March 29, 2024
Annapolis, US 45 F

Sour Grapes For Food & Wine Fest Attendees

UPDATE:  This review was just posted on the event.

The Annapolis Food & Wine Festival left a bad taste in the mouths of the thousand or more attendees who paid $35 to attend. The event was to run from 2pm to 6pm and pair food and wine in a festive atmosphere surrounding City Dock in downtown Annapolis.   The event was produced by City Dock Productions and What’s Up? Media.

According to the website, the event was to be an event where

food and wine connoisseurs meet with chefs, sommeliers, and winemakers to celebrate the best of Annapolis.

But something went wrong. People have contacted Eye On Annapolis to inquire about refunds of the not so inexpensive $35 admission. The event apparently oversold tickets and the restaurants underestimated consumption with the food and wine running dry by 3pm.

Some of the attendees took to the event’s facebook page:

This will probably get deleted but it was a horribly planned event, almost every location was sold out by 5pm and there was at least a 30 min wait every place we went. Severe rip off!

5pm is being generous. Some places were done by 3:30 and it was hard to find anything on Main Street after 4:00. Twice the line I was in was stopped right before I got to the door, and at one place my friend and I literally split the last teaspoon of risotto. I maybe had $5 worth of food and drink.

And from the What’s Up Media facebook page:

Actually, you didn’t miss anything . . . most of the restaurants ran out of food by 3 o’clock after standing in long lines. Hopefully, if they do this again, it will be better planned. Annapolis does need more events like this . . . hopefully, they can learn from the mistakes that happened today.

Will be interesting to see if they attempt it again after today’s disaster. Not sure why the restaurantss didn’t have a better idea of how many people to expect. But standing in line forever only to find out when you finally got there, they were out of everything was frustrating to say the least.

yes… I was really disappointed. I can’t believe they oversold an event. I heard that the restaurants were told there would be 250 people and I know living social sold 1178 tickets! We were there in lines by 2;30 and food was already running out. Then you get a pill cup with a few drops of wine… and maybe a little bite of food. Great idea, but it needs alot of work. Charge more money and have less tickets… very disappointing! I was there the whole time and all I got were 2 oysters, a little morsel of pork and some wine samples. We had to go out and buy dinner after paying 35 for tickets!

We have heard that they will issue refunds upon request provided that an original receipt accompanies the request. To make a request, please send an email for further instructions:

City Dock Productions
Tim Dowling and Jim Barthold
7040 Bembe Beach Road
Suite 200
Annapolis, Maryland 21403
[email protected]
(410) 263-4012

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