More than 20,000 are expected to head to McLaren Vale over the long weekend to sample some of the area’s renowned food and wine at the annual Sea and Vines Festival.
Beginning tonight and continuing through until Monday evening, this year’s event will be hosted by more than 30 venues.
Last year’s festival attracted around 17,000 people to McLaren Vale, but marketing officer Stacey Richardson is optimistic that attendance this year will be even higher.
Sea and Vines celebrates its 21st birthday in 2013 and events will be split across three categories; Experience, Relish and Delight.
“To differentiate the styles of the Sea and Vines Festival, we needed to categorise events into the different types of experience visitors can enjoy,” Richardson says.
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“The style of event where you can come down and wander through sampling became Experience, while Relish and Delight are more intimate. There’s music at all Relish events and generally, in terms of size, there’ll be 200-600 people with food included in the ticket price.”
Many Sunday events are already sold out but there are still tickets available for some wineries.
“Coriole is a very popular (Relish) event that still has tickets available for Sunday,” Richardson says.
The feature dish at Coriole will be blue swimmer crab soft tacos with sweetcorn salsa and chipotle, with entertainment by local band The Teahouse Fire and short films by Black Cockatoo Arthouse.
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Tickets are also still available for Sunday’s event at Oliver’s Taranga, where winemakers Corrina Wright and Brioni Oliver will launch a new bottle.
“The Sea and Vines weekend is the time we release our new highly anticipated small batch wine, Vermentino, an Italian variety from the 2013 vintage,” Wright says.
Anyone considering spending the Queen’s Birthday in McLaren Vale can travel down to the festival and enjoy a variety of non-ticketed events across 12 venues on the public holiday.
“It’s referred to by locals as the locals’ day but it’s very much family-oriented,” Richardson says.
“Leconfield and Friends is a highlight. They have nine different wineries and a brewery set up in a marquee.”
“A lot of the venues put on family entertainment; we have ping pong, bocce and Paxtons generally have Old McDonald’s Travelling Farm, too.”
The full program for Sea and Vines can be downloaded online.
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