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A Full Weekend of Events from Savor Blowing Rock is Highlighted By Saturday’s Vintner’s Village

By Nathan Ham

Wine, beer, spirits, and food were all on display this weekend for the annual Savor Blowing Rock event that moved to Main Street for 2019.

“It was the first time we have had the Savor event on Main Street, which was a really nice change. Our visitors and ticket holders all really liked the new venue and the new setup. It made for a very open feel,” said Tracy Brown, the Director of the Blowing Rock Tourism Development Authority (TDA). “Most of our stores and retail merchants on Main Street were very happy to see it. It brought all of that energy right downtown. We were excited to try it and I think that’s the way we’re going to see it going forward, right there on Main Street.

Events started on Thursday and Friday and concluded with the Main Street events on Saturday and the Gospel, Grits and Gravy breakfast at Chetola on Sunday morning.

In previous years, large tents had been set up for event attendees to the grand wine tasting. This year, while those large tents were gone and the party had a much more open feel to it, the volunteer help was still a huge part of Savor even if there were no large tents to deal with.

“There was a lot of work involved in not only the setup but then the teardown because we had to do it in a limited amount of time. We didn’t have the closed-off area to do it in,” Smith said.

All of the smaller tents and tables had to be taken down by 7 p.m. Saturday evening.

“When we closed off Main Street, we had to get in there and quickly set up everything and then bring in the vintners, all while conducting regular business during the day. That was a challenge but we have so many great volunteers here,” said Smith. “At 7 a.m., the mayor was out there helping to unload tents and tables. We had people from the town council that jumped in to help and a lot of business owners were out there helping. If we didn’t have our volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to pull it off. The (Blowing Rock) Chamber has done a great job in bringing volunteers together to help with these events.”

Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Charles Hardin was also pleased with how the event took off and said that he felt safe in saying there were at least 500 people in attendance for Savor Blowing Rock.

“The downtown experience for the Vintner’s Village was really nice. It looked good, felt good and had a festive feel,” said Hardin. “Most of the merchants I spoke with were also happy. They liked the way it looked and they did pretty well that day. That’s always a plus.”

Hardin added that the town had prepared for rain that did eventually come around 3 p.m., but thankfully there were no thunderstorms or heavy winds. The Main Street wine tasting event was moved from 1 p.m. to noon for weather purposes. Most of the events were heavily attended.

“The Gospel, Grits, and Gravy breakfast at Chetola had about twice as many people in attendance as they expected,” said Hardin.

Pictures from Saturday’s Savor Event Along Mail Street:

The Vintner’s Village Tents Along Main Street

The entrance to Vintner’s Village on Main Street


 

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