The City of Santa Clara’s annual Art and Wine Festival is a favorite, not just in Santa Clara, but regionally. Festival goers and vendors from across the Bay Area come to enjoy summer’s last hurrah in Central Park.
This year’s festival had artists with 165 arts and crafts booths, 25 community groups serving festival food favorites, six vintners pouring fine wines and a shaded beer garden to watch the 49ers game that took place across town on Sunday.
Early risers got a treat, Boy Scout Troop 394 was on-hand making plates of pancakes, Neto’s Sausage and fresh-cut strawberries. Other community organizations were serving funnel cakes, Italian sausages, samosas, kettle korn, and much more.
Live entertainment filled the air at Central Park. The Pavilion Stage was packed with enthusiastic fans of the Spazmatics and the Vanguard Big Band. Other performances by groups like the Santa Clara Lions Cheer Squad and Jewel of Opar also entertained the masses.
At the festival booths, shoppers could find a variety of wares and trinkets. Shikha Handa had some of her artwork on display in her booth called Shikha’s Art for Breast Cancer Research — she donated 100 percent of the sales to support research.
Jose Cabezas of Ancient Winds demonstrated how to play one of the flutes he had for sale along with his CDs. Father and son duo, Ray and Zach from Oxnard, brought their Brighten Your Life Creations wind charms to the festival.
For the younger festival goers, the Kids Kingdom sponsored by Santa Clara Parents Nursery School was where the fun was at. There was face and arm painting provided by volunteers from the Roberta Jones Junior Theater. Kids could take a ride to the sky the Balloon Fiesta ferris wheel or hop into a fire engine with the supervision of the Santa Clara Fire Department.
Candidates for the upcoming Santa Clara Mayor, Council, City Clerk and School District elections also had booths in the Free Speech section of the festival.
More pictures are available on our Facebook, the Santa Clara Weekly, and in our print publication.