Coming up next month, on Saturday, February 16, is Fort George Brewery‘s Festival of Dark Arts: their Stout Beer Fest or “Carnival of Stouts” that is the keystone event for their month-long Stout Month (which, on its own, will see over 40 stouts grace the brewery, “with at least 8 Stout taps pouring this black gold at any given time”). The Festival will be from 2 to 10pm that day; here’s their description:

The Festival of Dark Arts is a one-day multimedia carnival, dubbed a Carnival of Stout.  Over 30 Stouts from all over the World will be up for the tasting, mixed throughout an Astoria city block full of dark entertainment.  The Fort George Lovell Showroom will serve as our Dark Arts Gallery, complete with “Terrarium Invitational” and plenty of dark art from some top Northwest artists available for purchase.  Local tattoo artists will again be taking over the brewery to bring dark art to your skin.  Tarot card readers will read the lightness or darkness of your future.  Iron forgers will be set up in the parking lot to hammer out your iron art.  Our glass blowing neighbor will treat you to a Stout while melting your beer mug.  Fire Dancers will light up the night sky.  Belly Dancers will sway in the showroom to the tunes of sitar and drums.  Chef Dana will have prepared some dark cuisine for the Stout-soaking.  For the first time, we will open up the upstairs of the Fort George building to a stage with some of the best dark music.  It’s time to get dark.

They’re taking over their city block this year!

For pricing, last year’s event featured free admission, $8 for the festival glass and $1 per taste, so I expect that will be (mostly) the same as this year.

But that’s not all! If you’re in Portland, #pdxbeergeeks have teamed up with Brewvana Brewery Tours to provide a special day trip out to Fort George and back, from 1 to 9pm. It’s $55 per person which is a great deal as it’s inclusive to the festival, and gets you:

• Roundtrip transportation from Portland to Astoria
• VIP admission to the fest
• Tasting glass
• Five drink tickets
• Pretzel necklace
• 8 hours of fun!

Total cost for this day of fantastic beers and friends is $55/person. Tickets can be purchased here.

You are welcome to bring beer and snacks for the ride. Please be ready for pick up by the OLD SCHOOL PDX bus (big blue bus) with your valid ID and ready for a great time! We hope to make it back to Portland by 9 pm, giving you around 4 hours at the fest.  Although the festival is open to all ages this trip is for those 21 years or older.

Obviously seating is limited, so don’t wait if you’re going to do it!

And finally, Fort George put out the call for volunteers on Facebook today:

We need help keeping all of this together. Sign up for either the first or second shift and be prepared to work hard, see things you cannot imagine and have a great time.

There will be no consumption of alcohol allowed before or during your shift. Someone has to be in charge around here. The first shift (1-6pm) will be rewarded with a T-shirt, mug and 5 tokens. The second shift (5-10pm) will get a T-Shirt, mug and $20 gift card for Fort George.

Duties will include pouring stouts for folks, guiding people through the myriad of rooms and activities, security, selling mugs and tokens and anything else that might need to be taken care of.

First come, first to serve! To secure your spot, call the pub at 503-325-7468 or message via facebook.

Seems like this could be a lot of fun, and you get free beer out of it too. If you’re interested in volunteering, jump on the bandwagon now so you don’t miss out.

February is going to be a good month in Astoria!