Central Oregon’s oldest and largest beer festival, the Bend Brewfest, returns again this year for three full days: Thursday through Saturday, the 14th through 16th. Each day it goes from noon to 11pm and takes place as always at the Les Schwab Amphitheater.

Admission is free, but to drink beer you’ll need to buy the (one-time) mug and five token package for $15 (which can be reused each day). Tasting tokens are worth $1 each and you can more in blocks of five. They follow standard beer festival pricing: one token gets you one four-ounce sample, and you can fill your mug for four tokens.

Kids are welcome until 7pm each night (from 7 to 11 the fest is 21-and-over only), though parents will need to sign a waiver for them to get in. Dogs are welcome as well, and owners will need to sign a similar waiver for them.

The beer list looks great, with some 63 breweries and cideries pouring at least two beers each—and some have additional beer pouring on the X-Tap which is located in the Brewtality Tent this year. In addition to the specialty beers pouring on the X-Tap they will also have breweries (or reps) on hand to talk about the particular beer being served.

If you want to get the most out of your Brewfest experience, I wrote up a how-to post for the Old Mill blog on just that subject. Hopefully it’ll help save any festival-related headaches—real or otherwise! (Disclosure: I received two mug packages for the Brewfest for writing the guest post for the Old Mill blog.)

Despite the rain we had the past couple of days, the weather is looking up for the days of the Brewfest, so don’t miss out!