A three-day food and wine event called the Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience is coming to Healdsburg next May and the focal point of the event, the Grand Tasting, will take place in the West Plaza Parking Lot instead of in the Plaza as originally planned.
On June 21, the Healdsburg City Council unanimously approved the request from event organizers — SD Media Productions — to use the West Plaza lot for the tasting event, which is scheduled for May 21, 2022, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The overall wine and food experience event is scheduled for May 20-22, 2022.
The city council motion on Monday also approved the event organizer’s request to waive portions of the city’s municipal code and special events policy.
The waivers to the sections of city code and special event policies approves the consumption of alcoholic beverages in a public park/designated recreation area (the West Plaza Parking Lot) and approves the closure of North Street from Vine Street to Foss Street.
The waiver also grants an exception to a Healdsburg special event policy that prohibits the use of a downtown event venue for more than 24 hours.
Before approving the event, city council members wanted to add a few conditions of approval and make some suggestions for the permit.
City attorney Samantha Zutler said the council could suggest conditions that would go on the community service permit and she’d have to review them.
Council members wanted the event name changed from the Sonoma County Wine & Food Experience to the Healdsburg Wine & Food Experience and for event organizers to create a parking plan for the event.
“I would like to request that the first word of the event be ‘Healdsburg.’ I would like to confirm that we are granting permission for one year with the opportunity to look at future permission after the first event. I would like there to be consideration made for Healdsburg-based wineries with a city business license that would receive a discounted entry of participation, up to 50% off for their participation fee and I’d like to ask staff what is a recommended deposit amount so should the event not move forward we are able to adequately recoup costs associated with staff time,” said Councilmember Ariel Kelley.
Event details
Corresponding events, like food demonstrations, wine tastings, celebrity chef presentations and a Future Farmers of America (FFA) inspired lunch, will be held at various satellite venues across Healdsburg.
While the event is being held by a for-profit entity, SD Media Productions CEO Steve Dveris aims to raise money for Healdsburg FFA and the Sonoma County Grape Growers Foundation by selling sponsorships for the event.
Instead of ticket sales, sponsorship sales will go toward the aforementioned nonprofits. Tickets could be $50 or $90 depending on the event and $1,000 for VIP ticket deals.
Dveris said his goal is to raise $50,000 for Healdsburg FFA and $100,000 for the grape growers foundation, specifically to aid farm workers.
He said he’s already raised $25,000 in sponsorships toward FFA.
“The funding for the foundation is absolutely important and is a gift,” said Karissa Kruse, president of Sonoma County Winegrowers, SD Media’s partner in the event. “The grape growers foundation has been around since 2002 and was reinvigorated in 2016 with a deep-rooted mission to support all of our local farm workers … so this funding is much needed and we really believe in the partnership.”
In addition, Councilmember Skylaer Palacios said she would want a portion of the sponsorship proceeds to go to the Healdsburg Day Labor Center.
Council members also said that after the event, they’d like a report from Dveris that details how much money was raised and how it was distributed transparently.
The event is expected to draw around 2,000 people over the duration of the event.
Corresponding events, like food demonstrations and wine tastings, would be held at various other locations throughout the city in conjunction with the Grand Tasting, so it’s estimated that around 750 people would be at the Grand Tasting event location as attendees migrate from one event location to another.
A planned FFA-inspired lunch would take place at The Matheson facility and would feature a steer from a Healdsburg FFA student. The lunch is intended to cater to locals more so than tourists and would be a bit cheaper than the main event at around $50.
The Grand Tasting will feature wine seminars with local wineries, cooking demonstrations with food sourced from local farms, wine and food sampling, live music and farmers market vendors.
North Street would be closed for the event between Vine Street and Foss Street on May 21 from 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Dveris said there will also be a shuttling system from private parking lots in order to get attendees to and from the event location.
He added that apart from raising money for the FFA and the foundation, the goal of the event is to spotlight Healdsburg and recognize and celebrate its agrarian roots.
Kelley pointed out it would be good to have Healdsburg reap the rewards of Transit Occupancy Tax revenue from Healdsburg hotel stays and suggested that a percentage of the tickets be used for hotel stay packages.
Event changes
SD Media Productions first requested the use of Plaza Park for the upscale event.
However, after resident pushback and a 5-2 vote from the Healdsburg Parks and Recreation Commission recommending that city council deny the request, they withdrew their application.
Parks and recreation commissioners were leery about approving the Plaza Park request because of the waivers to the city’s special events policy needed for the event, the event’s impact on the Plaza and the precedent the event would set of allowing a for-profit event in the Plaza.
On June 7, the applicant submitted a new application that proposes to host the event in the West Plaza Parking Lot.
Vice Mayor Ozzy Jimenez said he fully supports the parks and recreation commission decision to not want the event at the Plaza, however, he offered his support for the event at the West Plaza Parking Lot.
There were also many event supporters during the public comment session of the meeting. A total of 11 people spoke during the 30-minute public comment period.
“I’m just here to tell you a little bit about how this is going to be positively benefiting us (Healdsburg FFA). Healdsburg FFA is one of the best ways for us to keep agriculture alive in this community as we’re trying to instill these values in our youth. We’re raising young leaders and also young agriculturists and it is important for us to have financing to support this. I myself am able to go to college to pursue an agricultural major in many ways because of the scholarships that I am able to get through our school and there are many and they are well supported,” said recent HHS graduate and former FFA officer, Claire Conard. “However, there is a lot of competition for ag scholarships, especially for kids who aren’t directly going into ag fields and if we want to continue to support them, supporting events like this that encourage the community to rally around us and provide financial support for scholarships is vital and means so much to us that this is an event that is being considered and that the FFA is being put at the forefront of this event.”
Duskie Estes, the executive director of Farm to Pantry, said she’s known Dveris for three decades and said that his words and work are excellent. She said we need to bring positive feelings and business to Sonoma County businesses, restaurants and hotels after years of disaster.
“I caution drawing boundaries around Healdsburg in your generosity. We are one county, and we need to help each other,” Estes said.
Tallia Hart, CEO of the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber also supports the event.
Resident Valerie White supported the idea of having a parking plan in the event permit and said the city should make sure they are getting exactly what they want.
Brenda Bullington, who’s a member of the Healdsburg Farmers Market Board of Directors, spoke on behalf of the board and said the farmers market supports the event.
“I have a general consensus here from the board … It’s not just about us for one day in May. In essence, we farmers are one part of an economic engine and one part of the market. We saw great business managers go into debt, sacrifice savings and scramble to keep lifelong dreams alive and many of these are long time, well-loved businesses,” Bullington said. “These businesses will continue to need economic support from residents and visitors well into 2022 and 2023. We need to recognize our community and our businesses in town. We get that residents don’t want the soul of Healdsburg to be compromised by revenue from wine and tourism, but as much as folks believe that there’s another way to fund the important services here, that’s mighty hard to find. As recently as 2019 we’ve experienced two fires, an evacuation, days of orange skies and we do not want to be known for that. We want to be known (for) food and wine and welcoming people.”
