For many years the middle weekend in September has been the time for the annual Grape Stomp Festival at Carlos Creek Winery in Alexandria. It’s time and the festival is ready to welcome in thousands of eager participants. Hundreds of “teams” will race to see who can stomp the most juice in the shortest time. During the three days of the festival, over 300 teams will stomp on 10,000 plus pounds of grapes. That’s a lot of purple feet! Teams are made up of two people – the “stomper” who is in the barrel and the “juicer” who stands below and guides the juice to the exit hole. Eight teams compete at a time. Winning teams are awarded the coveted “We Came, We Stomped, We WON” T-Shirts and advance to the Grand Championship round held at the end of each day. Grand Champions win a case of CCW Favorites! As of this writing both Friday and Saturday’s online admission “to stomp” has sold out, but a few spots remain. Bold North Cellars owner Tyler Bredeson says, on average, 8500 bottles of Carlos Creek wine will be sold or consumed over the weekend, “and while it is a wine festival, we go through more than 80 kegs of beer.”
WHEN
Festival hours are Friday, Sept. 16, noon to 7pm, Saturday, Sept. 17, 10a to 7pm and Sunday, Sept. 18, 10a to 4p. Friday and Saturday are 21 and older days and Sunday is designated as being for ALL AGES. Kids 6 and under are free. You can get tickets online, or at the gate.
ENTERTAINMENT
There will 12 bands playing throughout the weekend on 4 different stages. Bold North Cellars, which overarches both Carlos Creek Winery and 22 Northmen Brewing Co., will also have 150 food, juried art and marketplace vendors during the festival. In addition to a huge wine tasting area, there will be beer tasting as well, featuring 22 Northmen beers. Each day has a special theme with costume and grape stomping competitions. Drink tickets are used for all alcoholic beverages and once purchased, tickets are valid for any festival day. In addition to the live music there will be shows featuring the Timberworks Lumberjack Show.
FREE Shuttles run from the Viking Plaza Mall, Douglas County Fairgrounds and many Alexandria hotels, plus there’s plenty of on-site parking. The free shuttle is offered on Saturday from local lodging and some in-town stops. For hotel shuttles, you must be staying at the hotel to ride. If you are not staying at a hotel, please ride the town shuttles from Viking Plaza Mall and the RCC. (Shuttle SCHEDULE LINK)
There are no pets or companion animals allowed at the festival.
