Welcome to BeerFestivals.org, home of The Beer Festival Calendar!

This is THE place to get info about great places to drink beer around the world. It's brought to you by Ludwig, the beer drinking lion, and his staff Paul Ruschmann and Maryanne Nasiatka.

Why? Because they appreciate great beer, love to travel and know that attending a beer festival is a great opportunity for both.

Now that hot weather has arrived in Michigan, our thoughts have turned to summertime beers. The best ones are refreshing, with a high taste-to-alcoholic-content ratio. For example, an English mild, a style the Campaign for Real Ale is trying to save from extinction, a golden ale, a European-style pilsner, or a Kolsch.

Saturday is the 4th of July, and one way to celebrate is to read Brian Yeagar's chronicle of his cross-country beer odyssey, Red , White and Brew. Earlier this year, Paul wrote a review of the book. Another way to celebrate is with American microbrews--which is what we'll be doing. We'll be quaffing some Goose Island Honkers Ale while smoking those babyback ribs, and a Stone Smoked Porter with the meal itself.

If you have better beer selections than those, have at it!

Long, sunny days also mean that the beer festival season is in full swing. Even if a flat economy is keeping you close to home this summer, there's probably a festival or two a short drive from your home. (Here's where our calendar comes in.) A beer festival is a perfect excuse for a weekend escape!

Now that hot weather has arrived in Michigan, our thoughts have turned to summertime beers. The best ones are refreshing, with a high taste-to-alcoholic-content ratio. For example, an English mild, a style the Campaign for Real Ale is trying to save from extinction, a golden ale, a European-style pilsner, or a Kolsch.

2009 is already a great year. We're well on our way to reaching last year's total of 822 festivals, and we've had over 7 million hits since the new year began.

If you're organizing a festival, be sure to send us your info and a link so we can include it here too.

Don't forget about new features:

* An easier-to-navigate calendar format;

* A running count of the number of festivals on the calendar;

* Site search capabilities, which will help you find festivals and articles (more about those in a minute) that may interest you; and

* A site map.

And we're continuing to include the following:

* A comprehensive list of beer tasting events, arranged by month;

* The "Beer Traveller Series," a collection of more than 50 articles about beer-drinking destinations;

* "Good Beer Books," Paul's reviews of books that belong on your reference shelf; and

* "Worts of Wisdom."

Finally, a shameless plug for ourselves:

If you're in, or near, Michigan, please consider buying our book, Michigan Breweries. It's a comprehensive guidebook that we keep updated at a dedicated site. Find out why Michigan is The Great Beer State. It makes a great present for the beer lover in your life!

Cheers!