Tontitown Grape Festival ready to hold 118th annual event
by July 28, 2016 6:05 pm 195 views
The 118th Annual Tontitown Grape Festival will begin Aug. 9 and run through Saturday (Aug. 13). Known as Northwest Arkansas’ largest festival, the area’s longstanding tradition will host an Arts and Crafts event as well as a Run for the Grapes 5K (with a one-mile “fun run” for kids).
The Festival is a celebration of wine and Italian cuisine calling back to Tontitown’s history. It features nightly entertainment and amusement park attractions with free admission and parking.
The Arts and Crafts event will allow vendors to rent 10-by-10 foot spaces to sell wares, and applications are still being accepted along with a $25 registration fee. Booths are priced at $110 for sellers of homemade goods (75% or greater); $160 for vendors with less than 75%; and $275 for vendors with all commercial products.
With Run for the Grapes, applicants will need to pay a $20 registration fee ($8 for the kids’ run) with prices going up to $25 and $10, respectively, after Aug. 1. Day-of-race registration and packet pick-ups will be at Tontitown’s Knights of Columbus Hall between 6 a.m. and 6:45 a.m. with the race beginning at 7 a.m.
The Tontitown Grape Festival as it is known today began in 1898—a harvest celebration launched by Italian immigrants, who were also celebrating their escape from a turbulent late 19th Century Genoa, Italy, where they had experienced “high taxes, overcrowding, food shortage, political unrest and unpopular colonial wars,” according to the Grape Festival website.