South Walton Beaches wine fest cancelled

Director cites national recommendations, ‘abundance of caution’

March 13, 2020
Courtesy of Stacey Brady, executive director
South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the cancellation of the 2020 South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival. This is not a decision we made lightly, yet in light of the national and state recommendations to not hold large-scale events, we are following their directives.

At this time, we do not have a specific issue with the COVID-19 virus in our area, however; we believe the prudent choice is to not hold our festival – which attracts more than 5,000 – out of an abundance of caution.

Our sister event and the recipient of our festival proceeds, Destin Charity Wine Auction Foundation, has postponed their immensely popular auction until Aug. 22. This is great news since their auction fundraising is critical to support 16 charities in Northwest Florida. Their event takes place in a huge air-conditioned tent that is very comfortable. Unfortunately, the significant heat and humidity we get here at the beach in August is not conducive to an outdoor wine event.

We are currently working with our ticket agency on refund messaging. We are planning a great incentive to induce ticket holders to keep their tickets which will be good for next year’s festival.

We are disappointed, too! We are also very grateful to our long-time attendees, distributors, suppliers, vendors and especially our sponsors and founding partners. We will be contacting sponsors and ticket holders shortly with options.

A very special thank you to our very sad festival staff who are actually the best staff in the world!

Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to presenting a fabulous charity wine festival for 2021.

Sincerely,

Stacey Brady