This Sunday, Oct. 26, from 1-5 p.m. is the 5th annual Santa Monica BAM Fest for beer, art and music. The festival is a celebration and benefit for the 18th Street Arts Center, a non-profit organization that has spent the last 25 years offering artist Residency Programs and engaging the public through events and exhibitions.

Your beer fest standards will all be present — food trucks, live music, unlimited tasting pours — but attendees can also enjoy wine, spirits and home brewed soda from the Maltose Falcons while contemplating performance art and video installations.

If you're just there for the beer, 40 breweries will be pouring, including a sizable percentage of established L.A. County breweries: Angel City, Beachwood BBQ, Dude’s, Eagle Rock, El Segundo, Golden Road, Kinetic, Ladyface, Phantom Carriage, Smog City, Strand and Wolf Creek, along with relative newcomers King Harbor, Phantom Carriage, Santa Monica Brew Works and Three Weavers.

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Credit: courtesy: BAM Fest

Credit: courtesy: BAM Fest

Food from DogTown Dogs, Baby’s Badass Burgers, Cousins Maine Lobster, India Jones Chow, Meat-the-Greek and the Border Grill Truck will be available for purchase if you need sustenance. Nitropod will keep cool with flash frozen organic ice cream.

Get a sneak peak at daily life as a professional artist by visiting the studios of 18th Street Art Center’s artists-in-residence. Interact with artists and ask questions. Listen in on one of the 20-minute mini-educational sessions called ‘Crash Courses’ on the intersection of beer and art.

You would be hard pressed to find a beer festival we don’t like, but rarely do we experience one for a good cause that weaves different communities together as well as this one. Pre-sale tickets are available (before Oct. 24) $45 online, or $50 at the door.

Erika Bolden writes at Erikabolden.com and @Erikabolden. Want more Squid Ink? Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.

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