From funnel cakes to face paints to fast-paced wine races, this year’s Vintage Festival will be held on September 29 through 30.
When I joined the Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival board of directors a year ago, I had no idea of the event’s storied past. It’s unlikely that Charles Bundschu and Julius Dresel had any idea, either, that the little Greek performance they staged in celebration of the bountiful harvest after beating out the phylloxera epidemic of 1870 would still be going on today.
The actual year of the first Vintage Festival celebration differs depending on who’s talking, but most consider 1897 the first year that high school principal Benjamin Weed, who went on to found the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, performed his presentation of the Greek god Bacchus blessing a young couple’s wedding vows with a prayer for a bountiful grape harvest. The performance had nymphs, goatherds and a variety of characters and many members of the Bundschu and Gundlach families had roles in the play. Families from all over the valley traveled by horse and carriage to what was referred to as the “Vale of the Pansies” on what is now the Gundlach-Bundschu winery. Although many a longtime local will lament the days when the festival was just for them, even those first festivals courted out-of-town guests.
According to local historian Gerald Hill, the Gundlach, Bundschu and Dresel families were not only clever and hardworking but also generous. The entire valley was invited and wine was free to all comers.
Little record was kept regarding the ensuing years of the Vintage festivities. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake essentially put the Gundlach-Bundschu families out of the wine business, followed by the quadruple whammy of World War I, Prohibition, the Great Depression and then World War II. There may not have been a lot to celebrate when it came to grape harvests. Much of the valley at that time was used for a variety of other crops.
In 1947, the event was billed as the “Revival of the Vintage Festival,” put on by the Chamber of Commerce and a variety of grape growing interests. Some say the festival was happening the whole time in some shape or form, but the structure of the festival as we know it today started then and since 1948 has always been on the last full weekend of September. Past festivals had the local merchants participating in store front window decorating competitions with help of the local high school students, historical home tours and a fashion show for the ladies. Although a celebration of the harvest, and certainly private wine celebrations were had, the organized wine tasting we see today was added only in the last 25 years or so.
The festival has always been a place where locals in the valley could raise money for their specific causes and that tradition continues today. Over the years, the festival has kept many a valley organization and non-profit in business. That may change. Some say that the competition from high-powered and finely-tuned non-profit entities that have popped up in the valley over the last 20 years have outdated the “service club” model of an all-volunteer board of directors. City fees have quadrupled in the last four years and the festival finds itself competing with many long time business partners for dollars that now go elsewhere. The fact that the festival occurs late in the year has also been an issue, as even the businesses that traditionally donated and participated in the festival are pretty much tapped out by then.
One of the reasons I joined the board this year was to help turn the Vintage Festival back into the type of festival it was 20 years ago. A festival by and for the local residents. Many say it will never be the same and they may be right: it might be better. This year the board has committed to a new beginning, one with many of the traditional elements still in place and a couple of new features to spice things up. A Patrons’ Night, the blessing of the grapes, the Bear Flag Revolt, the wedding re-enactment and the parade. The Bottle and Glass Dash makes its third appearance, and new this year is comedy night at the Sebastiani. And, oh yeah, wine tasting.
Mark your calendars for the last weekend this month and be a part of the revival of the Vintage Festival. For more info, go to www.sonomavinfest.org.
