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Another great year for Art & Wine Festival
Estimated 200,000 people attended Chamber of Commerce event

by Daniel DeBolt

The Chamber of Commerce estimates that as many as 200,000 people attended the 37th Annual Art and Wine festival last weekend for two days of food, fun, art, wine and music on Castro Street.

"The weather was great, the wine was good and people had fun," said Jacqui Marchessini, director of programs and events for the chamber.

Musical acts included a group of child violinists who played in front of the chamber offices next to City Hall. Classic rock cover band The Cool Jerks managed to get the crowd dancing in Civic Center Plaza.

Several nonprofits worked the event and were given donations from the chamber in return, including the Community Heath Awareness Council, which took parking fees; the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition, which organized a corral for bike security; and Leadership Mountain View, which sold water and soda and kept the proceeds.

A group of high school football players from James Lick High School in San Jose showed up in uniform to handle the garbage and recycling, receiving money from the chamber in return to pay for new uniforms. (Students from Mountain View and Los Altos high schools had passed on the offer.)

Mountain View's Art & Wine Festival, put on by the chamber every year, has grown steadily since it was first introduced in 1971.

E-mail Daniel DeBolt at ddebolt@mv-voice.com

Posted by Garrett, a resident of another community, on Sep 14, 2008 at 5:03 pm

Again I attened the Festival, it was great, weather was nice and beer was cold. Great job and will see you next year.