American pie: the Lodi Grape Festival

Large circular sign for Lodi Grape Festival and Spring Wine Show with grape cluster graphic against blue sky. — Lodi Grape Festival

Celebrate the 2010 harvest with us at the Lodi Grape Festival…

September 16-19 – When was the last time you’ve savored true Americana? The annual four-day Lodi Grape Festival has been serving up sky-high slices of it, with sides of Tokay and glasses of teeth staining Zinfandel, continuously since 1934. The first grapefest was a celebration of the previous year’s repeal of Prohibition and (since unions were not in fashion then) the quelling of a labor strike during the harvest of ’33.

Long gone are the mustachioed honorary peace officers, the beauty queen pageantry and grand parades; but still going strong are the grape contests (Best Tokay Bunch, Largest Tokay Bunch, etc.) and, since the fifties, the annual grape mural contest (giant, colorful artistic displays made from grapes painstakingly glued to flat boards).

Admission into the earliest grapefests was just 25 cents; but relatively speaking, it’s about the same today: $8/adults; kids under 5 free; $4/6-12 year olds; and carnival ride wristbands for just $20.

Plenty more entertainment for the kids (like racing pigs and “Susan the Mistress of Mesmerism”), boogie chillin’ music for the adults (this year, highlighted by Edgar Winter and tribute bands like Led Zepplica and The Fab Four), and as always, liberty and cups of Zinfandel for all. Scenes from the first day of the 2010 grapefest…

Colorful bunches of green, pink, and black grapes in a wooden crate at a market.

Award winning table grapes perkin’ our appetities…

Award winning grape mural: Lodis around the world (“it’s a small world after…”)

Black and white portrait of Queen Bertha De Almado in 1907, wearing a crown and elegant dress, seated with a scepter.

Queen Bertha DeAlmado from the first Lodi grapefest (1907)

Group of women and man celebrating with cake, vintage black and white photo, nostalgic scene.

The 1960 queen and her royal court of princesses and tokays…

Black and white photo of three people smiling, celebrating at a festival, with a caption about 1967 event.

A queen and princess from the more swingin’ sixties…

Swingers today: guitar king Shane Dwight channeling Stevie Ray the first night of this year’s grapefest…

According to Robin and Dan, the “Mesmerizers” in the Grape Pavilion, the Van Ruiten Old Vine Zinfandel is the greatest in the world (and they may be right!)

… so we tested the Van Ruiten zin with the beatific Lockeford Sausage hot dog, buried in sauerkraut and jalapeno relish (and the wine kicked butt!)

Lodi Winegrape Commission booth at market showcasing local winegrapes and produce.

Back into the Grape Pavilion to check out the historic murals…

Workers harvesting grapes in a vineyard during summer for Lodi wine production.

San Francisco artist John Garth painted the Grape Pavilion’s stunning murals (as rich and muscular as Zinfandel!) in 1960, depicting seasons in the vineyards