Wine and walleye
Jul. 24—ASHTABULA — Dance, music, food and educational opportunities were all drawing cards at the 2022 Wine and Walleye Festival on Saturday.
Melody Shiflet, festival director, said things got off to a great start on Friday evening with the Wine Garden that usually doesn't start until the Saturday of the festival.
"It went really good on a Friday from 3 to 9 p.m.," she said of the specialty tent that is now at Point Park at the eastern end of Walnut Boulevard.
The festival has about 75 vendors and many got some early traffic on Friday afternoon when people began checking out the Bridge Street area. The Kiwanis Club was busy selling lemonade and vendors were getting their booths ready for the weekend.
Shiflet said Ashtabula City Manager Jim Timonere, and the city crews, make the event possible as street department, police and firefighters to a lot of work to get the Harbor ready for the big event.
The fishing tournament was also a big success, Shiflet said. She said Kevin Severino took over the event and got a lot of sponsorships and donations to for the 75 people who participated in the tournament.
She said there were about 20 boats involved. Charter captains sign up and then work out packages with their customers. There was also a professional division of the tournament.
By late afternoon festival organizers were preparing for the evening boat parade and fireworks show.
"Melissa and Mitch" and "Mike's Acoustic Tunes" performed on Saturday afternoon and dancers from the Ballet Theater of Ashtabula performed near the Hulbert Avenue intersection.
The festival is scheduled to continue Sunday with the Wine & Walleye 5K at 9 a.m., the Street Fair from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the Wine Garden from noon to 5 p.m.
