Winter Wine Walk hopes to draw in people to downtown Burbank
The organizers of the Burbank Beer Festival will be back in downtown Burbank on Saturday to host the second annual Burbank Winter Wine Walk.
About 30 businesses and restaurants will have their doors open to patrons for the one-day event, in which people can walk from location to location and try different wines, said Mary Hamzoian, economic development manager for the city.
The event will start with a free street fair at noon, which will be held along San Fernando Boulevard between Magnolia Boulevard and Orange Grove Avenue. There will also be artificial snowfall at the main stage at San Fernando and Palm Avenue.
From 4 to 7 p.m., those who bought tickets for the event can start exploring the downtown area to try different wines. Tickets are $45 per adult and include 2-ounce samples at each location.
Some of the locations include Sit ’n Sleep, Pizza Rev, Neko Shop, Urban Outfitters and the Burbank Fitness Club. They will be serving wines from several wineries, including Urban Press Winery, Yellow Tail Wine and San Antonio Winery.
Unlike the beer festival, where vendors line the streets, Hamzoian said Wine Walk was designed so that patrons can visit different restaurants and businesses in the downtown area with hopes that they will visit those locations again after the event.
“We’ve got a lot of merchants to participate in this event because it actually brings people into their store, and they understand the benefit in that,” Hamzoian said.
There were about 600 people who attended last year’s inaugural Wine Walk, and Hamzoian said she was impressed with the turnout and support the event garnered from the businesses.
The purpose of the beer and wine festivals has been to increase the number of people visiting the downtown area, and so far, Hamzoian said she thinks it is working.
“The merchants are always glad that we’re bringing more people to the area,” she said. “Anytime we do a follow-up survey with them, it’s always difficult for them to quantify if it helped their business, but when we ask them if they want us to bring it back, they always say ‘yes.’”
anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
