It's been a wild year for Portland Greendrinks, shooting out of nowhere to now becoming one of the biggest social events in the city.

How'd that happen?

In my story in Tuesday's paper Portland Greendrinks originator Elliot Maysaid it all started when he was looking for people to hang out with people with shared interests. That was last March, starting with a small get-together at Corduroy Boutique with around 100 people. This month they're celebrating the one-year anniversary and it's a safe bet more than 200 people were on-hand at the event at the Maine College of Art. (UPDATE: Greendrinks says around 400 people attended the event)

So what's behind it? Is it the growing power of the "green" movement? Is it the bloc of community-minded businesses and individuals around the Portland area? Is it the free beer?

In the newest episode of the NXT podcast I dropped in at Greendrinks a few months back to see what the event (and all the buzz) were all about, and spoke with May, as well as a few Greendrinks-goers to get their thoughts on why the event has picked up.

As always you can listen to the new episode in the player on your right, or download the file and listen to it later. Also, don't forget we are on iTunes now, so go ahead and subscribe there.

If you're looking to get a taste of this month's Greendrinks, take a look at some photos at Portland in a Snap and local photographer Sam Cousin's Flickr set. You can also head over to the Greendrinks Portland Facebook page for photos from previous events.

You can also get a glimpse of what people are saying about Greendrinks over Twitter.

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