Contact:

Evan Klein
San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival
858-578-9463
klein@fastforwardevents.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

7TH ANNUAL SAN DIEGO BAY WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL OPENS ARTIST CALL FOR ENTRIES FOR OFFICIAL FESTIVAL PAINTING

Southern California’s Largest Wine & Food Festival Opens Call for Entries From Artists to Create This Year’s Official Festival Art

San Diego, (Jan. 19, 2010) – The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, Southern California’s largest wine and food festival scheduled for November 17-21, announced today its Featured Artist call for entries. Each year, one artist is chosen as the Festival’s Featured Artist, with the winning entry used as the basis in creating the overall look and feel of the event’s marketing collateral and official Festival poster, said Michelle Metter, the Festival’s co-producer.

“The Festival is a showcase of all things wine and culinary, including artistic innovation on canvas that captures the culinary lifestyle,” added Metter. “The official Festival artwork has been produced by many talented artists, and we are very excited to see what this year’s concepts will look like,” added Metter.”

Previous artists have included Robert Holton (2009, theme “Good Cheer”), Christopher M. (2008, theme “A Perfect Pair”), Cynthia Colis (2007, theme “Pucker Up”), John Heimstra (2006, no theme), Cindy Clarke (2005, no theme), Karen Pike (2004, no theme).

The responsibilities of the Featured Artist include the following:

Submit “mock-up” or sample of Festival poster for consideration by Festival Board of Advisors
Art must incorporate a wine bottle with “San Diego” and the year (2010) on the label
Create original painting from approved designs and supply Festival Management with a high resolution digital image
Preferred format is portrait (vertical format)
Donate the original painting to the Festival’s nonprofit live auction; proceeds benefit the American Institute of Wine & Food Culinary Arts Scholarship program

The Featured artist receives:

His/her artwork featured on all marketing collateral associated with the event: postcards, brochures, festival program, Web site, festival posters, advertisements, etc.
Feature as a celebrity appearing at the Festival’s Grand Tasting Event with a bio and photograph on the Web site and in the program, and a link to artist’s website
One 10x10 exhibit space with tent at the Festival’s Grand Event in which to display and sell his/her artwork ($995 value)
Feature as the celebrity artist in an electronic broadcast to over 15,000 food and wine enthusiasts, and industry trade
Full-page black and white ad in the Festival program ($900 value)

Artists interested in being considered for the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival Featured Artist should complete the following:

Submit in writing your intent to be considered as the Official Artist of the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival to Michelle Metter at metter@fastforwardevents.com no later than February 15, 2010.
Contact Festival Management for additional direction on the art concepts.
Create a sketch, draft, or concept rendering of your suggested artwork for the 2010 Festival campaign.
Please note that all Official Festival Posters and Artwork contain a few common threads. Each piece contains a bottle with San Diego 2010 in it, and it must capture in some way the essence of the event as a fun celebration of food and wine.
Submit your concept rendering electronically no later than February 15, 2010 to metter@fastforwardevents.com. All artists participating will be narrowed to a list of finalists who will be juried by the Festival’s Board of Advisors.
The FINAL artwork and electronic file will be due to Festival Management no later than April 1, 2010.

Now in its seventh year, the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival has quickly grown into a world-class wine and culinary extravaganza. The five-day festival features wine tasting seminars, cooking classes by James Beard award-winning chefs, the San Diego WineRave, an elegant Reserve Tasting, and the Celebrity Chef Luncheon and Big Bottle Auction. The festival culminates on Saturday at the star-studded Grand Tasting Event.

For more information, please call Festival Management at 858-578-9463, or visit the website at www.worldofwineevents.com.

SAN DIEGO BAY WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL

The annual San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival is an international showcase of the world's premier wine and spirits producers, chefs and culinary personalities, and gourmet foods. Held November 17-21, 2010, the event benefits the American Institute of Wine & Food culinary arts scholarship program. Over 800 wines, 70 of San Diego’s top fine dining restaurants and 30 gourmet food companies and exhibitors will participate in the 2010 Festival. For more information, visit www.worldofwineevents.com.

The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival was sponsored by Cooking Light Magazine, Cost Plus World Market, San Diego Tourism and Promotion Corporation, COX Communications, Viejas Enterprises, Union Bank, W San Diego, San Diego Magazine, San Pellegrino, Unified Port of San Diego, Marriott San Diego Hotel & Marina, U.S. Foodservice, Sadie Rose Baking Company, Macy’s, Acqua Panna, Leffe, Imbibe Magazine, Dining Out Magazine, American Culinary Federation, Hoegaarden, Robert Mondavi Discover Wine Tour, Vine Times, Wine Steals, Westfield Horton Plaza, Stella Artois, Graham Downes Architecture, Subzero Wolf, San Diego Wine & Culinary Center, Susan Rice Truffle Products, Classic Party Rentals, Black Box Wines, Alanas Marketing & Creative, Gayot, Just My Ticket, Taste of Wine TV, Chef Works, Chesapeake Fish Co, Inc., Fleming’s, Coffee Ambassador, sandiego.com, Dick Knives, Quarterly Review of Wines, Tommy Bahama Rum, Wine & Jazz, KerryGold, The Macallan.

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