PITTSFIELD, Mass.- The Berkshire Craft Beer Festival will hold the inaugural 5K Charity Chug Run this year as part of the 2015 festival that will be held Saturday June 6, at The Common.

 

The Berkshire Craft Beer Festival, along with the newly added 5K Chug Run, is a charity based festival; 100 percent of the funds raised from the festival will be donated to the Fenn Street Community Development Corporation.

 

“We do this entire thing as a way to give back to our fine community here,” event marketer Jim Bronson said. “Fenn Street does a lot of things. They just opened the Hub Youth Center, they help out with the homeless, they feed the less fortunate, and help out with the Pearl Street Center. They just do great work for the people around Pittsfield.”

 

The 5K course was mapped out by Kent Lemme, owner of the Berkshire Running Center.

 

The course will begin on Fenn Street and it goes around Silver Lake and ends back at The Common. All runners will receive a craft beer after completing the 5K, and the first 200 entrants will receive a limited edition race shirt.

 

The Chug Run was added to the festival as a way to draw more attention to the event that begins at noon on Saturday. The race will kick off at 12:15 p.m.

 

“The Chug Run is the kickoff piece to it,” Bronson said “The craft beer festival goes from noon until 5 p.m. There’s three terrific bands -- T-Bone Daddy, Whiskey City, and Tom Watt -- over 150 styles of beer to try, whole food trucks, and several of local food vendors.”

 

Bronson said they expect 250 to 300 runners for this year’s first race and hope to draw in more next year.

 

You can register for the race at chugrun.com or you can go to the Berkshire Running Center and sign up in person. Tickets for the craft beer festival can be purchased online at berkshirebeerfest.com.