Kirkland Uncorked

Bold Hat Productions' Summer Food & Wine Festival

Sun, water, boats, food, wine, beer, dogs, art-is anything missing? We don't think so. Kirkland Uncorked was started in 2007 by Bold Hat Productions as a wine event with an art component and was originally called Art Food and Wine on the Waterfront. Wanting to bring food and wine front and center, it has become Kirkland Uncorked. Designed as a tourism event, it benefits the Kirkland community in general and a non-profit specifically. This will be the second year it benefits Homeward Pet Adoption Center.

Attempting to pull everyone into the fun, there are two main pieces-a 21+ Tasting Garden and an all-ages street fair. According to Marketing Director John Thorburn, over the last 3-4 years, a strong food component was added with different things each day. "All the food, wine and beer events happen within the tasting garden," he explains. "Friday night we have the burger brawl where five local Eastside chefs produce their best slider concoctions. They get to create something new and exciting, and guests have ballots to vote for the best burger. Saturday there are grilling demonstrations right on the shore of the lake and restaurant sampling with bite-sized feasts from local restaurants. There's also a grill-off where three chefs go head-to-head. They have one common ingredient and create something around that. There are three judges who have restaurant/food backgrounds and they declare a winner. Of course there's wine tasting and beer, as well as live music."

Street fair activities include the Kirkland Uncorked Boat Show by the Seattle Boat Show with 25-30 boats. "The marina is so beautiful and people come to the event on boats, so we embraced it and worked with The Seattle Boat Show since boats and summer and Kirkland go together. There's a market for crafts, food, art and wine. A really fun thing is CityDog Magazine's search for a cover dog. People bring their dog down for a cover dog model shoot. It's so fun to watch them. And for everyone on Sunday, we have the Food Truck Feast with 15-20 trucks from all over the region cooking up something delicious for the crowd."

Having the various components gives people different reasons to attend the event on different days. Tickets are sold per-day only, with no weekend packages, although the website does give information on places to stay if you want to do the whole weekend. If every day seems perfect to you, simply go to the website and buy tickets for all three days. There's even a discounted ticket price for designated drivers.

Homeward Pet Adoption Center, a beneficiary of the event, was founded in 1990 and is located in Woodinville. It is one of Washington State's leading non-profit, no-kill animal shelters. Since their founding, they have helped 25,000 animals find new homes, about 1600 dogs and cats each year. They offer rescue, shelter and adoption programs.

Bold Hat Productions was started by Phil Megenhardt in 1997 and they produce five events each year: Hop Scotch Beer & Scotch Festival (April), Fremont Solstice Fair (June 19-21, 2015), Kirkland Uncorked, Fremont Oktoberfest (September 18-20, 2015), and Renton Oktoberfest (September 25-26, 2015). All five events that Bold Hat produce benefit a local non-profit or charity. They also do various types of contract work for other events like Northwest Folklife Festival, South Lake Union Block Party, Redmond Derby Days and the Lake Chelan Winterfest. Bold Hat's mission is to make "…a difference locally and globally by producing and enhancing world-class events, improving the communities where we live, work and play, and enriching business and non-profit partners through creativity and professionalism." They might just be on to something.

www.kirklanduncorked.com

Connie Adams/June 2015