Burp Fest at Wild Brew 2027

Wild Brew started in a hot airplane hangar at Tulsa International Airport sometime around 1998, the unlikely origin for what would become Oklahoma's oldest and original craft beer festival. The event was conceived as a fundraiser for the George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center, a nonprofit wildlife conservation organization founded in the mid-1980s and best known for its work bringing the Bald Eagle back to Oklahoma. From its earliest days, Wild Brew fused two seemingly unrelated passions — great beer and endangered bird research — under the tagline "The Greatest Party Ever Hatched."

What began as a small gathering of craft beer enthusiasts has grown into one of Tulsa's most anticipated annual events, now filling the Arvest Convention Center in downtown Tulsa with nearly 200 craft beers and fare from roughly 50 of the city's top restaurants. The festival celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018 and continues to expand its footprint each year. Beyond the food and drink, Wild Brew features live music, artist demonstrations, silent and travel auctions, and a distinctive element that no other beer festival can claim: live bird interactions with ambassador raptors from the Sutton Center. Oklahoma breweries also collaborate each year to produce a special Collaboration Ale available at licensed vendors before and after the event. The entire ticket price, minus the fair-market value of food and beverages, qualifies as a tax-deductible donation. Following the success of the Bald Eagle program, the Sutton Center has turned its attention to two of North America's most critically endangered birds — the Attwater's Prairie-Chicken and the Masked Bobwhite — and every pint poured at Wild Brew helps fund that work. It is rare for a beer festival to have genuine conservation stakes, and that purpose gives Wild Brew a weight and meaning that elevates it well beyond a typical tasting event.