Frost Fest is this Saturday from 1–6 p.m. at the Washington County Fairgrounds. The annual beer festival gathers scores of breweries from around the region to pour signature craft beers for attendees all afternoon into the evening, with a free concert at George’s Majestic Lounge following.
Ahead of the event, Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis invited Fossil Cove owner and founder Ben Mills and Vice President Andrew Blann to the Carver Center for Public Radio.
This year marks a decade of Frost Fest, although Blann says that anniversary comes with an asterisk.
Andrew Blann: Yeah, so I guess we’ve been talking about it. Technically, I guess this is the 10th anniversary of Frost Fest. We did the first one in 2016, but we took 2021 and 2022 off due to COVID. And during that time, though, we were still brewing the Frost Fest Double IPA. We still were, which we donated a portion of proceeds to our nonprofit partners off of. And then we were also doing, continued our live art. So if you go to the tasting room and you look in the main room, up along the perimeter, up near the ceiling, you’ll see 10 pieces of Frost Fest art. And we’re about to get the 11th one done by Jennifer Messy on Saturday.
Jack Travis: Very cool. Yeah. Has anything changed since 2016?
Ben Mills: Oh, man. As far as the festival goes, yeah. Lots changed.
Andrew Blann: Yeah. I mean, if you were at the first festival, it was very much us cutting our teeth on the idea of throwing a festival. Yeah. Thank you for coming back after that. We had it in just a lot that we had purchased, had recently purchased right there in the neighborhood that was originally slated to be a brick-and-mortar for us. And so we were really excited about that. It gave us a space that we could control and test this thing out. And so it was — we had a lot to learn.
Mills: It was fun. I think everyone had a good time that showed up that first year. And it allowed us to utilize a permit that the state offered that not many people utilized. And so we got to bring in beer that is not currently distributed in Arkansas and have these brewers come and pour their own beer and tell their story about where they’re from and try to drum up more interest in the craft beer industry in general. Because even in 2016, the craft beer industry in Arkansas was still relatively young, and it really gave us an opportunity to educate and highlight the existence of craft beer in Arkansas and the surrounding regions in a traditionally not craft beer area of the country.
Travis: Yeah, right. And this is also — I mean, it’s 10 years, but it’s also a timely event, right? Like 2025 just came to a close and I kept reading that it was a tough year for brewers. Did you feel that?
Mills: Yes, yes.
Travis: Can you talk about that? Like what made it a tough year?
Mills: I think starting in January of last year — January especially — the dry January trend was very, very prominent last January, even more so than it was this current year. And I think it was just where we were at as a country at the time. People enjoyed their time at home and enjoyed certain luxuries post-COVID, as hard as it was. And I think some people were trying to get back on the healthy side of life. And there’s just a lot of different reasons to not drink.
Blann: Change in spending habits, economic pressure, everything you hear about every day in the news. All of that filters down to small businesses. When money is tight for everybody, that means you have to make decisions about where you’re going to spend. And that might mean you’re not buying beer or wine. Cost of goods to produce go up. All of those factors kind of just contribute.
Travis: Yeah. So with regard to that, can you talk about the benefit of an event like Frost Fest that brings together these local brewers and sometimes not local brewers, small craft breweries together and to the local community?
Mills: I think it helps a lot. It’s a major advertising campaign for craft beer in general, especially for this region. Over the years, luckily, it has become such a successful event that people trust the product that we’re going to provide. Not only the customers that are coming in and enjoying the festival, but also the brewers that are supplying the beer that makes it successful. I think everyone just sees value in it. There’s a lot of promotion and advocacy for the craft beer industry.
Blann: It definitely reignites my passion every year for craft beer, just seeing all of these breweries that come together and people that are really excited to come out and try new small breweries or revisit a favorite. It’s just great to see the passion of the brewers. The brewers still show up, the attendees still show up, and it’s always been a good time no matter the weather. It’s a really nice way to almost start the year. You’re in the dead of winter and to have 2,000-plus people getting together and having a good time is fun to be a part of.
Mills: That is kind of the fundamental basis of the craft beer industry ever since pre-prohibition — neighborhood gathering places and a general let’s get together and have a good time and commune and hang out kind of atmosphere.
Travis: Yeah. I imagine it’s cool to get together as brewers because you can probably share what you’ve learned.
Blann: Oh yeah. I think for us on the brewery side of things, it’s a little industry meetup. We do things that are brewery-specific for this event. When we first started this thing, it was kind of hard to get breweries to attend. They were like, why would we come to Fayetteville or Arkansas? We don’t even sell beer there. But we have a pretty good track record now. We have people requesting to come to this that are like, hey, we want to be here. We love Frost Fest. We’re not going to miss it. And I think a lot of that goes into why the event is successful. When the breweries are excited to be there, it makes a better experience for your attendees.
Travis: And let’s talk about the attendees. If you haven’t been to Frost Fest, maybe you’re new to the area. What can you expect?
Mills: Well, Saturday, like 60 degrees and sunny. We’re outside. It’s going to be great.
Blann: Sixty-plus breweries representing about 10 states. We’ve got live music throughout the day. I think it’s fair to say there are 200-plus individual, unique styles of beer out there. There’s no way you’re going to try them all. Don’t even try it. But it’s just a great community event. Lots of other small businesses. Vendors. We’ll have a host of nonprofits out there talking about what they do. And it’s my favorite way to spend a February afternoon.
Travis: Are there any specific breweries or brews that you’re excited to offer?
Blann: This year will be the first time we’re going to have two gluten-free breweries. We’ll have Stoic from Bentonville, Neff from Tulsa. We’ve got some beer-adjacent things like cider and other malt beverages, seltzers and things like that. I always really look forward to the breweries that I can’t get anywhere other than Arkansas. Central Standard is always a perennial favorite for me. False Idol. Wire Road. There’s a bunch. It’s hard to find a bad one, but there are definitely a handful that I always try and visit because it might be the only day I’m going to try it.
Mills: We should probably highlight the music as well. We’ve got a DJ coming up for the opening.
Blann: Justin Seymour will be deejaying for the open. Garden Snakes is our middle band. And then we have Me Like Bees closing it out. We also do an after-party at George’s. It’s a free show with Frog and Wrestling. You can get info on George’s website and Stubs.net.
Travis: Is it ticketed?
Blann: If you’re a Frost Fest attendee, you just show up. There are free tickets available on Stubs.net. If you’re not participating in Frost Fest, I would go ahead and snag one of those.
Travis: Nice. Awesome. Well, that sounds like a party all day.
Blann: Yeah, it kind of is. It is.
Travis: Would you like to highlight some of those non-profits you’re benefiting?
Blann: Every year we pick a handful of non-profits. A lot of them are ones that have have we’ve worked with in the past that have been involved in this event. So this year, our beneficiaries are going to be Appleseeds Teaching Farm, the Arkansas Climbers Coalition, the Arkansas Brewers Guild, and the Ozark Off Road Cyclist. And they’ll all be out there set up with a booth so you can go and talk to them about what what they’re working on right now. And then we’ll be able to make a nice donation to all of those organizations.
Travis: What else do people need to keep in mind ahead of next Saturday?
Mills: I mean, drink responsibly. Take an Uber. The bike path goes right to the right to the fairgrounds. Get a, we have some DD tickets on there.
Blann: Get a ride. You know, if you’re enjoying yourself out there, please don’t drive. You know, the event is sold out pretty much every year. So we have, I think as of right now, maybe ten of our early access tickets, which is a 1 p.m. entry to the event and gets you in there with a different sampling glass and just like fewer people. So like fewer lines and there’ll be some limited beers that breweries might run out of. So it kind of gets you a first shot at that. And then the 2 p.m. general admission tickets, we’ve still got those on sale, but I would I would expect them to sell out at some point this week. So if you’re on the fence, you might as well just you might want to just get a ticket now to guarantee your entry.
That was Fossil Cove owner Ben Mills and Marketing Director Andrew Blann speaking with Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis. Mills says that people should be cautious when purchasing tickets after the event has officially sold out. In the past, scammers have offered fraudulent passes through social media. He recommends sticking to the official sales through the Stubs platform. You can visit Fossil Cove’s website for more information. Jack recorded that interview in the Firman Garner Performance Studio here at KUAF.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
