If you’re heading out from Bend to the Oregon Brewers Festival in Portland next weekend, you’ll find that you’re in good company.

Along with human Bendites, many barrels of Bend’s finest beer are making the same journey over the mountains to the festival.

“These kinds of festivals are part of the overall marketing idea, but they’re also more of a celebration rather than a work event,” said Ty Barnett, co-owner of GoodLife Brewing Co. “It’s a chance for people from all walks of life to try your beer outside of their home or a bar.”

According to the fest’s website, at least six Bend breweries — Deschutes, Silver Moon, GoodLife, Boneyard, Cascade Lakes and 10 Barrel — will be showcasing beer at the festival, which will be held July 24-28 in Portland’s Tom McCall Waterfront Park. The festival will feature 85 distinct beers from breweries across the country.

Boneyard Beer is sending between 24 and 34 kegs of its Bona-A-Fide Pale Ale to the event. The brewery’s beer ran out by noon on Saturday of last year’s event, so they’re supplying more this year to avoid another shortage.

Tony Lawrence, co-founder of Boneyard, said that in past years the brewery’s beer has traveled to many festivals throughout the West. The company has scaled back on the festival circuit this year, however, as its production demands have increased.

“We’re only going to ones we really want to be at this year,” Lawrence said. “It got to the point where we were traveling every other weekend for one of these events.”

Lawrence said breweries attend festivals for various reasons, mostly to get their names and brands out in front of the public and to win medals for their beer.

Boneyard had planned on being at the Great American Beer Festival, the granddaddy of beer fests held in Denver in October, but due to a systemwide computer glitch during event registration, the company did not secure a spot.

“There are so many new startups across the country and everyone wants to get in that particular one,” Lawrence said. “We’re still going to the event, but we just won’t have our beer at the event.”

GoodLife’s Barnett also said that gaining entry into these kinds of festivals can be difficult with the high number of breweries trying to get in. GoodLife is planning to attend about five brew and food events this summer, and about a dozen for the entire year. The brewery will send Evil Sister, an 8-percent ABV Imperial Pacific Ale, to the Oregon Brewers Festival.

“It’s a pretty special brew fest, so we try to provide something unique and special that maybe you can only find there,” Barnett said. “We try to sweeten the deal for getting in because not everyone does.”

Boneyard left out of Great American Beer Festival

Boneyard Beer is one of hundreds of breweries on the waiting list to participate in the Great American Beer Festival in Denver in October. This year, brewers snapped up all the spots at the event in a couple of hours.

Tony Lawrence, co-owner and master brewer, said he views the situation as a sign of how quickly the craft brewing industry is growing.

Boneyard Beer asked fans on Facebook to “like” Boneyard in order to show event organizers it deserves a spot.

Still, Lawrence said the festival is not critical to Boneyard Beer’s business and the company did not participate in the festival last year.

“For us in particular it’s not a big deal at all,” Lawrence said. But his employees were excited to enter this year.

Barbara Fusco, sales and marketing director for the Brewers Association, wrote in an email that there were some technical issues during registration, but they were limited and did not impact everyone who attempted to register.

“During the time that some users encountered the error, more than 600 breweries were able to successfully register for the competition,” Fusco wrote. “Regrettably, even if there had been no technical issues, it seems that GABF brewery slots would have filled up in a matter of hours due to the high demand.”

Space at the Great American Beer Festival did fill up faster this year: 1 hour and 40 minutes, compared with six days in 2012, Fusco wrote.

— Hillary Borrud