REVIEW: Napa Valley’s Festival del Sole: Not Primarily about the Music
Established ten years ago, Napa Valley’s Festival del Sole advertises itself as a celebration of music, food and wine. I suggest that the elements should be reversed. The emphasis should be on the wine. Rivers of wine flow throughout Festival del Sole’s ten days of events every July. This is only natural, for Napa Valley is now an industry based on wine. During the Festival, food is often served alongside the wine, but the wine clearly takes precedence. Music is added to help create an ambience of high art and good living. All this, of course, takes money, lots of money. What Festival del Sole is really about, if you scratch below the surface glitter, is money. To become a VIP Patron entitled to attend all events in the 2014 Festival del Sole will set you back a mere $8,500. For a slightly lower amount you can be an Allegro Patron and attend most of the events. Of course, no one could possibly attend all or even most of the Festival’s offerings, for aside from the damage done to one’s constitution by so much wine guzzling, many events are held concurrently with others. -more-
