carolina breweries, including Southern Pines Brewing Co. and Dirtbag Ales out of Hope Mills.
“Just looking at where we want to go as a Chamber, we need to do more for businesses,” King said. “We need to do more within the community that aligns with our mission and vision and a beer and wing festival is not what we think a Chamber needs to do.”
King added that an event of that magnitude takes a large number of volunteers — and funding — to help organize and run. She thinks the effort can be put to a more productive use.
“With the money that it cost to put on Hoptoberfest we can do so many things,” King said. “We can expand Leadership Richmond…we can expand that Women’s Conference, which is a professional development program for businesses in the community.
“I want to do more for the community that I can see tangible results from,” King, adding that she wants to partner with the Dragway, Speedway and other local businesses to help with their needs, including staffing, marketing, exposure and networking.
“It’s going to take hand-to-hand combat for us to go out and figure out what everybody wants,” King said.
Dropping Hotoberfest, King said, “is one thing we could pull back on to start trying to help our businesses more, for them to succeed.”
“We’ve got to start doing more for our businesses,” she added. “Not that we’re not doing enough, they need more help than they ever have.”
As for the potential future of Hoptoberfest, King suggested that it could be put on by another business in the community that’s not a nonprofit.
Richmond County Economic Development has, for the past several years, held its Raffle at the Rock in conjunction with Hoptoberfest.
Economic Developer Martie Butler said Tuesday that the raffle will be pushed back to Oct. 26 at the Industry Appreciation Oyster Roast at the Richmond County Airport.
Butler added that since the event is limited to local industries, buying a raffle ticket doesn’t include admission. However, the raffle will be broadcast live on Facebook.
The RO will have more on Raffle at the Rock at a later date.
(Disclosure: RO co-publisher Charlie Melvin is a member of the Richmond County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.)
Click here to see photos from the 2022 Hoptoberfest.
Note: This story has been updated to add a disclosure statement. 2:47 p.m. 7-18-23
