For some, beer is celebration enough to wear a bottle and can full-body costume to work.

Eric Lareau, a senior studying fire science from Champaign, did just so. He strolled through Pinch Penny Pub and Liquors Saturday wearing a beer can costume, made of foam. He didn’t have full-range of motion of his arms, but he was still able to sip his beer from a tall glass.

At the 11th annual beer festival, Lareau was the life of this party.

“Hey, ‘Can!'” a guy yelled to him. Lareau lifted his drink to the admirer and finished off his beer.

“I kind of fell into this three years ago,” Lareau said. “This is my fourth year as a ‘Can.'”

Moments later, a group of women approached him and asked if they could pose for a picture with him. Wrapping his arms around two women, Lareau gladly obliged.

“Every good man needs a can costume at some point in his life,” Lareau said.

Pat Gates, a senior studying hospitality and tourism management from Alton, played the part of the long-necked, brown bottle. Gates’ job was a bit harder because his bottle-cap fashioned hood frequently caught itself on trees and smacked doorways.

Lareau and Gates do not always spend their weekends masquerading as the Can and Bottle – most times, customers can see them stamping hands at the door and serving behind the bar.

“Our boss is paying us to do this,” Lareau said. “We get to work and get drunk.”

The beer garden at Pinch was transformed Saturday afternoon into a shrine for frothy brews for three hours. About 600 people paid homage. Patrons paid nearly $20 for a souvenir glass – and all the beer and barbecue they could handle.

The beer and the people come from all over, said James Karayiannis, the establishment’s general manager and the organizer of the event.

“Everyone comes together with one common purpose and that’s to enjoy beer,” Karayiannis said. “Over there you got a guy who’s probably 60 years old, and right there looks like a guy who’s just barely 21.”

Lawrence Cisneros, a senior studying cinema from Peoria, said the event marked his first experience with a beer festival. And it was a milestone.

“Besides my birth, beer fest is the best day of my life,” Cisneros said.

The scene in the beer garden was calmer than a typical weekend night. Vendors told samplers about each beer’s origin. The drinkers nodded as they downed it.

Dan Schingel graduated from the University in 1988 with a degree in university studies. Schingel returns annually for the beer festival as a salesman for Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.

Schingel said the only beer fests during his collegiate drinking career were located in his living room and wishes he could have been able to sample international beers like people now can.

John Vonperbandt worked as a manager at the bar before graduating in August. When he was a student, Vonperbandt saved all his time off requests for one day – beer fest.

“This is my favorite day of the year,” said Vonperbandt, who drove from Chicago for his seventh-consecutive beer fest.

Jen Davis, a senior studying business, said it was her first beer festival. Not only did Davis get to sample all kinds of beer, she also won a grill during the afternoon’s raffle.

As the day progressed, the Bottle and the Can competed with each other through beer chugging contests. Downing the beer was the easy part, Gates and Lareau said, but relieving themselves while wearing a bulky costume with out a zipper was hard.

A final tally of four victories, three losses and three ties made Lareau the chugging contest victor. Gates won last year.

The third annual Bottle versus Can guzzling contest is slated for Beer Festival 2006, Lareau said. Given that it is their last year in Carbondale, it is expected to be one for the ages.

Reporter Zack Quaintance can be reached at [email protected]