In Lafayette for Beers Across the Wabash on Saturday, August 24.

Saturday began with the Lafayette Farmer Market, downtown. The variety of produce on sale seemed to be a bit more diverse than New Albany's, but Lafayette arguably has fewer total booths.

Set-up for the beer festival began early on the John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge between Lafayette and West Lafayette, the latter lying beyond the trees in the photo. As a beer festival organized by veteran brewers, Beers Across the Wabash simply is nonpareil; only Hoosier breweries are present, and the crowd well-behaved and knowledgeable. Next year, the event will take place again, but not on the bridge itself, owing to renovation work. It will return to the bridge in 2015. No matter. We'll be there.

Bridging the craft beer gap in Lafayette.

The John T. Myers Pedestrian Bridge connects Lafayette and West Lafayette, spanning the Wabash River. On Saturday, it was the site of the first Beers Across the Wabash craft beer festival. Above, the bridge is pictured in its everyday guise.

The Hilton Garden Inn lies on the West Lafayette side of the bridge (Lafayette's Amtrak station is on the other end), and on Saturday, the most familiar clue to a coming event was spotted on the street below our window, because where there are Port-a-Potties, there's going to be beer.

Early in the festival, the bridge was filling with samplers. Soon after I took this photo, there no longer was any time to take photos. First-time events are notoriously hard to stage, but the organizers had it mostly right, and it will take place again next August on the same weekend.

Meanwhile, we thoroughly enjoyed what's being offered on both sides of the Wabash. Two hours after the beer event ended, a jazz and blues festival revved up in downtown Lafayette. There was music, street food, and a few civilized pints of Bitter at the Lafayette Brewing Company.

online.com/article/20120825/NEWS/308250048/beers-across-the-wabash">A Beers Across the Wabash fest account in the Lafayette newspaper is here