Paso Robles Wine Festival is getting a new location — and a new name
After nearly four decades of sips, the Paso Robles Wine Festival is getting a new location and a new moniker.
The popular event, which is being rebranded as the Paso Wine Fest, is leaving behind tree-shaded Downtown City Park next year for the Paso Robles Event Center, home to the California Mid-State Fair.
The festival is scheduled for May 19-22, 2022.
The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance (PRWCA), which has hosted the festival since its inception in 1983, used that downtime to rethink the event and decided on a change of venue, according to a news release from the alliance.
“With the continued growth of Paso Robles wine tourism, the time has come to relocate our famed wine festival to a space that can allow it to become one of the greatest in the country,” said Austin Hope, president of Hope Family Wines and PRWCA board member. “While so many love the downtown park location, including myself, our little wine festival has outgrown this location.”
Why Paso Robles Wine Festival is leaving downtown park
Instead of Downtown City Park, the 2022 festival will be held at the Paso Robles Event Center, which offers “built-in amenities and infrastructure for a festival that sees up to 3,000 attendees,” the PRWCA said in its release.
“A move to the proven Paso Event Center gives the wine alliance an opportunity to turn the event into a world-class gathering, just as our wine region has become,” Hope said.
The fairgrounds offer increased capacity along with more parking, shade, accessibility and concessions, the PRWCA said.
“Two stages will feature live entertainment, a large, covered patio provides space for an enhanced seated experience for wine presentations and a shaded picnic area will give guests the opportunity to sit and dine while enjoying Paso’s delicious diversity of wines,” the wine country alliance said.
Merchants in downtown Paso Robles support the festival’s move to a different venue because holding the event at Downtown City Park resulted in street closures and limited parking options, the PRWCA said.
More than half of festival attendees are out-of-towners, and keeping Downtown City Park clear will allow residents and visitors to patronize local businesses over the weekend, according to the release.
“This festival is often the first experience many have to Paso Robles wine country and motivates people to visit throughout the year,” Joel Peterson, PRWCA executive director, said in the release.
New winemakers dinner at Paso Robles festival
Besides the change in venue and name, the PRWCA is discontinuing its traditional Friday VIP Reserve Tasting event and introducing a new winemaker’s dinner for that day, according to the release.
The winemaker’s dinner will “highlight the camaraderie of Paso winemakers and their wines along with cuisine emblematic of the farm-to-table lifestyle abundant in Paso Robles wine country,” the alliance said.
“This event means so much to our region and our wineries and I’m excited to see this next chapter written at the Event Center,” Peterson said in the release. “Paso Wine Fest will continue in its tradition of bringing people to the region and exposing them to the best that Paso wine has to offer.”
Tickets for Paso Wine Fest go on sale will be available beginning in January 2022, the alliance said.
