Mountain View Art & Wine Festival

I really would give them a 3.5 review after coming for years as both an attendee and a volunteer. Can’t argue with the fact that they have the most vendors of all South Bay Art and Wine festivals.
Attendee review
–Lots of vendors, although there is some repetition (how many people do you need selling candles)
–Although there are some «blah» vendors, there are more unique vendors here that really take a lot of pride in their craft. I spoke with some of the owners and they explicitly stated that they only come to Mountain View in the south bay.
–Parking is tough, though that is expected in downtown Mountain View; its already hard to find parking without any street closures!
–Decent drink variety, but slightly expensive ($ 6 per glass and $ 6 per pour, compared to Santa Clara’s Art & Wine of $ 5 per pour/​glass)
–Have noticed a slight downhill trend in amount of swag given out. Seems like the only swag you can get is a reusable tote pretty much.
–Gets really crowded, especially in the afternoon
Volunteer review
–Experience really depends on the people dynamics of your assigned booth.
–A lot of rules. And a lot of people who are sticklers for the rules.
–Free parking for volunteers in nearby, convenient location
–volunteer appreciation party ~ 2 weeks after the event is a nice touch (includes dinner, drinks, and raffles).
–overall, worthwhile experience and gives you an excuse to check out the festival after your shift
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I would rate this festival a lot higher if I felt it had a more appropriate name that did not include ‘wine’ e.g. MV Arts Festival, MV Downtown Street festival. I don’t really get why they include the wine? Yes you can buy a wine glass and tickets for wine but equally you can buy a beer glass and tickets for beer. The wine you get tickets for is very generic wine and not specific to this region. Although most of the beers they offered were generic they actually did offer a few locally brewed ones. There was a wine tasting tent that cost $ 45 and allowed you to taste a few local wineries. You got one of those passport wine tasting books but I don’t feel this is somethign most people are looking for. The price seemed ridiculous and seemed more about being exclusive than being inclusive to most patrons of the fair. I think they should have offered an option in the tasting tent without the passport book at a much lower price. The only «wine» thing that stuck out was the Cupcake Winery, wine truck where they had trivia and free tastings. I would be fine paying one fee at the start and doing a few tastings staged throughout the event. To me there is nothing that makes this a wine event.
On the art side there are plenty of artistic vendors selling things and it makes for some good window shopping. It extends for quite a few blocks so it definitely is a good way to kill 2 or 3 hours. The music we listened to was good. I’ve lived on the Peninsula my whole life and this is my first time going. I had a cousin visiting so figured this would be a fun day. It was a good day but nothing too different than every other wine and art festival throughout the Bay Area; except maybe a bit bigger. I only live about 20 minutes away so I’d probably go again if I had a friend in the area I wanted to meet up with but if I lived any further away I probably wouldn’t make the drive down. Again it’s a street fair so mostly it’s vendors selling stuff which is fine and it’s bigger than most. My biggest qualm is I feel the title is misleading by including wine.

Very rarely do I rave about art. Maybe a little more frequently about wine. But, back to the art.
I love frequenting local annual festivals, and this is one of the largest and most successful in terms of my purchases. Spanning basically the entire Castro Street, many people commented on how large this festival was.
I know when I reviewed this festival years ago, I claimed to have bought more than ever before. But, I may have broken my personal record with this year’s vendors. A purchase PR! Was this de ja vu? After having been underwhelmed yet again by the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts, I was excited to find at Mountain View:
–Many great jewelry vendors. I actually purchased a small necklace, which the vendor was nice enough to adjust. It was a steal for $ 20!
–Mustards, balsamics, and popcorns
–Awesome tie dye shirts — These weren’t everyday tie dye shirts, the patterns were awesome and the styles were something I would actually wear as opposed to the egregious obnoxious tie dye you’re used to seeing.
–Other miscellaneous art
–Holy moly food and drink vendors galore
–Free stuff from the radio station, Lara and Honest Tea, Cupcake Winery samples
An awesome afternoon strolling through some interesting booths. The festival was fittingly packed, and I came home with some great purchases.
Also pro tip: Parking at Graham School is the easiest!

I thought this festival was amazing! I live in downtown Mountain View so I just walked the 10 minutes to get there. Castro Street was closed and this festival pretty much took over the entire Downtown area. The event was FREE and I chose wine instead of the beer option. There was a booth where they check your ID and you buy your tickets which were approximately $ 6 a piece so $ 6 would pay for a glass of wine which wasn’t bad at all and you get a commemorative wineglass to go with it. I wanted to buy the festival tshirts but I guess that is only given to volunteers. Their were an abundance of vendor tents, food vendors on the side streets (that you had to pay with cash and not tickets) and musicians playing on the side of the street. Every block or so when you would cross the street their would be another booth for beer and wine. In addition they had a really cute «kiddie area» with plenty of activities for kids to do and participate in such as a bungee type activity, face painting and a bunch of other arts and crafts. I have been to a ton of art festivals but this one definitely stands out. There is such an array of diffrent and unique artists and vendors. I went alone and had a great time, everyone was so nice. Definitely family friendly and it does get crowded the closer you get to 6pm which is closing time. Would recommend anyone to go to this festival its awesome!

This is a great way to have a fun day and get loads of exercise while being outdoors. I was there about 5 hours and didn’t get to all the booths, so I’m going back tomorrow. One of the things I always enjoy about these festivals being held downtown is that I get to see the stores and try new restaurants. It’s such a fun, positive experience.

If you can only do one Art & Wine a year, this is the one to do. All of the best artists artists show up here, its the largest festival so there is a wide variety of products to see, and the event is very well organized. It runs along Mountain View’s Castro Street which is its downtown district so you also get to enjoy all the lovely downtown businesses. There are good booths long several of the side streets and Castro Street offers a great variety of restaurants so you can always pop into any of them, with our a reservation, for a proper sit down meal or if you’re not a fan of street food the you can get yourself a lovely healthy meal in any of the restaurants the line Castro.
Today the weather was usually cool, only 68 degrees so its was rater delightful, if you have not come out yet, there is plenty of time today or tomorrow to come on down and enjoy the best Art & Wine event on Northern California.
Today my favorite booths were the tie-​dye shop, with lovely tie dyed clothing, we purchased two summer sleeveless dresses that looked so feminine with its rouched bust and flared almost A-​Line figure. They are 100% cotton, our favorite, the prices are quite reasonable and most importantly of al the service is professional, friendly and helpful.
We also enjoy the musicians playing interesting instruments, they always transport us to another place, so relaxing and peaceful, though their lovely sounds.
My favorite of the day was the crocheted necklace, by Pearls Of Whimsy, and yes it really is crochet. The crochet is precious metal wire, silver or gold, which then gets precious stones integrated into it, its so lovely and dimensional because it does not lay flat but rather floats above your skin. The effect is lovely and so feminine that this is a must see at day’s event.
KOA Fitness has a booth where they told us about all the various martial arts based fitness programs, which also accommodate middle aged and senior citizens who are looking for a more gentle yet still interesting and engaging exercise routine to enjoy.
We did eat the street food there today, enjoying a lovely fried calamari with fried artichoke hearts which was rather nice. From another booth we had an upscale hot dog called The Billionaire, featuring an all Beef Hot Dog with Arugula (raw) red onions, lemon olive oil vinaigrette, & Brie cheese, which was yummy although I did wish they had selected a less fatty hot dog sausage so it would balance better with the other ingredients but overall I did enjoy it.
As alway there is the vendor with grilled turkey legs, how any human can finish one of these by themselves is a mystery to me because they are so big that they look like pterodactyl legs. Seriously. Its seems that the husbands are the ones that order ot and the wives and kids jump in to help. Good Teamwork!
There is a huge kids play area in the Wells Fargo parking lot that is perfect to entertain the children while being off the main street so you don’t collide into playful childen, yet being completely visible and well watched, as perfect a play area as I’ve ever seen.
There are also music bands playing if you want to sit down in front of the stage and enjoy a free live concert.
Come on down, its a lovely cool day (most years it can get very warm to hot so this is a perfect moment to enjoy the best Ary & Wine in our area. Don’t forget to visit Pearls Of Whimsy, my choice for best new booth this year.

Came this year to the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival as my first festival to kick off the summer season.
There is plenty of street parking nearby which is a great relief since looking for parking during events can be a pain. Mountain View as a town has a quaint charm that I felt extended to the festival. It was not especially crowded and had a fair mix of local farmer’s market vendors, arts & crafts, and children attractions.
I would have liked to have a larger selection of beer and wine – especially from local breweries and vineyards. I hoped to see more paintings as well.
Overall, it was an enjoyable festival experience and serves as a good warm up for all the festivals that follow.

All of these art and wine festivals are similar after a while with the exception of the demographics in different cities. However, since Mountain View is a city full of contributing members of society, you can expect well mannered, family oriented, polite people here. There is fun to be had for everyone including the kids. I wish they had those plastic bubble things in the water large enough for adults.
Seven blocks of weekend fun on Castro Street includes a plethora of quality vendors selling cool stuff, live music and some pretty good food vendors. The staple carnival grease fare at most of these festivals is available, but why go for that when there’s good stuff like paella. There’s also plenty of quality restaurants lining the streets with outdoor seating.
They had a decent quality selection of beers, but I wasn’t impressed with their wine selection. I enjoyed the Bonterra Organic Savignon Blanc, but that was it for savignon blanc except for one other I can’t remember.
My bf and I enjoyed the crowd, made our rounds and hung out for a few hours. This is a good one to come to.

This festival had something for everybody. For wine lovers, there was a tasting area for Santa Cruz wines. For beer lovers, you can choose between Goose Island, Stella Artois, Shock Top, Rebel IPA and Tied House Ales. For art lovers, choose your medium (glass, ceramic, acrylic, metal, photography, etc…). For jewelry lovers, there were many booths selling all sorts of shiny and dangling things! I could go on and on, as there seemed to endless booths of fabulous things running the length of Castro St between El Camino and Evelyn.
My husband and I walked to the event with my sister and her daughter from their house. We were lucky not to have to deal with looking for parking. The event was quite crowded and it became difficult to get through the crowd with a stroller. We bought a beer glass (pint mason jar with emblem of the event) and two drink tickets for $ 6 each. The ale from Tied House was cold and refreshing. We had that with the roasted corn and the calamari we bought from the food booths. The corn was fabulous dipped in butter and season with salt and chili! At $ 4 an ear, it was a bit expensive. The calamari was delicious but very expensive. The «large» was $ 11, but it seemed to small a portion for that price. One of the food areas had a smattering of tables of chairs and a big screen TV was showing the 49ers play. We ended up having a proper lunch at a sit down restaurant after walking all the way down to other end so we could eat at a table, get a break from the heat and the crowd, and use a clean restroom.
I ended up buying a beautiful fall/​holiday wreath for our front door. It was only $ 40, a bargain considering Williams-​Sonoma sells them for more than twice that amount! It’ll be a nice addition to my holiday collection.
Next year, we’ll go back and try the wine. As this is a two day event, we’ll go on the Sunday and at an earlier than this last time to avoid the crush!

One of THE best Art & Wine festivals I have been to all year and period! Some festivals aren’t too big but may have great art and vendors and that’s it. This particular festival utilized the whole Downtown Mountain View area. It started from the beginning of Castro St. where it meets with El Camino Real and stretched all the way down to where the VTA station is as well as using the side streets. I was very impressed with how large this festival was and that was a plus for me.
The festival opened at 10am and that was the time I got there and it was already crowded and filled with people. There were tons of great vendors here, the art vendors had some really great pieces. Some of them were painting pictures on the spot, this I found to be nice and unique. I did not see too many wine vendors which was a bit odd considering it’s an Art & Wine festival.
Lastly they had some really good food vendors here, so many that it was hard decide what I wanted to eat. They had some well known vendors such as Lucy’s Tamales, Amici’s and Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too were there just to name a few.
This was a great festival and I will be coming back every year.

More accurately 3.5 star.
I expected it to be a county fair, which doesn’t excite me very much. However, it turned out to be a combination of country fair, farmers market, food trucks and wine tastings. It is big, twice the size as I expected; that means quite a walk along the catro street. A few interesting booths. I enjoyed the live music and new musical instrument. Also, you can find police car and fire car demo, where you can jump into the police car if you like.
Parking is available in the neighborhood. I guess it is a nice event to go if you want a nice walking during a sunny weekend with friends and family.

Could this be my first art & wine festival? I believe it was my first time last summer of 2013. I originally came to support one of the foodie vendors. It was a nice sunny day. So, obviously, I had my wide brimmed actress hat on to shield my face from the sun. Strolling along Castro Street & along the adjacent streets, my mom, son, and I came across many art vendors, food vendors, radio stations, and amusements. There is live music in the air and a children’s area. I saw people holding glasses and drinking their wine. I stopped at a booth to spin the wheel and won a 2 day trip to either San Diego or Las Vegas. Till now, I still haven’t redeemed the the trip voucher. Maybe I should give it away! It was nice talking to one of the art vendors. She talked about her Native American heritage and displayed beautiful hand blown gourds. She mentioned she was half Cherokee. I enjoyed looking at other art and photographs displayed at other booths too.

As far as these art and wine festivals go, Mountain View is pretty good. But if you’ve gone to several of these in one summer, be prepared because you will encounter many of the same booths and (especially) musicians that you’d come across at the others.
Art: They do have quite a bit of art on display here. Some of it, really, is more like «crafts,» but there’s a good selection. Lots of photographers show here, so if that’s your thing, you’ll see some nice work.
Music: Generally decent entertainment, but to be honest that’s not why I come here. I like the guitar guys who sell their CDs and are usually positioned towards the end of Castro that’s closer to ECR. They had some blues people around, AND they had that pan-​flute guy. I think there were also some rock bands playing.
Imbibe-​ables: Usually the wine is pretty good here. It’s sponsored by Artisan Wine Depot, which is a pretty right-​on wine shop. Choices are decent, but not WOAH I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M GETTING A GLASS OF THIS FOR SIX DOLLARS good (and at least they weren’t passing off Barefoot as fancy wine. I mean, Barefoot’s not awful, but I don’t come to an art and wine festival to drink it). Beer — really good selection including stuff from Tied House as well as Stella and a few other high-​quality, non-​local brews. And Purity Organics was around to provide juice.
Wear-​ables: I saw some cute dresses this year. And don’t miss the jewelry. Many of the craftspeople feature work with some nice minerals in it. Most of it is pretty affordable, too. I didn’t see as much high-​end stuff as I did at Los Gatos or Palo Alto last year.
Other stuff: lots of spices and oils. And if you see Bend Soap Company anywhere, do check ‘em out; their soap is made of goat’s milk and it’s very mild for folks with sahnsitive skin like mine.
PRO TIPS
1. It is usually really hot. Dress accordingly.
2. The food is pretty much festival food. They have some good choices, but remember: if you don’t feel like eating the festival food, you can check out one of the restaurants along Castro.
3. Feeling dehydrated? Drink coconut water.

This is the best festival we have been to and really we were quite surprised. This is a long fair, reading the entire length of Castro St, unlike some of the others. The art here was fantastic: solar powered stuff, cool mediums, great textures and some fun crafty things.
We bought:
Origami
Dips
Lucky shamrock cuff links
A piece of cool art
Even the drinks were good. The sangria had real fruit and didn’t taste like that super cheap stuff! They had a ton of different foods and beverages to choose from. We did’t eat anything, but the food sure did look good.
Overall, there was just a lot of stuff to see, enjoy and we had a wonderful time.

Pretty good festival. It was a super hot day so I didn’t try any of the wine or beers. I got a lot of free swag from the Vendors. I also won a raffle from a water vendor that had a hose head, shower head, and other water related goods. Lots of free bags for groceries. I also found a cute stand that sold pocket watches as necklaces. Overall good event. Found street parking pretty quickly as well.

This street fair is small, but fun to browse.

Second best festival in the SF Bay Area
Next to Palo Alto’s festival.
Tons of fun stuff for kids (I scoped it out myself and it aims to please).
Great local and nation wide artists with excellent pieces that please art nuts on all levels.
Excellent food-​stop for festival food lovers (burgers, crepes, pitas, turkey legs, oysters, shaved ice).
Highly recommend for tourists and locals alike.

ok, i admit that i’m slightly biased b/​c i live in mountain view. but having been to so many other art and wine festivals in silicon valley this season, i really and truly do believe that this one was the best of them all!
here’s why:
+tons of food and drink vendors, all splattered throughout the festival
+tons of wine booths, pouring glasses of their best whites and reds (not to mention this is the best time since harvest and first crush had just started for most local area vineyards)
+tons of local artists, showcasing their best paintings, sculptures, jewelry, and other artistic creations
+lots of kid-​friendly activities, including posing with the mountain view fire dept, children’s games, rides, and arts and crafts
+many local businesses decided to have a sidewalk sale and put their merchandise outside their storefront
+great variety of music to get the crowd going and keep the energy flowing
+weather was perfect this weekend, sunny skies, but not too hot
the best part is that i didn’t even have to drive there, it was close enough to home that i could just walk there and back and not have to hunt or fight for parking.
i love this annual festival as it really does bring mountain view residents and the greater silicon valley community together.
i can’t wait ’til next year!

This is a MASSIVE festival! Aside from their weird rules about alcohol (you have to buy a $ 6 ticket for every pour, but you only have to buy a $ 6 glass if you’re drinking anything but beer… what?!) it is absolutely splendid. Free samples up the wa-​zoo, lots of great art, lots of weird art… Way more vendors than any one of the springtime local festivals draw. It’s great to see new people and new techniques and new subjects!
We also had fantastic luck with the food here… Food at festivals can be limited and low-​quality, overpriced, and often not very vegetarian-​friendly. Not here! We had some fried calamari with some AMAZING spicy aioli dipping sauce (okay, that was a little overpriced… $ 9 for a medium-​sized basket), then moved on to Passage to India’s veggie cutlet wraps.
I want to be wrapped in naan and drizzled with tamarind chutney, if it would make someone else as happy as I was that day.
It’s a little crowded, but if you enjoy the wine part of the festival enough, it won’t matter to you so much!

Let me just say this first, Downtown Mountain View is ka-​yoote (cute). I’ve always enjoyed my stroll down Castro Street to do some major window shopping. To have a large, expansive festival like this must increase revenue for these shops!
I actually came across this festival by accident. On a quest to try a nearby tea café, I was welcomed with closed off streets and a somewhat difficult time to find parking. My friend and I were determined to satisfy our boba cravings so we wandered into the series of great white tents. We knew we were stepping into a festival of some sort, but we had no idea what kind! We saw people sipping on liquid courage and vendors selling handcrafted items, so we knew it was along the lines of wine & art. After scanning the signage for the event name, we finally found out it was Mountain View’s ANNUAL Art & Wine Festival. Makes sense, but their branding could use some work for lost travelers like us ;)
Anyway, we were glad to stumble upon something so fun. I throughly enjoyed the unique artwork and performances from local bands & hip hop groups. We weren’t able to get through all the tents since it stretched out for at least 10 blocks! I would come back next year to tackle the rest if time permits!