Scotts Valley festival provides art, fun with a cup of wine

Corinne Speckert - Santa Cruz Sentinel Correspondent

Article Launched: 08/10/2008 12:00:00 AM PDT

Thousands of people turned out to enjoy art and drink local wine at the ninth annual Scott's Valley Art and Wine Festival on Saturday.

Organizers say that the lively festival with around 140 booths full of food, crafts and booze draws around 10,000 people over the weekend. It was started by the Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Scotts Valley Art Commission in 2000.

"There's gorgeous stuff here and a great variety of arts and crafts. I think the selection process is really working because I haven't seen anything I don't like," said Jim Jolly of Scotts Valley, who was attending this event for the second year in a row.

Around 250 volunteers helped make the two-day festival -- it continues from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today -- happen in SkyPark. One volunteer, Karen McNamara, said that this year's festival is the largest one yet, with more booths than ever.

"This is my only weekend to give to Scotts Valley," she said of why she volunteers. "I feel it's good to give back to the community, whether you like your community or not, and I happen to love this community."

Local wineries such as Bargetto Winery and Domenico Wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains, and breweries such Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing and Santa Cruz Ale Works, filled the booths along with a large display of crafts, ranging from paintings, sculptures and hand-blown glass.

"I like this show because it's relaxed. It's on the grass, in a park setting and I think people just like to walk around," said Lorinda Bechtel, who has been sculpting animals from high-fire clay, under the name, "Wild Earth Sculpture," for the past 30 years. "Although I'm not selling as much as I would at a bigger show, I think this is the way it's intended to be, with music and outdoors."

Two bands, "Trusting Lucy," playing an acoustic rock style of original songs and the cover-band, "The Original Wise Guys," along with students from Scotts Valley Performing Arts, provided a variety of music and entertainment for festival spectators.

"We play everything from AC/DC to Black Eyed Pees," Original Wise Guys member Harvey Chaffin said. "We do something by Lionel Richie, Tower of Power and Wilson Pickett."

Festival proceeds go toward the Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce and help to fund nonprofits such as Lions and Kiwanis of Scotts Valley by giving them a chance to have booths and raise money at the festival.