A parade? Beer? New Belgium Brewing's Tour De Fat and all of it's costumes have long been one of the Treasure Valley's favorite events, but there's some major changes coming to the event in 2017. 

There were two things I absolutely loved about Tour De Fat the first time I went to the beer fueled celebration at Ann Morrison Park. I loved that it was bicycle themed and easily accessible by a 4 mile cruiser ride down the Greenbelt from my apartment!  After a few beers, I much rather be by my purple cruiser than my car.

I also loved that the event itself was free to check out.  Even if you don't enjoy beer there were some really out of this world performances in the festival area: jugglers, magicians, live music, bike themed contests, comedians and all types of unique yard games.

But this year? No more. New Belgium is trying to draw higher their musical acts for the touring festival, so they'll be charging admission to get in to the event. According to the Idaho Statesman, tickets will run you $25 a piece and Blackberry Smoke will headline the event. I'm interested to see how they plan on containing the festival area at Ann Morrison Park.  When we hosted Boise Music Festival there, we couldn't prevent people from entering a public park if they didn't have a ticket.  We were only able to prevent them from getting into the area we had fenced off for BMF.

It'll be interesting to see how the admission affects attendance or if beers are going to be any cheaper because of the fee (beers normally run about $5 inside the event.)

Tour De Fat will keep their charitable tie to local non-profits Southwest Idaho Mountain Bike Association, Boise Bicycle Project and Treasure Valley Cycling Association.  The bike parade and Friday night pre-party will remain free.

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