The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Cherie Hunter pours a glass of wine at the Hunter Home Child Care booth during last weekend's Art and Wine Festival.

Sun swelters Art and Wine Festival sequel

By Justin Berton

The first time around in June, the 26th annual Sunnvyale Art & Wine Festival suffered low turnout due to rainy weather.

The sun showed up for the fair's sequel this weekend, but it may have done its job too well.

Sofia Diltz, a vendor at the People Painters face painting booth, blamed the weekend's near-100-degree temperatures for keeping potential festival-goers indoors in search of air conditioning.

"It's usually awesome," Diltz said of the Sunnvyale fair's turnout on Sunday. "But it is blistering today."

Sunnyvale public safety officer Kevin Rego said there were no victims of dehydration or heat exhaustion at the two-day event.

"We were expecting some, but luckily, we didn't get any," Rego said. First aid treatments consisted of "mostly blisters from sandals, scrapes and cuts."

For only the second time in the 26-year history of the city's largest celebration, organizers added a second show to reach their financial goals.

Suzi Blackman, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said organizers hoped the sequel would raise $60,000 after the first show fell $20,000 shy of its goal. Blackman could not provide figures of this weekend's festival by press time.

But not all vendors suffered under the sweltering sun.

Aaron Rothenberg kept cool in a hammock-like hanging chair beneath a patch of shade and modeled his Sky Chairs for those who walked by.

The multicolored hanging chairs became the destination for those trying to escape the heat, Rothenberg said, as many who passed by gladly jumped in to cool off and relax. Some even got a little too comfortable.

"I've been kicking people out on a regular basis," Rothenberg said.

But that turned out to be a good problem, considering the turnout in June, Rothenberg added.

"The first time, we didn't do so hot," he said. "It wasn't like the Sunnyvale shows of old. But this weekend, we did all right."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, August 5, 1998.
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