Dark Lord Day 2009 FAQ

Q.) Are there “per household” ticket limits?

A.) We’re limiting the numbers of tickets to two per person and a total of four per household. So if you and your brother/sister/mother/father/wife/husband/roommate or whoever both live together and both want to get tickets you should be fine. Just remember: there is a max of two tickets per person, and a max of four tickets per address.

Q.) What are the exact restrictions on this sale, can I give my tickets to friends and what about people who try to “game” the system?

A.) We are going to require that you give us your full name and address as well as a direct line to contact you when you make your purchase. Our shopping cart will be automatically limiting the number of tickets you can purchase and we will be filtering through all the purchases after the sale completes. As stated above there is a max of two tickets per person and a max of four tickets per address. You can give your tickets to a friend or relative - they are transferable - but we will still hold the firm limit of two tickets per person. Do not show up with more than two tickets in your hand and do not try to go through the line multiple times with several different sets of tickets. If we find duplicate names and/or locations for multiple purchases we will first try to verify that they are legit. If we then find people that we think have gamed the system we will remove you from the list of ticket holders. All tickets are sold at our discretion and we reserve the right to reject tickets to anyone for any reason. We also reserve the right to reject your tickets at the Dark Lord event. The best way to insure that you get tickets and bottles of Dark Lord is to do so legitimately and in the best interests of the entire craft beer community.

Q.) I live outside of the United States but I still want to come to Dark Lord Day and I want to be able to buy Golden Tickets - what do I have to do?

A.) You don’t have to do anything special - just show up here at the site on St. Patrick’s Day and purchase your tickets just like everyone else. We will be covering the additional expense to ship the tickets to you and we will be shipping them out as soon as possible to ensure that you get your tickets. If you’re willing to cross oceans and borders to get to us we will do our level best to take care of you.

Q.) What is the “window” for redeeming tickets on the day of the Dark Lord Event?

A.) We will be opening up the line and beginning the sale of bottled Dark Lord at 11AM, just as we have always done in the past. Anyone with a ticket will be able to buy their guaranteed allotment of Dark Lord bottles between 11AM and 6PM. If you do not show up with your ticket by 6PM we can not guarantee your bottles. After 6PM, quantity permitting, we will open up any remaining bottles for purchase without requiring a Golden Ticket.

Q.) What time will the sale go “live” on St. Patrick’s Day and what if I am not able to buy tickets before they sell out?

A.) We have not yet decided a time for the sale to go live on St. Patrick’s Day, and it’s possible that we will not publish this information. We will broadcast email everyone that is registered once we make the sale live. The reason that we’re doing this is we feel that if we choose an exact time then everyone will all pounce on the site in the exact same moment. This could potentially crash the site and decrease access to everyone across the board. So we will flip the switch and send you an email once the sale is open - you’ll just want to have your email open and be ready. We can’t guarantee that everyone will be able to buy tickets, just as in years past we were unable to provide everyone with bottles of Dark Lord. We’re hoping to greatly increase the number of people who can buy bottles this year, but we can’t promise you that you’ll get tickets. When they sell out, they’re gone. And then at least you’ll know that you didn’t have to wait in line for hours for the chance to get bottles. As we get closer to the date we may find that we are going to exceed our estimated production at which time we will have to decide between offering another round of ticket sales or simply increasing the number of bottles available to those who have already purchased tickets. Again, we can’t promise anyone anything - we’re simply doing the best we can with the time and manpower that we have available.

Q.) How many tickets can I buy?

A.) See above - two per person/four per household.

Q.) What do I get with these Golden Tickets?

A.) You are guaranteed the opportunity to buy a set number of bottles of Dark Lord on DLD ’09. You also get one glass of Dark Lord (for your tasting pleasure) with each ticket. And each ticket is going to be a high quality souvenir of the DLD ’09 event. And you get to feel good for supporting local charities with your ticket purchase.

Q.) How many tickets are you going to sell?

A.) We do not yet know how many tickets we are going to be able to sell - this will become more apparent to us as we see how our Dark Lord production develops as we get closer to the ticket sale date. Dark Lord can be a very tricky beer to estimate yield, so it would be unrealistic of us to simply come up with some arbitrary number of tickets that we will sell. We want to make sure that if we say that we’re selling X tickets and each person with a ticket is guaranteed the opportunity to buy Y bottles of Dark Lord, then we have to know that we’ll have at least X times Y beers allocated for ticket holders. Give us some time on this one - we’ll know more soon.

Q.) If I purchase a ticket how many bottles of Dark Lord can I purchase?

A.) See above. We will know the total number of tickets being sold very soon, but we will not know the exact number of bottles allocated for each ticket until very close the to day of the event.

Q.) Which charities will benefit from this fund raiser?

The Humane Society and local charities helping the homeless - more details to come.

Q.) Do I have to purchase a Golden Ticket in order to buy Dark Lord - I usually just show up way early and camp out in line?

A.) Yes, you must purchase Golden Tickets to guarantee your chances of getting Dark Lord bottles. You’ll still be able to show up as early as you want and enjoy all the food, bands, and festivities just as you always have - you’ll simply have less hassle getting your hands on Dark Lord bottles by having a Golden Ticket.

Q.) I’m trying to nail down my travel arrangements - now I have to wait to see if I get a Golden Ticket - what gives?!?!

A.) You can make your travel arrangements just as you would any other year for DLD - Tickets will be mailed two to three weeks prior to the event and getting your ticket should not be a problem - we’re trying to make it easier to get Dark Lord bottles than in years past, not harder.

Q.) If I have a Golden Ticket do I have to show up at a certain time?

A.) We will have a window of time specifically for Golden Ticket holders - this will be a reasonable window of time such that you can show up early, but you won’t HAVE to show up early. We have not yet nailed down this time window but it will be a reasonable window of time - much more so than simply having to show up as early as possible and hope that you’re able to get bottles of Dark Lord. It is important to note that we will have a “closing time” for this window for ticket holders - you will not be able to show up extremely late and still redeem your ticket. Again, this will be a reasonable window of time which we will determine once we figure out how many people we will have handling the actual sale (taking in tickets and selling bottles of Dark Lord).

Q.) What if your site goes down while I’m trying to register and/or buy my tickets?

A.) We’re going to be taking every feasible step possible to prevent outages on the site - however no site is completely impervious to going down due to traffic overloads. Even sites that sell millions of dollars per month in products (i.e. woot.com) crash because they are overloaded by the demands of their visitors. Stay calm, we’re doing our best. If the site goes down it should be back up very soon - it hasn’t gone down yet and we’ve had thousands of visitors per day.

Q.) Do I have to register here at DarkLordDay.com in order to buy Golden Tickets?

A.) Yes - You must register at this site before the sale takes place. You will be emailed a specific invitation link once the sale goes live - this will not be available to the general public.

Q.) When will the sale of Golden Tickets take place?

A.) We’re currently planning on opening our Golden Ticket sale on St. Patrick’s Day, but this may change without warning. Please register in order to be notified of the exact day and time of the sale.

Q.) If I register here am I guaranteed a chance to buy a Golden Ticket?

A.) No - you will have a good chance of buying a Golden Ticket, but we can not guarantee that everyone who registers will be able to buy a Golden Ticket. Just as we have not been able to sell Dark Lord bottles to everyone who showed up at DLD in the past, so too we can’t sell an unlimited number of tickets to anyone who registers on this site. We’re trying to make our production of Dark Lord roughly match up with demand based on past years of DLD as well as the number of registrations on this site. In order to give yourself the best chance to get Dark Lord you’ll want to register here, keep track of your email, and return to this site once the Golden Ticket sale opens and buy tickets. It’s a lot easier than showing up and camping out in line for hours.

Q.) What about people who register multiple times, or people that purchase tons of tickets? How will I be able to buy if people hoard the tickets and sell them on Ebay?

A.) We’re doing a number of things to limit the effects of people trying to hoard and/or scalp tickets - first of all you can only register an email address on the site once. While some people will try to game the system by registering with multiple free email accounts, we’re going to be limiting ticket sales to a max of two per person. And we’re also going to review all purchases manually after the sale. People that appear to have deliberately tried to buy more tickets than the maximum will have all of their money refunded and they will not receive any tickets. We will also be individually stamping tickets such that you can’t resell them. While it’s possible that a few people may be able to sneak through all of our safe guards, we strongly encourage you to not try to game the system and deprive others of the opportunity to buy tickets. The limit is two per person - stick to it.

Q.) Will there be separate lines for Golden Ticket holders?

A.) First and foremost everyone in line must have a ticket. We may or may not have a new line structure this year to facilitate an efficient sale - we’ve yet to decide. At this point we have not figured out the exact logistics of having more than one line (possibly lines set up alphabetically by your last name). If we do change the standard line that we’ve had in the past we plan on having a map available here at this site with an exact diagram of where you should go with your ticket. We’ll keep you posted on this one.

Q.) I’ve been burned trying to get Dark Lord before, even if I showed up extremely early. Now I have to try to buy a Golden Ticket. I just want some Dark Lord - how is any of this supposed to help me?

A.) Buying tickets GUARANTEES you the ability to buy Dark Lord bottles. We’re going to base our total number of available tickets and available Dark Lord on previous years sales, as well as factoring in increased demand. We still expect to sell out, but we feel that people everywhere will have a better chance of getting some Dark Lord with this Golden Ticket system. Plus, we will not sell out before everyone with a Golden Ticket gets their allotment of Dark Lord. We can’t guarantee that everyone will be able to get Dark Lord - we simply can’t afford to shut down all of our other production and crank out Dark Lord all day long. Even if we did, it’s possible that we could still sell out. So we’ve implemented this ticket system to accomplish two things:

We’re making it easier for people to be able to get Dark Lord regardless of their location. If you have a Golden Ticket you can be assured that your bottles of Dark Lord will be there once you arrive (assuming you show up within the reasonable timeframe indicated on this site - TBA). All ticket purchasers will be giving some much needed support to local charities - we feel that this is a small price to pay in order to insure that you’ll get some Dark Lord and that you’ll not have to camp out in order to do so. 3F will not be profiting from these ticket sales. We will first use these funds to pay for the creation and mailing of all the Golden Tickets and we will then take the remaining funds and distribute them to local charities. Q.) I’m confused - can’t I just show up and enjoy the day?

A.) Absolutely - we’ll be doing all the same great things as we have done at previous DLD events like live music, food, guest breweries etc. You DO NOT need a ticket in order to come to DLD ’09 - we’ve simply added the Golden Ticket system to try to simplify the process of getting bottles of Dark Lord in your hands without having camp out in line or pay huge prices to scalpers. You must have a ticket in order to buy Dark Lord bottles, but you do not need a ticket in order to attend the event.

Q.) What bands will you have at this year’s Dark Lord Day?

The following bands are currently confirmed - these may change without notice:

Pelican, Waco Brothers, Sybris, Bible of the Devil, Big Science, and Imperial Battle Snake.

Q.) Will I need a Golden Ticket if I want to buy bottled beer other than Dark Lord?

A.) No, the Golden Tickets will only be required if you want to purchase bottles of Dark Lord.

Q.) Are you going to be doing anything about people cutting in line and/or scalping bottles of Dark Lord?

A.) Hopefully with this new ticket system both of these problems will be greatly reduced. Since there will be no sell out risk for anyone that has a ticket, there will be no point in trying to cut in line (which people did in the past to try to beat the sell out) and buying scalped bottles (which many did in the past because they came too late and Dark Lord bottles were already sold out). We can’t completely eliminate either of these problems but we think that this Golden Ticket system will go a long way towards reducing their occurrence.