The three-decade-old Bodega Seafood, Art & Wine Festival, which used to be one of the most poppin’ summertime scenes on the Sonoma County coast — with crowds in the thousands — is officially dead in the water, according to the event’s organizers. “We’re ending the festival,” they wrote on Facebook last week. “We had interest from a couple of potential buyers, but they fell through. We know how much we’re letting folks down, but when the expenses went up almost $50,000 in the past two years, and the attendance/income decreased, we’ve been working for pennies. If we could afford to donate our time, we would, but we’re struggling to survive like all the businesses involved in the event. A 1000x thank you for your support, and we’ll keep you in the loop if anything changes in future years.” The Press Democrat reports: “The event once drew between 8,000 to 9,000 people annually to the Watts Ranch in the town of Bodega. The festival held last August, drawing 6,300 fans, turns out to have been the last one.” Janet Ciel, who also runs the farmers market in Healdsburg, tells the paper that “every year attendance was going down” and that she and the festival’s other organizer, Michael Ecton, “haven’t been making enough to justify getting up in the morning, let alone working on it.” Guess that’s that. At least there’s still the Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival in spring… (Source: Bodega Seafood Art & Wine Festival via Facebook & Bodega Bay Fisherman’s Festival & Press Democrat; paywall)
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