A crowd gathered in The Lot at Harpoon Brewery in Boston’s Seaport District Saturday, suited up in rain gear. Several attendees adorned pretzel necklaces or matching Hawaiian shirts, others carried custom mini koozies to cradle their aluminum sample cups.
The scene looked like many other beer festivals, held in temperamental New England weather. But it wasn’t a beer fest: it was Seltzerland, a hard seltzer festival.
Cannonball Productions, a New York-based food and beverage festival production company, launched Seltzerland in 2020. At the time, hard seltzer was nearing its peak, kicking off a year that would see the segment contribute 45% of the beer category’s summer growth dollars.
“I walked into a liquor store convenience store one day, and I could not believe the amount of brands and flavors that were on the shelves and I didn’t know where to start,” Cannonball CEO and founder Kate Levenstien told Brewbound. “It felt like the boom of craft beer back in the day, where I was like, ‘What’s an IPA? Do I like wheat beers?’”
During the “boom of craft,” curious consumers could try out new beers by ordering a flight at a local taproom or by sampling different breweries at a beer festival, learning which styles and brands they liked best.
“There was nothing like that that existed for seltzer, unless you were willing to buy a case,” Levenstien said. “It was really a gamble.”
Seltzerland launched in seven cities in 2020, held as one-day events at golf courses around the U.S. to allow for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cannonball expanded the festival’s tour in 2021 and 2022 to more than 20 locations, featuring both national and local hard seltzer brands.
“I thought it was going to be very gender specific, very seasonal and quickly learned that it’s not,” Levenstien said. “I think everyone really enjoys the lightness and the sweetness and the lower ABV of it – all the reasons it’s popular is attractive to different age groups too.”
While hard seltzers are associated with the youngest legal-drinking-age consumers, Seltzerland attendees average in their mid-30s, with multiple generations often attending together, Levenstien said. Attendees skew slightly more female – about 55% – and range from hardcore hard seltzer fans to first timers.
A Hard Seltzer Festival in 2023?
Of course, hard seltzer is no longer where it was in 2020. In the last 52 weeks (ending June 4), the segment’s dollar sales declined -8.5% and volume -14.7% in multi-outlet plus convenience channels tracked by Circana.
The segment has also expanded beyond a malt-based focus to include spirits-based offerings. In the last 52 weeks, malt-based hard seltzers – the majority of the segment with more than 1,300 active UPCs – decreased dollar sales -13.5% and volume -17.9% in Circana-tracked off-premise channels. Spirits-based hard seltzers (527 UPCs) increased dollar sales +89.3% and volume +86.5%.
The shift isn’t necessarily a concern for Seltzerland, which has adjusted its offerings to cater to new brands and consumer trends.
“My personal opinion is that a lot of people just think of them all as hard seltzers,” said Levenstien, who includes ready-to-drink canned cocktails (RTDs) in the definition.
“[Seltzerland’s] definitely transitioned even more into basically anything in a can, because it’s hard to differentiate within the space,” she said. “We’ve definitely seen a shift in terms of number of hard seltzers on-site versus the other micro categories within that can space.”
Seltzerland Boston featured malt- and spirit-based hard seltzer brands, canned cocktails and BuzzBallz, THC- and CBD-infused non-alcoholic seltzers, alcohol-infused water and more. Tito’s Vodka and Ghost Tequila also had tents on-site to pour traditional cocktails.
Companies ranged from major beer producers such as Boston Beer (pouring Truly Vodka Soda and Dogfish Head canned cocktails), to local craft breweries such as Bent Water Brewing (pouring its Bent Seltzer hard seltzer line), to non-alcoholic seltzer brands such as Polar (pouring Arctic Chill, its hard seltzer collaboration with Harpoon).
Seltzerland has also begun incorporating other brands into its events that may have crossover consumers with hard seltzer, such as vegan food brands.
Smaller RTD and hard seltzer producers – many with distribution in only one or two states – also had a presence, highlighting an overall Seltzerland trend, Levenstien said.
“Awareness and trial are still really important for brands that aren’t getting national distribution, so that’s where we’re seeing a lot of success this year,” Levenstien said.
“There’s less of a need for these larger brands to get in from a trial standpoint, because at this point, if you like seltzer, you’ve had a White Claw or you’ve had a High Noon,” she continued. “They’re now looking for opportunities to own an event, like the Kentucky Derby.”
Seltzerland has condensed its national run this year to 10 markets, focusing on cities with a large beyond beer retail presence and existing consumer community. An estimated 1,500 people attend each event and the brand awareness is crucial for the newer and more regional brands, Levenstien said.
“Sometimes people get taken as a guest that aren’t really the seltzer enthusiast, but they always leave finding a product that they now would buy or seek out, which always makes me really happy,” she said.