Annual Capital Food and Wine Festival gearing up for culinary adventures on March 26

March 7, 2011

Lacey, Washington — The Capital Food and Wine Festival, an annual rite of spring in the South Sound area, will take place noon to 9 p.m., Saturday, March 26, 2011. The event, presented by the Saint Martin’s Alumni Association, will be held at the Hal and Inge Marcus Pavilion and Norman Worthington Conference Center on the Saint Martin’s University campus.

Now in its 22nd year, the popular festival is among the largest of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. This year will be no exception. Forty-four wineries and 15 microbreweries will be offering samples of their finest creations. Currently, 19 restaurants have signed on, said Evan Martin, festival co-director and the association’s treasurer. Festival-goers will find old favorites as well as restaurants that are brand new to the area and to the event, he said. Live entertainment will be featured throughout the day.

What else is new? According to Martin, the festival has been rebranded this year, giving it a fresh new look and strengthening its ties with the local community.

“The event will benefit scholarship endowment for the University’s students, but we’ll also be using proceeds for projects to help the Greater Olympia Area,” he said. “When people participate in the festival, they’ll be providing support for their community.”

Shuttle service is another new feature and will help eliminate parking problems of past years, he said. The shuttle will operate from an area near Chicago Title Insurance Co. at South Sound Center. As in past years, safe-ride and taxi services are available to festival-goers.

Co-director Sandra Quebedeaux, the association’s secretary, said the University is an active partner in the festival. Campus Ministry will be selling bottled water to raise money for community service projects and its upcoming mission trip, the Office of Alumni Relations will operate an information booth for the annual Saint Martin’s University Gala in November, and Saint Martin’s Athletics will be providing some of the 700 volunteers needed the day of the event.

Primary sponsors for the 2011 Capital Food and Wine Festival include O’Blarney’s Irish Pub, Evergreen Direct Credit Union, Red Wind Casino, TwinStar Credit Union, Virgil Adams Real Estate Inc., Heritage Bank, Olympia Federal Savings, First Citizens Bank and Frost & Company, P.S., and Discovery Media Productions, Inc.

“We depend on our sponsors and our volunteers for a successful event, and we still need some volunteers for three-hour shifts,” Quebedeaux said. People interested in volunteering can do so on the festival website, www.capitalfoodandwinefestival.com

Capital Food and Wine Festival tickets can be pre-purchased for $15 or purchased at the door the day of the event for $20. The price includes admission and a choice of a festival wine glass or ale glass at the door. Tickets are available through the festival website and at these locations: Ralph’s Thriftway, Bayview Thriftway, TwinStar Credit Union and the University’s Marcus Pavilion office.

For more information, please contact Tiffany Stewart, assistant director of alumni relations, at 360-438-4557 or tstewart@stmartin.edu.

Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year, Catholic, coeducational university located on a 380-acre wooded campus in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 18 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 22 majors and six graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education, and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes 1,250 students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its main campus, and 650 more to its extension campuses at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Everett College, Centralia College and Tacoma Community College.