There’s no such thing as too much of a good thing.
At least that’s the hope of Eleven Events.
The company that puts on the wildly popular Highlands Food and Wine Festival each November plans to bring a second event to town in 2020 following approval from the Highlands Board of Commissioners on Jan. 16.
The yet to be named songwriter’s festival will take over Kelsey-Hutchinson Founder’s Park in May. According to Eleven Events representative Casey Reid, the songwriter’s event will feature three musical acts, two openers and a headliner, on Saturday, May 2.
There will be a select number of food vendors on hand and alcohol will be sold.
The plan is to sell 1,000 tickets in the festival’s first year – a number that Reid noted will be procured from a marketing list of previous Food and Wine patrons.
As the Food and Wine Festival has demonstrated over the past several years, a well-planned and well-marketed event has the ability to create a slew of return customers. Each year the fall gathering sells out mutliple individual events.
If all goes well during the inaugural the songwriter’s weekend, the plan is to potentially increase the size and scope of the festival for 2021 and beyond, according to Reid.
A spring songwriter’s festival sounds like a great idea, and the event certainly has potential to bring additional visitors to town, even if hyping the event as a way to promote tourism business during the “shoulder season” seems unnecessary. By May 1, Easter is in the rear view mirror, Memorial Day is right around the corner and tourism traffic in Highlands is already traditionally on the upswing.
Hosting a first-class event that leaves visitors with a positive impression of Highlands as a destination is an effort worth pursuing. As the Food and Wine Festival has shown, success breeds success year after year, and Eleven Events has been a big part of that success.
Unique food, craft cocktails and the sound of music is a recipe for good times in Highlands. Let’s hope those good time roll twice in 2020.