The area’s first-ever craft beer festival is coming Saturday to Gainesville.

Tap It Gainesville Growlers at 1850 Thompson Bridge Road is hosting the inaugural Lanier Brew Fest from 2-8 p.m. Saturday, April 23.

Manager Patrick McCormac said this event will differ from other Tap It events because it will have a true “festival atmosphere.”

“We’ll have booths and tents set up outside with beer reps coming from different breweries we’re featuring,” McCormac said. “We’ll also have two live music performances on stage outside as well.”

The event includes a $10 door charge, which buys six sampling tickets. Guests can also pay $15 for six tickets and a commemorative Lanier Brew Fest pint glass.

“So you’ll be able to come and use your sampling tickets to sample the different beers,” McCormac said. “Each ticket will get you a 3-ounce sample of any beer you want to try, and we’ll also serve pints as well.”

McCormac said the pint glasses and beer fest T-shirts will be available for purchase as well.

“It’ll follow along the lines of our other events,” McCormac said. “We’ll have unlimited pouring ability, so you can come drink unlimited pints. We’ll be featuring new beers, and we’ll be having a ‘best beer of the festival’ competition, where people will be able to vote on beers nominated by each brewery.”

The festival will feature 10 different vendors and showcase several breweries, including Wild Heaven Craft Beers, Terrapin Beer Co., William Tell Ciders, Harpoon and the new Gainesville brewery, Left Nut Brewing Co.

“This will be the first time we’ll have Left Nut beers available,” McCormac said. “That’s a big deal, because their first beers will be rolling out and we’ll have those available.”

Several food trucks will also be on site, including Kona Ice, Cousins Maine Lobster and Brook Lyn’s Own Sticks & Cones.

McCormac said the hope is to grow annually.

“We’re hoping to bring an annual beer festival to Gainesville,” he said. “This year it will be here at Tap It. But our goal is to show the city how fun it can be and to help it grow next year, to where we can possibly find a larger, other location in the city in the future.”