By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
While frigid temperatures and a bitterly cold lake wind last Saturday made for sparse attendance at the Fire & Ice Festival at Gyro Park, the indoor evening signature event at Spirit Ridge Resort was a stunning success by all accounts.
The inaugural Fire & Ice event was disrupted by near freezing temperatures made that much worse by a strong wind ripping straight off Osoyoos Lake and directly at the Gyro Bandshell. The frosty combination forced performers to cut their sets to only a couple of songs each with the organizers ultimately conceding defeat to the elements mid-afternoon.
The situation was entirely different only hours later up at Spirit Ridge where the Fire & Ice Carnival was kicking off both indoors and around the large fire pit outside the venue.
The ticketed event – limited to 200 patrons – was organized by Destination Osoyoos and featured 16 wineries, breweries, cideries, and distilleries from the South Okanagan, serving up the local libations from tables around the perimeter of the room, alongside curated food pairings.
One couldn’t help but be reminded of a more intimate, indoor version of the hallowed Festival of the Grape.
Carnival-style entertainment lent a lighthearted, frivolous vibe to the evening, with roving performers and live music that had something to tickle the ear drums of virtually everyone in the diverse collective.
People that Times Chronicle spoke to were unanimous in their praise for the event, citing the top tier food, variety of top South Okanagan wineries present, the unique entertainment and an overall atmosphere that saw the jubilant crowd happy to be socializing and partying like it was 1999 (or at least pre-pandemic 2019).
Non-wine drinkers were also spoilt for choice with both local breweries present along with a cidery and not one, but two distilleries offering up winter-oriented concoctions.
“We’re really pleased with the event,” commented Kelley Glazer, Executive Director of Destination Osoyoos. “It’s just been fabulous for a first time event and we’re pretty excited we sold out. The demand for something to do in the winter was more pent up than we thought,” she laughed.
“What a great event, we’re so happy to be involved!” said Sheila Whittaker, Nostalgia Wines General Manager. “It’s great to see everyone out in person again and to be able to share our wines.
“The entertainment was amazing,” Whittaker said, adding that she had no idea there were going to be dancers and magicians “and this awesome musician playing all night. It’s more than I bargained for,” she added.
Sarah Glazebrook from Moon Curser Vineyards observed that it was nice to see the turnout and to see the wineries pull together from both Osoyoos and Oliver.
And alongside the wine “it’s really nice to see the food and entertainment come together and really make this a one-of-a-kind event for sure.” She added that having this type of event indoors made it a little more intimate and provided the opportunity for people “to come together and do something in the evening is great for this time of year.”
Her colleague Karen chimed in that the community gets a bit “starved” for entertainment in the winter months and “you end up getting cabin fever,” if you’re not careful, she laughed, adding that this kind of event is really important.
A number of people reflected similar sentiments saying it was great to have an event that was aimed at locals as tourists, after a summer and fall that always seems to be “all about tourists.”
Similarly Maryke Vandermarel, Hospitality Manager at Culmina Family Estate Winery, commented on the high representation of locals. “It’s a nice crowd, it’s like local wine lovers.”
She added that often locals don’t go and visit all the wineries unless they have friends in town, “so I think it’s really nice to get the locals out and God knows we all need something to do this time of year!”
“It’s quite amazing,” said Kody Rosentreter, Head Brewer at North Basin. One of the things he’s noticed this year is just “the larger abundance of events on the shoulder seasons, which is what the town needs and this is fantastic.”
It also bodes well for the future, he reckons: “Seeing this life, this vibrance is really nice and I think a sign of things to come.”
Nik Durisek of Howling Moon Cider House also highlighted the local nature of the crowd, saying “locals supporting locals is good! People are having a great time, lots of smiles. “We need festivals all year round, we’ve got to keep people happy in town,” he grins.
For Tumbleweed Spirits Craft Distillery’s Mike Patterson the event was “a lot of fun and it’s a great place to get some exposure,” he noted with Christmas just around the corner.
“People are engaging, it’s excellent, they are really enjoying it – big smiles,” he said. “It’s nice to see it so well attended, especially now that we’re in the off season – to do these types of things and artisan markets is fantastic. We hope there’s more to come!,” he added.
Sam Stringer, General Manager of French Door Estate Winery also heaped praise on the event, saying the series of events over two days in Oliver and Osoyoos “has brought a lot of traffic here and not just from Kelowna and surrounding areas, we’ve also had some from the States. It’s been awesome, everyone is so happy and bubbly.”
She said there were at least three separate groups of people who had come up from Washington State for the events in the two communities. “I think having the events over more than just one night encourages people to stay,” she said.
The event hit the mark, she added, saying “it’s enjoyable, it’s not over done, there is a great selection of wines available and the food is very elevated too.”
“We need more of these! Everyone here is saying this is the best wine event that’s happened in Oliver and Osoyoos for a few years.” She does qualify the fact that the Festival of the Grape stands on its own, “it is its own thing,” she said.
Glazer said the intention is “absolutely” to have this as an annual event. “This is our first one and we’re sort of ironing out some bugs and figuring out what works and what doesn’t work.” She also notes the difficulty in knowing what the weather will be like when planning events like the Gyro Park festival for late November.
“It wasn’t as successful unfortunately. I think a lot of people went down, but they couldn’t weather the cold for more than a few minutes or half an hour at most.” One possibility would be to do something at the Sonora Centre in the daytime, she said.
As for the Spirit Ridge event, Glazer noted they will always be limited by the size of the venue. While more tickets could be sold it would mean changing the format slightly, like not having roving entertainers, for instance.
She also feels that Spirit Ridge’s reputation for high quality was a key factor in the event selling out so quickly. “People really knew they were going to get a quality event that was going to be worth what they paid to come here.”
