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Sips and songs: Harvest Wine & Music Festival offers a plethora of wines to sample and bands to dance to
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One of New Mexico’s favorite festivals returns with a slight rebrand.
Organizers have bumped up the number of live entertainment acts and added a second stage at the Harvest Wine & Music Festival in Albuquerque and in Las Cruces. The rebranded festival will feature nonstop live music with a variety of bands and styles including blues, funk, gypsy jazz, country, hip hop jazz and Latin.
“The Harvest Wine Festival was created six years ago,” said Dean Strober, of Blue River Productions, which organizes the festival with New Mexico Wine. “The big change is it’s been rebranded and relaunched this year as the Harvest Wine & Music Festival.”
Both wine festivals will take place from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31 through Monday, Sept. 2.
The Albuquerque festival will take place at Balloon Fiesta Park, 5500 Balloon Fiesta Parkway NE. This is an age 21 and older event. It will feature more than 200 wines from 20 wineries .
Live music by 13 bands, more than 50 local artisans and purveyors of fine foods, a silent disco and lawn games also will be part of the Duke City event. Painting classes also will be available for a $10 fee. An Uber code to save $5 on rides to and from the Albuquerque festival is available on the event website.
“In Albuquerque, there will be plenty of shade, plenty of shaded seating and free cold water,” Strober said. “That’s usually a concern for people coming out to any festival, any event in New Mexico, the shade and seating. Every single year we increase and add more. In Albuquerque, the music stages are inside two ginormous shade tents, so there should be plenty of seating for everybody.”
The Las Cruces event will be held at the Southern New Mexico State Fairgrounds, 12125 Robert Larson Blvd. It will feature more than 200 wines to sample, live music by country and Latin entertainers, food trucks, more than 50 artisans and lawn games.
All ages are welcome with a parent or guardian age 21 and older.
Ticketholders at both events will receive a commemorative Viva Vino wine glass, unlimited samples at participating wineries, $5 off any wine bottle purchase, and full access to the entertainment and the festival grounds. Designated driver tickets only include entry.
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A reserve wine tasting will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at both event locations. The reserve wine upgrade is an additional $25 . Upgraded ticketholders will be able to sample the best reserve and specialty wines from ten New Mexico wineries .
