Tickets are now on sale for the Mt. Helix Park Foundations Annual Food and Wine Festival on Aug. 17 as it takes guests back to the Swingin’ Sixties of Palm Springs. In addition to the festival, the Foundation is holding its inaugural Catered Dinner from Bekker’s Catering. As the festival has grown in popularity and size, Foundation Executive Director Krista Powers said the addition of the dinner is to provide a more intimate setting to kick off the annual event.
“Our Saturday night food and wine festival has grown into a giant event with 35 food and beverage vendors and a lot going on with about 700 people attending,” she said. “There are many people who do not want to go to an event with a ton of people, and some of our longtime donors want the feel of the smaller festival they experienced in the festival’s beginnings, so we wanted to honor them. We thought this evening under the stars’ catered dinner was better for our guests who do not want to go to a large, crowded event.”
Powers said it is set up now for two separate experiences, and in looking at many food and wine festivals, many times they have a prior evening event that is a bit more intimate for guests. With the park already being shut down for readying for the festival, it was perfect to add on the elegant Friday evening dinner with a jazz orchestra and limit the number of tickets sold to 200.
“Many people love the big event of the festival. I think that is why it has grown so much,” she said. “Some of our donors have been coming to our annual fundraising gala for over 10 years, so the experience now is so much different since it has grown so much, they long for the way it used to be. More private and more intimate.”
Powers said that some may choose to attend both.
“They can still come to the festival, kick their heels up, have some fun, and they can choose what kind of experience they want to have for the weekend,” she said.
Powers said at the Friday event, the entertainment is the American Flyboys Jazz Big Band, and on Saturday night, the headliner is Jason Hanna & The Swingin Bananas, along with other musical acts.
All proceeds from the events help fund the park for the year.
“We want to make sure that we are wise and put our donor dollars to fixing our rock walls, collapsing roads, cross restoration, native habitat,” she said.
“It is really cool to come up to an event at the top of the mountain,” Powers continued. “While we might not be the Aspen food and wine festival, we are less expensive to attend, and it is still an incredible experience at one of the highest peaks in San Diego. You get those 36-degree views, and the sunsets are amazing. The food this year, we have some wonderful booths from around San Diego. The Cohen Group is involved, we have the Brigantine. We have a couple of local breweries, Burning Beard, BNS, and Helix Brewing,” adding that there is a long list of food and beverage vendors that are local to the area and have supported the Foundation for many years.
For more information, and tickets, visit https://bit.ly/3SbwsQP
