
Sunday’s Festival of the Grape featured 47 wineries from the South Okanagan, and thousands of attendees looking to celebrate the fall harvest season with a glass of wine in their hand.
The main event of the day was the famous grape stomp competition. Around 20 teams-of-three dressed up in costumes, varying from The cast of Three's Company, Wine Glasses, to the Castanet • Times Chronicle’s Men in Black and Aliens, to “muscled up” grape stompers who went head-to-head in the juciy competition.
Each team performed a small skit or song to a panel of judges and were voted on best costumes, best skit and best bribe to the judges. The judges were three different actors from the South Okanagan Amateur Players Society (SOAP).
The highlight of the festival was the grape stomp that took place where one team member stomped the grapes while their teammates collected the juice in a container. The teams are then judged on how much each team can gather in three minutes.
After teams were finished crushing and stomping the grapes the Oliver Fire Department was on hand to hose contestants off with water from their truck, keeping the tradition alive.
