Great Reasons to Visit California Wine Country

Wine Lovers will be popping corks at festivals, savoring special tastings, wine immersion events and tours across the state in September celebrating the month-long California Wine Month.

This is the best time of year to visit wine country when the vineyards and wineries are creating their next great vintage and celebrating with dozens of special events and activities.

This September, wine-loving consumers will flock to wineries and festivals across the state to see their favorite winemakers and get in on the harvest action themselves.

From picking and crushing grapes to events, VIP tours, tastings and concerts, vintners in many of California's 116 diverse winegrowing regions offer ways for people – from beginners to experts – to enjoy the state's signature beverage. 

"Governor Brown proclaims California Wine Month in September to recognize how much the wine industry contributes to our state's economy, culture and lifestyle.  With so many celebrations and events taking place, and all the action of the annual harvest, it's the perfect time to visit," said Robert P. (Bobby) Koch, president and CEO of Wine Institute, which created California Wine Month nine years ago. "As the leading wine and food destination in the U.S., producing 90 percent of our nation's wine and over 40 percent of its fruits and vegetables, California offers excellent wines and fresh, creative cuisine to go with them."

For a complete regional listing of the nearly 70 California winery events in September, click here.

No time to put the top down and visit the wine trails? No problem! Take a California Wines Road Trip in one stop on September 21 at the Wine Institute's official California Wine Month celebration at San Francisco's Ferry Building. Guests can taste more than 100 California wines from 12 regions with artisanal cheeses and salumi. Attendees can also enter to win one of several trips for two to California wine country.

Go to www.discovercaliforniawines.com for more information on wine regions, wines and winery amenities to plan your trip.

For more information about top events in California take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in California.

German Food and Music at Historic MainStrasse Village

The MainStrasse Village Oktoberfest, named as one of  Southeast Tourism Society’s “Top 20 Festivals for September 2013”, and one of Kentucky Travel Industry Association's “Top Ten 2013 Fall Festivals” is scheduled for September 6, 7 and 8.

A great mix of German and international foods, music and arts and crafts attracts approximately 125,000 people to this popular festival in historic MainStrasse Village, Covington, Kentucky.

Celebrate the 35th annual Oktoberfest in Goebel Park at the Biergarten and enjoy German music all weekend long or enter the "Oldest Oktoberfest Stein Contest". 

The festival extends over 6 city blocks, along the tree lined 6th Street Promenade, Philadelphia Street, Main Street and Goebel Park, creating the perfect backdrop for the variety of appealing foods, drinks and works by over 75 artisans and crafters from all over the country. There is traditional German food as always and of course, a variety of other festival favorites. 

Be sure to visit the Kinderplatz, full of adventures and rides for the kids and the Amusement Midway.  On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you can purchase an "All You Can Ride" bracelet for just $15. 

And don’t forget the music! In addition to the great German Music on the Festival Stage in the Goebel Park Biergarten, quality live entertainment by top local performers will spread the festival mood throughout Oktoberfest.  Great Pop, Classic Rock, Blues and Country will be featured at the Kentucky Lottery Stage, and the Main Street Bier Garten Stage. And don't miss the Street Chalk Drawing Contest on Saturday,  $1,000 in cash prizes for Adult and Children's categories. 

Visit www.mainstrasse.org or call 859-491-0458 for details.

For more information about top events in Kentucky take a look at Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in Kentucky

Winston-Salem Hosts Fine Art and Craft Festival

Winston-Salem’s Historic West End ARTSfest will hold its 6th biennial juried fine art and fine craft festival on September 14 from 10am to 5pm. 

Charming Grace Court will again welcome thousands of art enthusiasts from all over North Carolina. Nestled in the lovely West End historic district, the official “front porch” of downtown Winston-Salem, Grace Court has been the home of ARTSfest since its inception in 2003.

Continuing the tradition of hosting significant cultural events, ARTSfest will, in addition to showcasing some of the best artists in North Carolina, also host local musicians and performers from the city’s cherished art groups. There will be food vendors and a children’s art activity area where they can make their own art to take home. Door prizes donated by the artists and local businesses are given throughout the day.

After a decade of spectacular events, this year’s occasion promises to be an experience to be remembered. There are currently over 55 juried artists selected for this year’s event.  

Continuing the tradition of showcasing some of North Carolina’s best talent, the designation of Courtney Tomchik’s work,  “Spirit of the Heart” will grace the cover of ARTSfest posters, publications and tee shirts.

Rain date is Sunday, September 15.

For more details click on www.artsfestws.com.

Visit ARTSfest on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Historic-West-End-ARTSfest, Twitter: https://twitter.com/westendartsfest

For more information about top events in North Carolina take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in North Carolina

Disney Celebrity Chef Meet-and-Greets

Culinary artistry, fine wine and celebrity chef meet-and-greets will once again highlight the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Food and Wine Classic. The event, back for its fourth year, will be held on October 18 and 19 at the Epcot Resort Area hotel.

The outdoor festival will include food and beverage seminars, food and wine tastings and live music. Seminars will be led by the hotel’s chefs and certified beverage experts, while the hotel’s award-winning restaurants will showcase signature culinary selections to pair with tastings from more than 30 wineries.

Celebrity Chef Todd English, whose restaurant Todd English’s bluezoo is located in the hotel, will be in attendance to meet and greet with guests. English is a renowned restaurateur who has gained national acclaim through his line of restaurants and cookbooks, and other food-related enterprises. Todd English’s bluezoo features fresh seafood in a vibrant atmosphere.

With 17 restaurants and lounges, and a distinguished culinary and beverage team, the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel continually earns national recognition for its food and beverage program. The hotel features more than 70 certified wine sommeliers and 1,400 wine selections.

Tickets to the Swan and Dolphin Food & Wine Classic are currently available as part of a hotel package or individually.  For more information or to book, visit www.SwanDolphinFoodandWineClassic.com or call 1-800-227-1500.

In the heart of the Walt Disney World Resort, the award-winning Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel is the gateway to Central Florida’s greatest theme parks and attractions. 

For more information about top events in Florida take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in Florida

Five Fall Food Festivals in Montana

As summer begins to wind down and harvest season approaches, towns across Montana celebrate their agricultural heritage. It’s a time when communities gather to celebrate fall’s bounty, from sugarbeets and chokecherries to craft beer and upland game. 

These lively, authentic gatherings connect locals and visitors alike with long-time traditions: cherry pit spitting competitions, celebrity pheasant hunts and stick-horse parades. 

Here are five of Montana’s most colorful autumnal events.

Lewistown’s Chokecherry Festival on September 6: Twenty-four years ago, Lewistown was named the state’s official Chokecherry Capital. Ever since, the wild-grown, sour fruit takes center stage each fall in jams, jellies, syrups, wine and other delicacies. Nearly 5,000 attendees join the jubilant atmosphere along historic Main Street, watching pit-spitting competitions, enjoying live entertainment and visiting with local artists. 

Chinook’s Sugarbeet Festival from September 27 to 29: Once deemed the second strangest mascot in the U.S., the sugarbeet and its saccharine industry significantly impacted the northern town of Chinook. Each fall, the community rallies around the symbolic tuber with a unique festival. A BBQ, hay maze, playful shootout, drive-in movie, games, music and a sugarbeet growing competition are on the schedule this year.

Hamilton’s Annual McIntosh Apple Day on October 5: Each October, Hamilton hosts the biggest bake sale in Big Sky Country.  Over 20,000 visitors attend the annual McIntosh Apple Day to buy old-fashioned baked goods filled with locally grown, hand picked fruit. Aromas of fall waft through the streets of Hamilton as apple butter bubbles, cider is freshly pressed, caramel is poured and families gather for fall’s festive fruit.

Havre’s Legends For Lights Pheasant Jamboree on October 10 to 13:

Havre is a spirited town bordering Canada in northern Montana. Every fall, the town invites NFL sports legends to join the community and hunt some of the state’s finest pheasant country. The weekend’s festivities include friendly competitions, pitting teams of locals and sports celebrities against each other as they compete in trapshooting, team hunting and culinary events. A final banquet culminates the festival, raising support and awareness for the Northern Lights Athletic Foundation and the MSU-Northern athletic program.

Tamarack Festival and Brewfest on Seeley Lake October 11 to 13: Tamaracks are the only species of coniferous trees that change color and lose their needles each fall. As the mountain forest turns golden with the changing season, the Tamarack Festival takes place around the pristine waters of Seeley Lake. It’s a celebration of autumn’s beauty, the annual harvest, the local artistic community and the state’s craft brewing industry. Sample locally made soups and sip warming ales. Peruse the arts and crafts stands, learn about the area’s history in ecology and silviculture, and take a hike in a forest of golden foliage. Tamarack Time is the perfect blend of good food, a warm community and fresh mountain air.

For more information about top events in Montana take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in Montana.

Festival Musical Video Previews New Sounds

Songs with an edge, a secret code, a punk energy that is undeniable – that is the music of the Ponderosa Stomp Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana from October 3 to 5. 

Be it soul singers, country creole, or young rock n’ rollers leading the way for the next generation to blossom in garages around the country, the music fanatics of the Stomp bulldoze the slick detritus of contemporary music to find the rawest, deepest stuff out there, simmering under the surface, waiting to be rediscovered before it’s too late. 

The Ponderosa Stomp is famous for bringing the finest American music to their stage annually – some have described it as "the best music you've never heard". You can hear the sounds of the incredible line-up in Ponderosa Stomp’s overview video on You Tube: Behind the Curtains.

The Ponderosa Stomp Festival includes the Concert, the Music History Conference, Hip Drop and the annual Stomp Record Show which has become a destination for crate-digging buyers and sellers, purveying vinyl to discriminating fans of garage, soul, R&B, Rocksteady, Boogaloo, Funk, Jazz, Rockabilly, 70s punk and more. 

The concert takes place at Rock ‘n’ Bowl™ and includes many artists who rarely perform live, including Swamp Dogg, Chris Montez and Chris Clark, the first white soul singer on Motown. Louisiana country soul man George Perkins, garage original Ty Wagner and early rockers like Eddie Daniels and producer/songwriter/singer Boogaloo. Baby Washington and Maxine Brown slayed audiences at the Ponderosa Stomp at Lincoln Center two years ago, earning slots on the official festival this year while the 60’s Sunset Strip is represented by The Standells and The Sloths. 

Visit www.ponderosastomp.com for the full line-up.

For more information about top events in Louisiana take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in Louisiana.

Lewis & Clark Salt Makers Return to Oregon

You can experience the closest thing to time travel when the Seaside Museum and Historical Society celebrates Seaside’s contribution to the historical Lewis and Clark expedition by hosting the Salt Makers Return from August 16 - 18.

During the Corps of Discovery’s stay in NW Oregon in the winter of 1805-06, some members were dispatched to what would eventually become the city of Seaside. There they replenished the Corps’ store of salt by boiling seawater around the clock for 48 hours.

The Saltmakers Return (the third weekend of every August), sponsored by the Seaside Museum & Historical Society of Oregon in conjunction with Fort Clatsop National Park and Seaside, celebrates the 1805-06 Lewis & Clark Expedition by making salt on the Seaside beach with your help. Visitors will be representing Clatsop Indians coming to the salt camp to trade wild berries, fruit, meat and other 1806 trade goods for beads and bright pieces of metal.

Professional first person character interpreters will prepare you for your journey back to the 1806 salt camp.

Oregon Shorebird Festival August 23 - 25

It’s been 25 years since Cape Arago Audubon Society started the Oregon Shorebird Festival in the small town of Charleston, OR.  During this time, many generations of shorebirds have stopped over to feed and rest in the estuaries of Coos Bay and Bandon as they migrate between their breeding and wintering grounds.  Every year without fail there have been bird watchers both new and experienced to witness this event.

Plan on a full weekend of activities planned for birders of all skill levels.  The festival is headquartered at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB) in Charleston, OR.  Activities include expertly guided land based field trips to Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, Millicoma Marsh and the greater Coos Bay area.

Visit Oregon, The People’s Coast for more detailed information on events there.

For more information about top events in Oregon take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in Oregon.

Historic Flight Hosts Vintage Aircraft Weekend

Historic Flight Foundation will host the sixth annual Vintage Aircraft Weekend (VAW) from August 30 to September 1 in conjunction with its Paine Field partners and the Snohomish County Tourism Promotion Area.

Vintage civilian and military aircraft from Historic Flight and the Flying Heritage Collection will be joined by visiting aircraft – as many as 65 – to highlight aviation during the three decades between Charles Lindbergh’s solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1927 and commercialized Boeing jet service of the same route in 1957.

The festival begins on Friday August 30 with arrival of aircraft throughout the day. That evening a “Big Band Dinner Dance” featuring live big band music begins at 6pm. Group swing-dance lessons by guest professionals are featured and period attire is encouraged. 

The main event begins on Saturday August 31 at 9am; tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Family passes are $25.  Visitors can watch flying sessions of vintage aircraft, walk the flight line and have close-up access to the vintage aircraft. They can ask the pilots and mechanics questions about restoration and hear WWII re-enactors and "Flying Legends" recount exciting tales.

The family-friendly event also includes aircraft memorabilia, vintage automobiles and military vehicles, a Speakers Bureau, live music and food vendors. The final flight concludes at 5pm.

Sunday offers an opportunity to visit with pilots about their aircraft as they prepare for local flying and the flight home. Throughout the day, rides are offered in open cockpit biplanes and Historic Flight’s DC-3.

For more information about the Big Band Dinner Dance or VAW, contact Historic Flight Visitor Services: visitorservices@historicflight.org or (425) 348-3200.

Vintage Aircraft Weekend is held at Paine Field near Everett, WA. For details visit vintageaircraftweekend.org.

Visit www.snohomish.org for details of other events in the Snohomish County area.

For more information about top events in Washington State take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in Washington

Splendid Fall Events in San Diego’s East County

Autumn is a season of enchantment in San Diego's East County, when the foliage of the rolling foothills and mountains change color and temperatures dip ever so slightly to put visitors in a fall frame of mind. East County's change of seasons is pronounced by festive annual traditions like Oktoberfests and a Native-American Pow Wow, as well as seasonal grape and apple harvests that attract visitors from far and near to sample luscious wines and delicious homemade apple pies, ciders and jams.

The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation presents the 24th Annual Sycuan Pow-Wow, Sept. 13-15, on the Sycuan Indian Reservation in El Cajon. This traditional celebration features Indian songs, drums, dance, arts and crafts, games and food. The free event is open to the public; on-site camping is available.

A San Diego tradition "as American as apple pie" is the popular Annual Julian Fall Apple Harvest, September through October, celebrating this historic mountain town's famous homemade apple pies and ciders. Visitors can also enjoy acres of colorful fall foliage, apple picking in local orchards, charming bed and breakfast inns, art shows, quaint antique shops, horse-drawn carriage rides and live entertainment.

Bratwurst, beer gardens and oompah bands can only mean one thing – Oktoberfest! A number of communities throughout San Diego County celebrate this traditional German holiday, but the 40th Annual Oktoberfest in La Mesa, Oct. 4-6, and Oktoberfest in El Cajon, Sept. 27-29 and Oct. 4-6, are two of the largest festivals of their kind on the U.S. West Coast. Visitors can enjoy dancing, German food, Bavarian bands and hundreds of crafts and commercial booths along La Mesa Boulevard in La Mesa and Mollison Avenue in El Cajon.

See all fall festivities in East County, including parades, music festivals and more.

For more information about top events in California take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in California.

Arts, Crafts, Music and Alaska Blueberries

The key ingredient to Alyeska Resort’s popular summer festival is rapidly blooming throughout the valley just in time for the sixth annual Alyeska Blueberry Festival, scheduled for August 10 and 11. The family‐friendly outdoors festival will be held from 12pm until 8pm each day. Admission to the festival is free.

Alyeska Resort is just 40 miles south of Anchorage, Alaska in the town of Girdwood.

Held in the beautiful grounds surrounding The Hotel Alyeska pond courtyard, the festival continues to grow in size and attendance each summer. At the heart of the festival are the vibrant arts, crafts and food booths featuring local artists and chefs. Under the main stage, there will be free performances by national and local musicians as well as a Blueberry Beer & Wine Garden for guests ages 21 and over.

Dedicated for kids of all ages, many of the featured activities at the festival are geared for hands‐on fun and playing with Alaska’s favorite berry. The resort will be offering chairlift rides on Chair 7 to help guests access blueberry patches and lower‐mountain trails for exploration. There will be a small fee and minimum height restrictions for riding the chairlift. There will also be opportunities for children to foray for berries in the courtyard area with Alyeska Resort’s mascot, Mogul Moose.

The popular pie‐eating contest has been expanded to include both kids and adults competing for great prizes. For the at‐home chef, festival goers are encouraged to participate in the Blueberry Creations Contest. Submissions will be accepted during festival hours on Saturday and Sunday. The contest judging will take place at 5pm on Sunday, August 11 and the panel of judges includes the top talent in Alyeska’s culinary team.

The Hotel Alyeska is offering special Blueberry Festival packages starting at $339 per night. Packages include one‐night’s accommodation in a deluxe room, $50 resort credit, breakfast for each adult and tram tickets for the whole family. Packages can be booked by calling hotel reservations at 907‐754‐2111 or online at www.alyeskaresort.com.

For more information about top events in Alaska take a look at the Top Events USA selection of the annual main festivals and events in Alaska.