2008 Grape Stomp Report

Yesterday was the 2008 Grape Stomp at Irvin House Vineyards. As I mentioned before, yours truly was the master hotdog chef for the event. Well the festival was a huge success. Last year we had about 700 people attend and this year we estimated that there were around 1200 people there. I got up early to get everything ready. I headed into town and got ice and then topped off my tank with gas. The place where I stopped had fresh Duncan Doughnuts and you guessed it, Great Coffee. I was in heaven.

I spent most of the morning setting up and got everything ready around 11am which was when the bottom fell out and we had a heavy thunder shower. It only lasted about an hour though and I arrived around 12:00 in time to light the grill and dry everything off. No harm done. The festival was supposed to start at 2:00 but people started arriving early and we started selling hotdogs right away. By 1:00 the sun was out and it was starting to heat up.

They had sack races for the kids, face painting, balloons, watermelon seed spitting and a Lucy look alike contest. I stayed so busy though that I wasn't able to take many pictures of the events. Whenever the band took a break for an event, everyone came over to get hotdogs so I didn't get a break. It was so hot that I lost 3 lbs during the day. I also sold out of almost everything so it was a great day for me. My son was selling plants at a booth right next to me and he did very well too. Here are some pictures:

Two girls getting ready to do some grape stomping. This was late in the day and I mentioned foot fungus. See how excited they look. :)

This was right around 2 pm. People were still coming in.

The kids loved the face painting. My son had both of his cheeks painted. I didn't get a picture of that because I was too busy.

This is the blue grass band.


Here is my son Sean early in the day before the crowd got there. Doesn't he look just like Lucy?



This is Ann the owner and Becky with her hair up. I liked it better down but I guess it was too hot that way. Hey Becky.


The crowd.
This is the Kettle Corn man. If you ever get a chance to try Kettle Corn you should do it. I love it.

Everyone seemed to be having a great time and the bluegrass band was excellent. I think they were called something like three legged pig. They played lots of my favorites and the girl harmonized and it reminded me of the Darlings on Andy Griffith. Later in the day, some of the people beside our tent started getting crazy. Since I didn't get pictures of the sack race or the watermelon seed spitting contest, I will leave you with these last two events. The first one is called "If you give me a free hotdog, I will see if I can stuff it in my mouth". The last one is called the "popcorn toss into the mouth game". After those two, they were suggesting more adult games and I didn't take any photos of those. Someone had too much wine.

Have a great Labor Day,

Greg