ESCONDIDO: Festivals will bring downtown to life this month

Grape Day Festival Sept. 6; Festival Escondido Sept. 13

By DAVID GARRICK - Staff Writer | Tuesday, September 2, 2008 4:29 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- Expect downtown Escondido to be bustling and lively the next two weekends, with the family-friendly Grape Day Festival this Saturday and the Festival Escondido music and restaurant celebration the following Saturday, Sept. 13.

The Grape Day Festival, which typically attracts 6,000 to 10,000 people, will feature a morning parade down Grand Avenue and a wide range of games, contests and other activities in Grape Day Park from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Festival Escondido, which attracted more than 400 people when it was held for the first time last fall, will include two stages of live music, samples from 17 of the city's restaurants, wine tasting, art gallery openings and a beer garden. The event is slated to run from noon to 5:30 p.m.

Grape Day Festival

While the Grape Day Festival will still include an eclectic food court and dozens of vendor booths, organizers have added more contests and games this year.

"We're looking for new ways to engage the crowd," said Wendy Barker, director of the park's Escondido History Center. "These free events, like our horseshoe pitching contest, are something we really haven't done before."

Organizers also will highlight that the city's very first Grape Day Festival took place exactly 100 years ago, in 1908.

It's not a typical 100th anniversary because the festival was only held a few times between 1950 and its formal revival was in 1996. But Barker said there will be activities Saturday focused on this year being the centennial celebration of Grape Day, which began as a way to promote the area's grape-growing industry and to show off Escondido in its formative years.

Barker said the event, which is free to attend, will include many activities that focus on the city's history. They will include grape stomping, steam engine rides and demonstrations of weaving and blacksmithing. There will also be a bake sale, art shows, live entertainment and a "fun zone" for kids.

The festival will kick off with a parade traveling on Grand Avenue from Escondido Boulevard to Juniper Street, and then back to Escondido Boulevard and the park. The parade will feature dignitaries, horses, floats, marching bands and antique automobiles.

Barker said organizers expect strong attendance this year because the forecast is for relatively mild weather, which would be in stark contrast to some recent Grape Days that she described as oppressively warm.

Festival Escondido

The second installment of Festival Escondido will be significantly different than the first, according to Debra Rosen, chief executive of the Downtown Business Association.

The length of the event has been shortened from nine hours to less than six hours, a beer garden has been added and the public can attend the first three hours of live entertainment for free. A $30 ticket is required for the food samplings and to see the headline act, Americana singer Eve Selis.

Rosen said last year's festival, which ran from noon to 9 p.m., was too long. So this year will feature food and wine tasting from noon to 3 p.m., followed by the Selis concert from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Tickets for just the Selis concert, which will take place at Grand Avenue and Orange Street, are $20.

Despite the changes, Rosen said the first installment of Festival Escondido was well-received by the owners of downtown art galleries, restaurants and other businesses. The goal was to expand the former Taste of Escondido restaurant sampling event by simultaneously highlighting the city's wide variety of art and culture.

"The idea was giving people multiple reasons to come downtown," said Rosen.

Melissa-Inez Walker, owner of Distinction gallery on Grand Avenue, said last year's festival was great for both sales and exposing future customers to her business. "It was a banner day," she said.

From each $30 ticket, $5 will go to the Men's Fellowship Center in Escondido, a recovery center for addicts.

For more details, visit www.festivalescondido.com.

Contact staff writer David Garrick at (760) 740-5468 or dgarrick@nctimes.com.

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