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Andrea O’Neill, director of marketing at Casa Larga Vineyards and Winery, is used to answering one particular question from visitors: Did people stomp grapes with their feet to make wine?
That curiosity inspired Casa Larga to launch its annual Purple Foot Festival, a family-friendly event celebrating the Fairport winery’s harvest season with tours, tastings, and more.
“I mean, literally every tour asks that question and gets a good laugh,” O’Neill says. “So we thought, why not give them a chance to do it themselves? And since then, it’s just been growing and growing.”
The 29th festival is slated for Sept. 14 and will feature several new attractions.
“This is Bills country, so of course we have to have something for the fans,” says O’Neill.
The Purple End Zone area, complete with purple carpets, will be set up this year for football fans to watch the Buffalo Bills take on the New York Jets. This will be in conjunction with expanded food and beverage offerings, including all-new wine slushies.
For families with young children, this will also be the first year featuring a “Diaper Dash” race for speedy toddlers, as well as an animal menagerie.
O’Neill says the dash and menagerie were inspired by the number of families who have attended the event year after year. With Casa Larga’s location within Monroe County, she says, many find it a more convenient, less time-consuming trip for young families to enjoy vineyard offerings as opposed to the drive to wine country in the Finger Lakes.
“It’s been a fantastic part of the event growing that community. We have everyone from babies to people 90 years old,” O’Neill says. “And we love to make people feel like part of the family here. It’s part of that classic Italian family environment we want to have.”
In addition to the new attractions, guests will be able to go on vineyard wagon rides and winery tours, participate in wine tastings, eat and drink from local food trucks and craft breweries, enjoy live music from the Uptown Groove, compete in grape pie eating contests for kids and adults, and, of course, stomp on some grapes.
“I should record people’s reactions to doing it the first time because they’re always funny,” O’Neill says with a laugh. “They’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s like a spa experience,’ or, ‘This feels like squishing eyeballs.
“Everybody loves to get in the barrel,” she adds. “My favorite is the people who make sure they have their own glass of wine first while doing it.”
The Purple Foot Festival will be held on Sunday, Sept. 14 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pre-event tickets can be purchased online.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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