Hi Folks,
This post is gonna be about vaccinations.
But if you don't want to read further, the short version is that the 2nd Date of our "Inoculation Emancipation Tour "is gonna be at Funk's Pub in Fitchburg on June 12, 11am-7pm.
Yes, we’re still calling voters to talk about Fair Maps and bring awareness to rampant Wisconsin gerrymandering with your donated money, but the Minocqua Brewing Company, because we make beer, is uniquely positioned to give it away for free to incentivize folks to get vaccinated.
So we’re gonna focus on doing that for the immediate future. Let’s set the stage a bit here.
The CDC just relaxed its rules for masking, saying that *IF* you’ve been vaccinated, you no longer have to wear masks in many public places.
Although this directive is causing a lot of confusion, we think it’s smart, because it forces the business community to take a stand on vaccinations. Here’s why.
Since there’s no way to know if someone NOT wearing a mask--say in your restaurant, bar, or store--has been vaccinated, the only TRUE way to keep your business as safe as possible is to require proof of vaccination to enter.
Why? Because no vaccine is 100% effective, and until we get to herd immunity, which means communities have to be 70%-80% vaccinated, many people won’t feel safe around unmasked folks unless they know everyone around them has been vaccinated.
We think many businesses will jump on this “requiring-proof-of-vaccination” bandwagon out of necessity because they know customers won’t come back until they feel safe.
And its “WAY” better, from a public perception point of view, for businesses to start requiring proof-of-vaccination than President Biden or Governor Evers being forced to prolong mask-wearing for everyone simply because the vaccine-hesitant won’t get on board.
And if businesses start requiring proof-of-vaccination EN MASSE, then it simply will be too much of a hassle to NOT get vaccinated, even if you’ve been misinformed by Tucker Carlson and are worried about vaccine safety. And if those Tucker Carlson fans get vaxxed because it’s a pain in the keester not to, then we’ll hit herd immunity WAY MORE QUICKLY.
So that brings us to what the Minocqua Brewing Company is doing to normalize businesses requiring proof-of-vaccination to basically “have fun again safely.”
Very few businesses want to be the first one to draw the ire of the anti-vaxx crowd, but we’ve kinda already alienated most of them anyway with our #progressivebeer. So we decided to create the “Inoculation Emancipation Tour,” a roving musical festival at which we require proof-of-full-vaccination to attend, but also work with county health departments to offer a separate space where folks can get vaccinated in exchange for free beer!
We’re gonna call it the “Shot and a Beer Tent.”
We’ve announced the first party yesterday on Facebook, and just now have locked down the second one, so mark your calendars NOW for the first few stops on the tour:
Tour Stop #1
When: Saturday, May 29th, 11am-7pm
Where: Clancey’s Stone Lion. 7214 Custer Avenue, Custer, WI (Outside)
Tour Stop #2
When: Saturday, June 12th, 11am-7pm
Where: Funk’s Pub, 5956 Executive Drive #101, Fitchburg, WI (Outside)
Tour Stops 3,4, etc. is up to you. If this is successful we’ll keep going all summer long.
Legendary Chicago Blues Performer John Primer and his band will be headlining each event, and some of our favorite bands that we’ve hired in the past will be rounding out the full days of music, including David Deon and the Soul Inspiration, the Kim Wasserburger Band, and the Tommy Bentz Band, among others.=
Rules: you HAVE to provide proof of vaccination plus 2 weeks for full protection to get in. We will hopefully have a separate “Shot and a Beer” tent where folks can get vaccinated and get a free beer, but we have to get the county health departments on board before we can guarantee this will happen.
And lastly, if you’d like to “sponsor” a free beer for the vaccine hesitant, please buy our “Official Inoculation Emancipation Party Merch.” Every t-shirt, hoodie, etc. that you buy will help us offset the cost of giving away free beer.
And we’d love everyone who buys Inoculation Emancipation gear to wear it at these parties so you can proudly feel part of this fun mission to get folks vaxxed up and partying safely together again.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for “Making Wisconsin Great Again,” one beer at a time.
Kirk Bangstad, Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company and Super PAC.