BG Wine Fest returns Saturday
Published 6:00 am Thursday, July 11, 2024
- Steven Dossey (right), general manager and winemaker at Purple Toad Winery, along with his wife, Hannah, pours samples for visitors at the third annual BG Wine Fest at the Historic RailPark and Train Museum in 2021.
Chuggin,’ chuggin’ chew chew.
The Historic Railpark and Train Museum is set to host the sixth annual Bowling Green Wine Fest on Saturday, presenting “a day of live sampling, shopping, food tasting and live music,” Railpark Executive Director Jamie Johnson said.
The event, co-run by the Kentucky Wineries Association, is the only sanctioned wine festival in the city and will feature 10 wineries from Kentucky and Ohio. Their partnership with the KWA, Johnson said, helps the festival “pool some of the wineries that are a little bit farther away.”
“While we’re going to have our local wineries here, we’re able to bring in some wineries that are a couple hours away, not maybe as easy for the average person to get out and get to,” Johnson said.
Along with the wine, the festival will feature craft and artisan vendors outside that sell clothing, jewelry and home décor.
“There’s a little bit of everything out there, so you have something to sip and shop … we don’t want them to come in and just pound wine,” Johnson said.
Along with the outdoor vendors, the event will also have live music and food trucks outside of the wine sampling area.
“Usually what people do is kind of float around the event,” Johnson said. “They’ll come in and do some samples, get something that they like, they’ll get a glass of wine, go outside, get food, sit down and listen to music, or go out and shop.”
Johnson said that the event usually sees 500 people come through its doors each year. Tickets are available at https://www.historicrailpark.com/event/bgwinefest/. General admission tickets are available for $35 and include “10 sample tickets, a wine tote and a commemorative glass” according to the website. All VIP admission tickets are no longer available and have “been sold out for a couple weeks,” Johnson said.
Before expenses, she said the event usually makes around $15,000, with the funds being split between the nonprofit Railpark museum and the KWA.
