Saturday, May 30
Rollin’ on the River Fest
Big 4 Station Park | 304 Mulberry Street, Jeffersonville, IN 47130 | rollinontheriverfest.com | $49.50 general admission, designated drivers are free | 3-7 p.m. | 21 and over
Anyone who knows me knows my love of craft beer runs deep and has for many more years than I care to admit. But I will say I attended my first Fest of Ale back in the late 2000s, which was one of the first – if not the very first – annual beer festival in the Louisville area. I remained a dedicated Fest of Ale attendee from then on, not missing a single one for 11 years straight, including what would end up being the last ever one in 2019. I’ve attended scores of other local and not-so-local beer festivals since then, but Fest of Ale was always my favorite. Not only did festival creator Todd Antz bring in an outstanding selection of craft breweries and beers, but he also limited ticket sales to a reasonable number, so it was never too crowded. If you’ve ever laid down good money to go to a beer festival only to spend most of your time waiting in long lines for samples, then you know how important limited ticket sales are.
So when Todd Antz announced that he had created Antz Marching, LLC and had partnered with Pearl Street Taphouse to create a new beer festival, I was quite excited. And in 2024, the nautical-themed Rollin’ on the River debuted on the grounds of the Howard Steamboat Museum in Jeffersonville near the banks of the Ohio River. The problem, though, the location was a bit out of the way, and the museum grounds didn’t leave a whole lot of room for the festival to grow.
So for the 3rd annual Rollin’ on the River, which is taking place on Saturday, May 30th, things are changing. The festival has moved to the much more spacious Big 4 Station Park, right in the heart of Jeffersonville at the base of the Big 4 Bridge. Expect well over 100 different craft beers to sample from breweries both local and throughout the US, as well as several imports from other countries. In addition, there will also be numerous ciders, spirits, wines, seltzers, sodas, and cocktails on hand for sampling. Also expect some great grub from Pearl Street Taphouse and a handful of food trucks on site, music from Runaway Souls, a stein hoisting competition, an Ale-8-One cocktail competition, games, swag, vendor displays, charity raffles, and more. And with proceeds going to the WHAS Crusade for Children, you’re drinking for a good cause!
To get a better understanding of the event, LEO Weekly reached out to Todd Antz to get his take on all things Rollin’ on the River-related.
(Special thank you to Tony Bennett Photography for use of the photos)
LEO Weekly: Please explain to the readers your background in craft beer and craft beer festivals.
Todd Antz: I bought Keg Liquors from my parents in 2005 and started evolving early on to become a destination for craft beer enthusiasts. I like to say we were one of the first places in the area to specialize in craft beer. During my time owning the stores, we were ranked both in Indiana and nationally as one of the best beer stores around, something I’m still very proud of. Fest of Ale started out as a very small event held in the parking lot of my Clarksville location with 75 of our closest friends and grew into a 3,000+ person event at the riverfront in downtown New Albany. Our purpose was to make a fun and exciting event that would showcase craft beer and help expose it to a larger audience. Fest of Ale ran for 15 years, with the last event being held in 2019. We were deep in the planning process in 2020, but we canceled the event due to the pandemic. We tried again in 2021, but the craft beer industry was still struggling to return to business as usual, so we made the call to not hold the event that year. Then, in July of 2021, we sold the stores and the rights to the Keg Liquors Fest of Ale name, and that was the end of that era.
After you sold Keg Liquors and the Keg Liquors Fest of Ale name, you were out of the craft beer game. What brought you back in?
I truly thought I was done with the business after I sold my stores. I was still helping out with some event work with my cousin Tisha Gainey and her company HB Productions (Tailspin Alefest, JTown Beer Fest, and more), but I did not think I would ever be the lead in running an event again. Then, one fateful day in late 2023, I was contacted by my good friends Kelly and Teri Conn with Pearl Street Taphouse. They asked if I would be interested in starting up a new festival with them. Kelly had a dream of a festival on the grounds of the Howard Steamboat Museum and asked me if I would come with him to visit the property. I took two steps through their gate and immediately saw his vision and what we could do there. We thoroughly enjoyed the first two years of the festival at the Howard Steamboat Museum. As I said, it was the perfect place to launch a new festival.
Rollin’ on the River moves this year from the Howard Steamboat Museum to Big 4 Station Park. What brought about that change?
After we wrapped up the second year of the festival, we made the call that to grow the event to the next stage, and we needed a more central location to bring in a bigger crowd. The Howard Steamboat Museum and the grounds surrounding it were a fantastic venue, but it was just far enough from downtown Jeffersonville that it deterred some people from coming. There were also very few chances of getting any walk-up traffic on the day of the festival as well. So, we started working with the City of Jeffersonville to try to find our next space for the event. A huge thank you to Amber Powell with the Jeffersonville Parks Department for touring us around several places for the event. She was instrumental in helping us secure our spot in Big 4 Station Park. The City of Jeffersonville has also been fantastic in helping us get lined up in our new location.
What changes to the festival can we expect with this move?
While there will not be a lot of big changes, obviously moving locations will allow us to tweak the event to fit in with the new venue. The park has more open space than our previous spot, so the event should seem more cohesive. We are also putting more emphasis on more than just craft beer. We’ve ramped up our lineup with more seltzers and sodas, more premade cocktails, more spirits, more THC beverages like one of our event sponsors, Cornbread Hemp, as well as a great selection of ciders and wines. We’ll never get away from craft beer as the foundation of the event, but we want people to know that there will be a ton of different options available at the festival.
What brought about the change of charity beneficiary from the Howard Steamboat Museum to WHAS Crusade for Children?
When we made the move to our new location, we made the call to get back to our charitable roots and work with the WHAS Crusade for Children. It is a charity near and dear to my heart. My story with them started when I was a little kid, 6-7 years old, I believe. My father was a Jeffersonville firefighter, and I was with them riding around neighborhoods collecting money for the Crusade. It was one of those things that could never happen today, but think of a little kid hanging off the back of a fire truck, wearing someone’s oversized fire helmet. I’m sure we collected some good donations for the Crusade, and probably a few calls to my mom asking why I was riding on the back of a fire truck. That memory still sticks in my head today. We worked with the Crusade for most of the years when I ran the Fest of Ale, and they were fantastic partners. We love their mission and love helping them out. We’ll be working with the Jeffersonville Fire Department to also collect funds throughout the day at the festival too.
What can we expect at this year’s Rollin’ on the River Fest?
We’ve got a lot of fun events planned during the festival. Obviously, attendees will have a lot of beverage options around the event that you can sample. We’ll have music throughout the day from the Runaway Souls. We’ve got three food trucks lined up to keep everyone fed during the festival, including Dock Seafood, Bayou Butcher Shop, and Ramiro’s Cantina. We’ve got a cocktail contest that people can vote on throughout the event that all will feature Ale-8-One sodas as an ingredient. We’ll have an outdoor yard game area sponsored by our friends at Union Pub & Social. We will also have a charity raffle tent with all of the proceeds from the raffle going to the Crusade. Then our biggest event during the festival is the Hofbräu Masskrugstemmen (Stein Hoisting) contest. Contestants can enter for a $25 fee (which will all go to the WHAS Crusade for Children). They’ll get a Hofbräu 1-liter stein filled with their Original Lager. The person that holds their stein in the correct position the longest will be crowned the Rollin’ on the River Masskrugstemmen Champion and can go on to compete in Indianapolis later in the year for the state championship. Even if you don’t win, you get to keep your stein.
Do you have any surprises lined up for attendees? And if so, can you give any hints as to what those might be?
We’ve been working with our brewery partners to line up some special beers for timed beer/cider tappings throughout the festival. I can’t give too many hints, but be prepared for some very special kegs.
What, if anything, differentiates Rollin’ on the River from the other Louisville area beer fests?
Even after all the years I’ve spent putting on beer festivals, I’ve always taken a very grassroots approach. We want guests to have a great, yet relaxed, feel-good experience in a park-like setting with a few friendly competition elements woven in for added fun, and the chance to discover something new they may not have tried otherwise. I also believe we offer a wider variety of tasting options than most events. And with my partnership with Kelly and Teri, we’re focused on creating a memorable time for everyone in a truly great atmosphere.
What do you love most about this festival?
These events are always a great way for those in the food & beverage and events industries to come together and celebrate, but the networking between our guests and the brands pouring has always been a hallmark of what we do. For me personally, a beer festival feels like a big family reunion. There are still so many people who’ve been in the industry for years—many of whom jumped on the craft beer wave right alongside me—so it’s always special to reconnect with old friends.
Working with the Pearl Street Taphouse crew has also helped me sharpen my industry skills. After taking a few years off, it was incredible to see how much had changed in such a short time. Being part of Rollin’ on the River Fest with them has truly breathed new life into me.
What are the biggest headaches to putting on this festival?
It takes months of behind-the-scenes work to get everything lined up and ready for an event like this. There are so many moving parts—from logistics and vendor coordination to programming and execution—and it all has to come together seamlessly. Our team is incredibly detail-oriented, and while we may stress more than necessary at times, it’s all in service of making sure everything is dialed in before the day arrives. You always hope to deliver a great event, but that outcome is built on a tremendous amount of preparation. I like to think of it as managing a lot of small headaches upfront so you don’t end up with one big headache when it matters most.
I see that VIP tickets have already sold out. Is the number of general admission tickets also limited?
For our first year at Big 4 Station Park, we’re limiting general admission to 1,500 guests. The park offers plenty of room to grow, but we feel it’s important to get a good lay of the land before jumping in with both feet. This also allows us to focus on the guest experience—keeping lines short, maintaining an easy, hangout vibe, and making sure everyone has space to relax and enjoy the event.
What do attendees need to know in advance?
After so many years of producing events like these, there are a hundred things people should know in advance. We’ve created an FAQ on our festival website that we update each year to help cover the basics.
The advice I’ve shared ever since learning a tough lesson at my first beer festival is simple: it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Take your time and enjoy the experience—don’t rush around sampling only high-ABV options and burn out early.
For the festival itself, come ready to have a great time. Stay hydrated, be sure to visit our food trucks, and don’t forget to patronize Pearl Street Taphouse. There’s plenty of parking around the event area, and with the gates at the foot of the Big 4 Walking Bridge, we’re just minutes from Louisville.
Rollin’ on the River fest happens Saturday, May 30th from 3-7 p.m. at Big 4 Station Park in Jeffersonville (at the foot of the walking bridge). VIP tickets are sold out, but general admission tickets are still available for $49.50 (all-in ticket pricing, no additional fees). Designated drivers are free. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit rollinontheriverfest.com.
This article appears in May 8 – May 21, 2026.
