The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Christian del Rosario

Rod Roe watches in amusement as Trish Toomey takes a close look at some merchandise at the 23rd annual Art and Wine Festival last weekend.

City swells by 150,000 for Art and Wine Fest

Music, food and plenty of wine top the bill at 23rd annual COC event

By Lester Chang

Sunnyvale threw its biggest party of the year last weekend when 150,000 people whooped it up at the annual Art and Wine Festival, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.

Revelers crowded into downtown June 7 and 8 to sip wine, sample beers, listen to live music and eat an assortment of fare at the fair, all the while browsing through stalls set up by 650 artists at the 23rd annual event.

"It is a great community event, and it is a great way to show off our city," said Denise Harris, coordinator of the event. Booths lined the sidewalks from Sunnyvale Avenue to Mathilda Avenue and from Evelyn Avenue to Washington Avenue.

From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, artists from California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona sold three-dimensional photographs, stuffed animals with movable heads, legs and arms, vases the size of file cabinets, high-fashion jewelry, leather backpacks, exotic clothes, fake animal heads and miniature crystal horses.

The event was also sponsored by Town & Country Village, The Sun, KEZR, Black Mountain Spring Water, Saturn of Sunnyvale, KICU-TV, Sunnyvale Town Center, Coca Cola and Homestead Village.

Under clear skies and warm temperatures, people negotiated through the crowd and floated from one tarp-covered booth to the next.

Booth operators Suzanne and Jim Arnold took fair participants to Scotland with large photographs of meadows and rolling hills from that region. "If people are interested in the place of their ancestry (in Scotland), we could go to those places and photograph them. They are more than gifts. They are ties to their family history," said Suzanne, a photographer for 25 years.

People searched the streets for unique art.

Among those works were paintings of Louie Armstrong and Billie Holiday, classic jazz artists, placed under worn, wood-framed windows that were common in homes during the 1940s and 1950s.

"I am a jazz and blues enthusiast," said Adam Rote, an artist from Miami, Fla. "And I think people will appreciate this type of art."

Booth operator Merikay MacKenna beamed with pride over her wares--make-believe moose heads, cow heads, buffalo heads and dragon heads using fake fur and handmade eyes. They ranged from $95 to $349, depending on the size of the heads and materials used.

MacKenna, who makes the faux animal heads out of her home in Los Gatos, said she hasn't had to travel to out-of-state fairs to sell her wares, thanks to fairs held in Santa Clara Valley.

"My best business is right here in this valley," she said. "So why go?"

When people tired of browsing, they sipped wine from Fenestra Winery, J. Lohr Winery, Stony Ridge Winery, Concannon Vineyards, Mirassou Vineyards, Bonny Doon Vineyards and Ivan Tamas Winery.

The beer was provided by Stoddard's Brewhouse and Budweiser.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, June 11, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.