Burp Fest at Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival 2026

Jon Henderson was a casino marketing rep at Resorts Casino Hotel when he decided Atlantic City needed something beyond slot machines and showrooms. In 2006, this self-described "refugee of normalcy" launched a scrappy beer tasting he called "Celebration of the Suds" at the Atlantic City Convention Center, drawing 3,000 people and fewer than 30 breweries. Henderson's company, Good Time Tricycle Productions, had a vision that went beyond sampling cups: he wanted to build a full-sensory experience where craft beer and live music collided under one massive roof. By 2011, the music component had become so central that they officially added it to the name, and the Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival was born.

Over the next two decades, Henderson grew the event into one of the largest beer festivals on the East Coast. What started with 3,000 attendees now regularly draws 18,000-plus across a festival weekend, and the event has welcomed nearly half a million total visitors over its 20-year run. Good Time Tricycle Productions grew alongside it, eventually moving more than 125,000 people through Atlantic City annually across multiple events and generating an estimated $18 million in economic impact for the resort city. Henderson made a point of keeping the festival rooted in its home state — more than half of the breweries at recent editions have been from New Jersey.

The 2026 edition on April 11 will be the 20th and final Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival, a decision Henderson announced with characteristic directness: "We are just hanging up the Atlantic City Beer and Music Festival. We will find other forums to celebrate beer." He sweetened the farewell with a fitting gesture — anyone who can prove they attended all 19 previous years gets free admission to the finale. The final lineup features headliners Bayside and The Starting Line, a Friday-night Rare Beer Fest pre-party, and the carnival games, silent disco, and mystery beer experiences that have become festival signatures. Henderson has hinted that beer culture celebrations will continue in Atlantic County in new forms during 2027 and 2028, but the AC Beer & Music Festival as the Jersey Shore has known it will pour its last pint in April 2026.