POCATELLO — After eight years of successful Gate City Brewfest events, the Pocatello/Chubbuck Chamber of Commerce and Old Town Pocatello are considering adding a second Brewfest at the end of this summer.

Brewfest has been consistently growing in size during its eight-year run. The first time the event was held, it drew around 450 people. The Brewfest held on Saturday attracted between 1,300 to 1,500 people.

The second Brewfest would feature more of a central location and it would be a festival-style event, which would directly contrast with the bar crawl style of the Gate City Brewfest held every March.

The bar crawl style is relatively unique to Pocatello, so organizers would like to keep the form of the Brewfest that’s held in March.

“Our event is fairly limited in size because of the way we do it, and we like that uniqueness,” said Matthew Hunter, the president and CEO of the Pocatello/Chubbuck Chamber of Commerce.

The location of the second event is currently undetermined.

Hunter said that organizers would begin work within this month to decide if another event will be held later this year. If they haven’t completed a plan by May or mid-June, it won’t happen in 2018 and it will be delayed until 2019.

“At this point, we haven’t even talked to brewers, so it’s a plan,” Hunter said. “We want to do it, but literally everything needs to be put together on it.”

Dane Simmons, owner of Par 5, wants it to go even further.

“I think we need to do three or four a year because if we can get that kind of energy in Old Town, that’s exactly what the business owners down here are looking for,” he said.

Simmons continued, “It would be nice to block off the streets down here and do it in the middle of Old Town.”

Davis Gove, co-owner of Jim Dandy Brewing, a new microbrewery in Pocatello set to open this summer, said, “The centralized location has a huge draw because it’s more of that festival type of feeling.”

Hailee Matkin, co-owner of Jim Dandy, said, “The one thing that we could say if we did a centralized location is to get some food involved.”

However, Lisa Willmore, owner of The Bridge restaurant, didn’t think it was necessary to add another event each year and wanted to see more control and safety at the Brewfest held every March.

Though this new event wouldn’t likely beat Gate City Brewfest in size immediately, there would be more potential for growth.

“The other event would start small, but I think it would have the potential to be even larger long-term,” Hunter said.