Keg walking begins tomorrow! It’s an annual tradition at Latona Pub in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood. To celebrate Earth Day, or Earth Week, kegs are delivered to the pub by non-motorized means. And of course, there’s a party too.
“The goal of our celebration is to raise awareness of our environment, both urban and natural,” says the pub in a press release. “By remembering how our actions affect the planet, we set out to help some fantastic organizations that work on environmental issues, and remind ourselves what we can individually do to protect our cherished resources.”
Bikes, boats, hand trucks, and any other way you can move a keg without burning fossil fuels. Part of the weeklong celebration includes a series of keg walks that sees people hand-trucking kegs across the city. The first keg walk is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, April 13th. (more info below.)
The celebration crescendos next Saturday, April 20th with a party at Latona Pub to benefit Brewshed Alliance, a local environmental protection organization focused on the relationship between healthy water sources and good beer. Then, another party on Earth Day (Monday, April 22nd). More information about all of this can be found below in the press release.
PRESS RELEASE
We here at the Latona Pub have been celebrating Earth Day with a variety of keg walking and sponsorship events for the last 10 years. The goal of our celebration is to raise awareness of our environment, both urban and natural. By remembering how our actions affect the planet, we set out to help some fantastic organizations that work on environmental issues, and remind ourselves what we can individually do to protect our cherished resources.
The core of our celebration is delivering beer to the Latona by non-motorized, emission-free means. We live in a unique place where world class beer is merely a walk, sail, or cycle trip away from a plethora of diverse and innovative breweries. For a full week, our entire tap list comes from these non-motorized deliveries—the longest trek this year will be from Rogue Issaquah, as organized by one of our pub regulars, Miles Boucher.
To locally demonstrate an alternative to fossil fuel delivery, we will also walk multiple kegs via hand truck from south Seattle, Greenwood, Magnolia, Fremont, Ballard, Northgate, the U-District, and Lake City. This year, our walks begin on the 13th from Georgetown, followed by a walk on the 14th from Greenwood. On Monday the 15th, we’ll be walking from the U-District, where this tradition began 10 years ago.
Wednesday, the 17th, we’ll be touring the Ballard brew scene with the Highball String Band fiddling along the route, in a walk supported by Feet First, an organization dedicated to improving the urban walking experience in Seattle. We’ll be hosting our annual benefit for them at the Latona the same night at 7pm, with live music and a live auction.
Finally, we’ll roll through Lake City on the 19th for our final trek to the Latona.
On Saturday, April 20th at 7pm, we’ll be throwing an Earth Day celebration benefitting our friends at the Brewshed Alliance, who work tirelessly to protect the watersheds that are essential to producing the wonderful beer we drink. Then, on Monday, April 22nd at 7pm, we’ll be hosting the Northwest Bee Association, the Snohomish Bee Company, and Save Our Wild Salmon for an educational night about bee conservation, with musician Andy Coe taking the stage at 6:30pm.
Our Earth Week keg walks have even spread to Tacoma, where our friends at the Edison City Alehouse will be organizing non-motorized deliveries of their own and will also be holding an event benefitting ForeverGreen Trails on Saturday the 20th.
The Latona strives to be a place not only to discuss the future of the planet, but also to foster a discussion about the steps we can all take to affect change. We welcome you to join us during the week to celebrate our planet and highlight these important issues.