Wine, wind chimes and song

Across the street from Mountain View City Hall, with Castro Street bustling with live music and dancing, vendor Ken Lee pieced together a wooden wind chime adorned with flying pigs for a customer touring the booths downtown during last weekend’s Art and Wine Festival.

In its 48th year, the Mountain View Art and Wine Festival has grown into a lively annual tradition featuring apparel, novelty items and artisan food that attracts both local residents and visitors from all over the Bay Area.

Lee, who said he inadvertently entered the wind chime-making business with his wife Linjong after feeling inspired by the old idiom “when pigs fly,” has attended over 20 festivals and flea markets selling his “little zoo” of wind chimes, which has expanded to include an assortment of animals beyond winged pigs. This year is his 13th at the Mountain View festival.

“For me, it’s kind of like the novelty of it,” Lee said. “(They’re) very eclectic and unique.”

Over a hundred booths took over Castro Street, selling everything from art, clothing and jewelry to clocks, window screens and fried zucchini.

Tech companies such as Xfinity and Toyota promoted their products, and local groups like the Mountain View High School choir held a fundraiser selling shaved ice. Mountain View police and fire departments made a friendly appearance, too, as children tried on plastic firefighter hats or posed by a fire engine.

The “Kid Fun Zone” offered activities such as face painting, rock climbing, bungee jumping, and Water Ballerz, where kids floated and bounced on water while sealed inside a clear, inflatable ball.

Fifth grader Sabrina Neal, who said she had tried Water Ballerz twice before, had fun making flips and somersaults in the pool.

Young singers and dancers from local schools and a youth talent agency also took to the Kids Got Talent stage, performing guitar and vocal duets and hip-hop routines.

The festival is a major fundraiser for the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce and provides revenue for programs that benefit local schools, businesses and nonprofits. Presented by the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce alongside several sponsors, the festival hosted a lineup of Bay Area bands including Blue House, The Fog City Swampers and What the Funk! at its Recology Concert Stage.