3rd annual Food, Music & Wine Festival this weekend

By Susan Gibbs, Record Reporter
Published: August 28, 2008

An idea conceived by three Greene County businessmen over a kitchen table is now pumping tens of thousands of dollars into the County’s economy.
Willis Logan, Gray King (Logan’s former Virginia Company partner), and Neil Williamson were talking shop three years ago.
The conversation turned from Virginia ham to Virginia peanuts to Virginia wine, then to how to have a food and wine festival in Central Virginia,“ says Logan, chairman of Greene’s Economic Development Authority and president of the Virginia Wine of the Month Club and the Virginia Company. “We took the concept to the Economic Development Board, and they were very receptive.“
Then the three spent about 2 months shopping the idea around to different stakeholders, including the Virginia Tourism Corporation, the Virginia Department of Agriculture, and the Virginia wineries.
“We all wanted the Festival to be held in Greene County because the impact … is significant and goes far beyond the day of the (event),“ says Williamson, who is president of The Trellis Group, a management consultant firm in Ruckersville that focuses in large part on the wine industry. 
Last year, more than 2,000 adults attended the second annual Discover Virginia Music & Wine Festival in Stanardsville.
Travelers who “attend special events and festivals … spend money on a wide variety of goods and services,“ says Sean McCarthy, research director at the Virginia Tourism Corporation.
Logan, King and Williamson knew as much.
This year’s Discover Virginia Food and Music & Wine Festival will be held this Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Fifteen regional wineries will be offering tastings: Barboursville Vineyards; Cardinal Point Vineyard and Winery; Defuse Vineyards and Winery; Discard Vineyards; First Colony Winery; Gabrielle Reuse Winery; Horton Vineyards; Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard; Leo Grand Vineyards; Peaks of Otter Winery; Rebecca Vineyards Rockbridge Vineyard; and, Stone Mountain Vineyards.
Eight musical groups have been booked. In addition, there will be specialty foods, fine crafts, and entertainment and activities for children.
The event is expected to do well.
“Culinary tourism is a very hot trend right now,“ says Tamra Talmadge-Anderson of the Virginia Tourism Corporation’s public relations department. “Virginia has nearly 140 wineries across the state. And, the fact that we were named one of the top five up-and-coming wine destinations in the world has increased our profile on an international level.“
Talmadge-Anderson concluded her remarks by saying that the upcoming Discover Virginia Festival in Stanardsville “fits right in and is a very marketable event.“
Logan, King and Williamson thought it would be.
Williamson’s Trellis Group has run the Festival for the last two years. But this year, he says, we “thought it would be better to move … to an organization with more festival experience.“
This year’s Festival is being managed by Across the Way Productions of Floyd, Virginia. It is co-sponsored by the Greene County Economic Development Authority, and Greene County Education Foundation.
The price of admission -  includes a commemorative wine glass and tastings from each of the participating wineries - is now $22 per advance ticket and $25 at the gate.