The first indication the root beer festival was about to be swamped came early Saturday morning, when the lineups began forming for the third annual event held on the one-way in Langley City.
“People started showing up really, really early,” said organizer Sherri Bouchard, who started the festival as a customer appreciation event at the Sticky’s Candy store she co-owns with her brother Kelly.
“We specialize in root beer,” Bouchard said.
The first year of the festival, it rained and about 100 people turned out.
The year after that, Bouchard said, about 300 people showed up.
This year, the organizers were expecting an better turnout for the May 26 festival, given the number of people who posted messages that they were coming to online social media.
But they did not expect thousands.
At one point, the line-up for root beer tasting tickets stretched all the way down the one-way, around the 204 Street intersection past Langley City Hall on Douglas Crescent.
Traffic on Fraser Highway leading to the one-way was backed up as far as 200 Street for a while, Bouchard said.
“It was crazy.”
Some people waited as long two hours in line for tasting, and by early in the afternoon, there wasn’t a single root beer left, Bouchard said.
“We had people from Merritt (who came in for the festival),” Bouchard said.
She thinks the jump in attendance was largely the result of online bloggers who promoted the event, the only one of its kind in B.C.
The festival issued an online statement of apology.
“We were not expecting or prepared for the turnout,” it said.
“We learned lots this year and promise to do better next year.”
Bouchard said there are plans to completely close the one-way to traffic next year, and add more vendors and more food.
“We’re going to be partners with the City of Langley and the Downtown Langley Business Association,” she said.
“There will definitely be more root beer.”
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dan.ferguson@langleytimes.com
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