The area where the festival was held is the "Special Events" area. They hold big events there several times a year. What usually happens is that the big grassy field across the street is turned into a parking lot and people enter through the unlocked gate. Most people never actually come through the main lake entrance. Why they don't do it for the Homebrewers Fest I don't know. Maybe they are just assuming that all the festival attendees are camping?
The signage (to me) seemed to indicate that they were trying to do just that (park the cars in the grassy field and enter through the unlocked gate...it was merely the gatelock. It looked fun though! I will just plan on getting their Friday afternoon next year and hopefully won't have to worry about it.