Art and Wine Festival – Things to do in Rapid City
Saturday was the 4th Annual Art & Wine Festival at Main Street Square in downtown Rapid City. We had never managed to attend before, but decided to join Chantelle and a friend this year and see what it was all about.
The festival ran from 10am-8pm, with wine tasting from 12-7pm followed by a Wine auction at 7pm and entertainment on the stage all day long.
The Wine – There were 7 area winerys participating in the wine portion of the event. For $25 
you got your wine glass and 13 tasting tickets, for $40 you got unlimited tastes. You got to choose which wines at which booths you wanted to taste. There was a varity of choices from the tradional merlot to Red Ass Rhubarb and everything in between. We found some really good ones and tried a few that we didn’t care for.
The Art – There were 44 vender booths lined up through out the square and up and down 6th street. There was the t
raditional, the unique, the awesome, and, in my opinion, the weird as you would except at any art venue. I found some art work that I definitely want to take another look at, some ideas for my own art creations (if I ever actually get to them), and an early birthday present for my mom – a holder for her garden bounty that she can put her bounty in, use a hose to spray them clean leaving the dirt and water outside and clean vegetables ready to be carried inside. We’ll see how it works, but it looks cool and my mom spends a lot of time hauling in and washing her garden produce – so hopefully it will help her out.
The Entertainment – We were only there for the last performers of the day, the band “Landslide”. We had never 
heard them before, but they were good – and harmonized well (at least that’s what Tristan and Chantelle, the musically inclined, said), I just enjoyed their easy going sound and smooth voices.
We didn’t stay for the wine auction, but we did know the auctioneer – another agent in the office. When I asked him later, he said it went well and they sold all the wine they had to auction off.
My only complaint is that there were only 3 food booths – one selling popcorn, one selling sweets and I don’t remember seeing the 3rd one, but it was listed on the flyer. I’m not a big drinker, so it would have been nice to have gotten a burger or something to help soak up some of the alcohol. (I know, know…I could have just tried less wine, but isn’t that the point of a wine tasting????)
Overall it was a fabulous couple of hours spent and I would definitely go back again.