It has been an incredibly wet week in Johannesburg due to the heavy rains and it looks like it won’t clear up by next weekend.
Due to the increased rain, the organisers of the The Annual Green Craft Beer Festival and Beer Pong Event, have decided to postpone the event to another weekend, to avoid any last minute cancellations and disappointments.
Dax Menday, the co-owner of The Green.Live explains, “Weather reports state that the rainfall will continue next week. Gilloolys Farm is already soaked to the ground and with threats of 3 inch rain next weekend, we would rather not risk cancelling the event at the last minute. We will be holding the event on another confirmed date, and in the meantime people will get refunds for any tickets purchased. As much as we love the rain, beer and rain don’t go too well together.”
Although this major event will be moved to another date, yet to be confirmed, The Green.Live have decided to hold a mini event at The Green at the Modderfontein Golf Course, at 1 Centenary Road, Modderfontein on the day, Saturday 4 March 2017 at 15h00.
There will be live music with Trevor Rebello, Justin Serrao and Bad Peter, and the Craft Beer Breweries Darling and Stimela will also be on sale.
Tickets can be purchased at the venue on the day at R50 each.
All ticket winners for the Main Craft Beer Festival, are welcome to attend the event for free.
For refunds, people can email info@nutickets.co.za
It’s immediately obvious on meeting festival co-organiser Dax Menday, that he’s an incredible people person, someone who likes nothing better than to bring people together to enjoy a great time. He had a very clear vision of how he wanted to do this, and in 2015, he and his partner approached the Benoni Country Club and asked them if they could open a bar on their Rooftop. Hmmmm … not quite in keeping with the staid culture of country club living, but Dax was determined – young people were looking somewhere to go that provided a certain type of vibe that wasn’t yet being catered for in their area. The craft and artisanal types of eateries and pubs were starting to become popular, and why should they have to travel for miles to find places that appealed to them? Benoni deserved its own! And in October of that year The Green was opened in a 20 meter adapted container on the rooftop of the Benoni Country Club overlooking the golf course (the green … get it??)! 7 meters of the container is the actual bar.
In December of 2016 Dax successfully opened a second bar, The Green Modderfontein. 
Based on the same look and feel as his flagship store, and once again with magnificent views of the golf course, Dax has managed to reproduce the relaxed look and feel that he created in Benoni. With 12 Craft Beers on tap, and at least 40 other, mainly South African, bottled varieties on offer at any given time, he’s going out of his way to ensure that The Green is a Craft Bar offers something for everyone. His food truck style kitchens create a limited menu of fabulous, fresh fare for when you’re a bit peckish! Go and take a look at http://www.thegreen.co.za/food/ to see what’s on offer or visit the Facebook page
When I actually took a look at all that was on offer I was completely bamboozled to say the least! So … for those of you who are about as knowledgeable as I was about the whole craft beer culture, here’s a brief nutshell description: Basically, it’s tailor-made, hand-crafted beer, made in different varieties, with a master brewer having a direct hand in its creation. It gained momentum in the States approximately 8-10 years ago. Anyone who has the
know-how can get some investors in their corner, buy their equipment and start the magical creation process! The beauty of craft beer creation is that you can continue to refine your process all the time. There’s also an amazing variety of craft gins making a name for themselves, and interestingly, you can get alcoholic iced tea on tap too!
Dax patiently guided this very green craft beer novice through the ins and outs of what it takes to create this popular drink in all its variations! This included feeding me Craft Beer … at 10.15 in the morning! As he happily claimed “It’s after 10!” I learnt that there are different types of beers: Lager, Native or Red Ale, Pale Ale, which is more bitter, has more hops in it and has a fruitier taste, and finally Weiss Beer, which is wheat beer, even more bitter than the Pale Ale and usually unfiltered. I hope I got all of that right! (Any mistakes are my own, certainly not from Dax!)
The idea for The Green.LIVE Festival was to bring the festival spirit to the East, as so many of these festivals are being held in the North. Dax’s intention is to solidify the Craft Beer culture and introduce new people to it. It’s a daytime festival held between 10:00 and 18:00, with no 13 – 17 year-olds being allowed entry. There will be 7 food vendors each selling unique fare with no crossover at all, so there’ll be something for everyone. Craft Beer, Food, Music … what’s not to like?
And of course, there’s the attempt to break the world Beer Pong record! I’ll admit that my
nearest and dearest threatened to disown me when I admitted to not knowing what this was. (Shock! Horror! Hands were thrown into the air in disbelief!) Well, it’s a game played between 2 people, 5 cups, of approximately 120ml beer in each, arranged in triangular formation per person and a ping pong ball. Each person stands about 2.4 meters away from the table on which the cups are arranged and bounces the ball onto the table. The aim is to get the ball into your opponent’s cup, so that he has to drink from that cup. If you manage to throw the ball into the cups without a bounce, your opponent then has to drink from 2 cups! I can imagine that it’s loads of fun in a crowd and pretty addictive too!
This is all definitely going to be re-scheduled once we have a more positive weather outlook. So make sure you’ve ‘liked’ the Facebook page so you know when it’s all happening.
In the meantime, take a look at this fabulous video of last year’s festival to see what it’s all about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtPDbL_tlKA&t=3s
Thank you Dax for inviting me to your beautiful bar and for taking the time to share all of your abundant knowledge so enthusiastically!
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