The RiverWalk 'Line' Festival

When I found out that Montgomery had its very own wine festival, on the beautiful riverfront, I was thrilled!  A few friends and I dutifully shelled out $25 each for tickets and walked down to Riverfront Park this Saturday to join the fun.  But, when we got there, we quickly realized that the RiverWalk Wine Festival is more of a Riverfront 'Line' Festival, with a long, snaking line connecting the dozen or so wine tasting booths.  All in all, we tasted less than ten wines at just a few of the booths. The tasting to waiting ratio was about 1:5.  Definitely not worth $25.  Ted the Wine Guy on Zelda Rd. hosts more enjoyable and educational tastings every friday evening... for free.   

Unfortunately, most of our conversation during the event centered around the line situation.  It was just uncomfortable to watch.  Instead of walking around leisurely, then stopping at booths and forming crowds in front of each tasting booth, guests had organized themselves in lines that stretched in between the booths and approached each booth from the side.  As you can imagine, only a few people were being served at a time at each booth, so the lines were barely moving.  Standing in the hot sun in totally unnecessary lines just wasn't our thing, so we left early. 

While I was dissapointed with the line situation, I do think that the RiverWalk Wine Festival can easily live up to its potential and become Montgomery's signature wine event, with a few minor tweaks.  I'm thrilled that Montgomery is starting to emerge as a top food and wine destination in Alabama, and I want to make things better rather than complaining from the sidelines.

As you can probably tell, I am a huge wine aficionado.  I have lived in California, Oregon and Washington, DC, where I enjoyed easy access to wine country and more than my share of wine events.  Crowd control is absolutely paramount, but it can be done right!  If event staff is on hand to tell guests, "there is no need to form lines between booths, just choose your booth and walk right up to it," then the wine pourers can serve guests more efficiently. 

The idea is to form clusters, not lines (in front of, rather than at the sides of each booth), about 3-5 people deep and at least five people wide, so that at least ten people can be tasting at the same time (just hold out your glass, get your pour, stand back to taste while other people get their pours, and repeat until you've tasted all the wines at that booth).  At Saturday's event, some of the booths were serving only one or two people at a time, which is about the most inefficient way to handle wine tasting at an event with hundreds of people. 

I hope I can be involved in improving the guest experience at the RiverWalk Wine Festival next year, because I do think it can be great.  Just think clusters, not lines... and, from the guests to the sponsors to the wine companies and distributors... everyone wins.