Vancouver Wine and Jazz Festival uncorked, underway

If You Go

• What: Vancouver Wine and Jazz Festival.

■ When: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

■ Where: Esther Short Park, Eighth and Columbia streets, downtown Vancouver.

■ Cost: $25 at the gate Saturday and Sunday.

Kathleen Wyatt trickled in Friday afternoon with the first round of guests at the Vancouver Wine and Jazz Festival. The gates had just opened, so things were just getting started and slow, mellow jazz greeted the early arrivals.

“I figure that even at this point in the day, the weather is perfect, and it’s pretty low-key,” she said. “Already I’m happy. If it gets no better than this, I’m good.”

It’s the festival’s 18th year, and the event continues through Sunday at Esther Short Park.

Wyatt had just arrived here Friday from her home in Illinois, near St. Louis. She has a friend who lives nearby, and her son recommended the area after taking a trip to Portland.

“I like jazz music, and I just kind of wanted to see this part of the world, some place different. I thought, ooh, this is a good excuse to come and visit,” she said. “Go and see Portland, maybe see my friend here a minute, and do this.”

Michael Kissinger, the festival’s founder and one of its organizers, said they get guests from all over.

“We’ve tracked people from 21 states and Canada that come to the festival,” he said, adding they’ve sold tickets to people from as far away as New Jersey or Florida.

He said this year’s stable of performers probably shares about 25 Grammy awards between all the different acts.

The lineup for the weekend includes multi-Grammy winning vocal quartet The Manhattan Transfer. The group, which has worked with B.B. King and Phil Collins, will be on the main stage at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

Singer Jane Monheit, a Grammy nominee who has worked with Michael Buble and Tony Bennett, performs at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

Arturo Sandoval, a jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player and protege of Dizzy Gillespie, wraps up the festival at 7:30 p.m. Sunday on the main stage.

“It’s like the Seahawks teams of the last couple of years,” Kissinger said. “Every position is deep. … It’s like I’m (Seattle head coach) Pete Carroll and we put together the ultimate team.”

The organizers expect about 10,000 to 12,000 visitors this year.

East Vancouver’s Jonathan and Janelle Maust were visiting with their 3-month-old, Gideon.

They said they like wine and jazz well enough, but they were happy to simply get out while the weather’s still nice.

“It seems like a nice, relaxing place to hang out for the evening,” Janelle Maust said.

Baby Gideon was glad to get outside, too, they said.

“He’s happy,” Jonathan Maust said. “He’s always happy to see trees. He loves trees.”

Roberto Flores of Detroit, Mich., has been in the area for work, and said he plans on taking in the festival for his weekend off. He tapped along with the music as he enjoyed a zinfandel.

Flores works designing instrument panels for semi-truck manufacturers. He pointed to the art vendors, and said he could see the skill behind the work.

“The quality is amazing,” he said. He worked with Chrysler doing vehicle interior design.

“When I look at some of the garments being done up here, I can appreciate craftsmanship. It’s all pattern design,” he said.

Kissinger said this year’s festival is the first in seven or eight years where every vendor spot has been filled.

Vendors sold trinkets, clothes and artwork. Forty wineries are lined up to offer more than 100 different wines. Mt. Hood Meadows had a tent that sold merchandise from the ski resort and a setup where people could try their hand at simulating skiing and snowboarding on balance boards.

Kissinger, himself a clarinetist and composer, said he started thinking about putting together a festival of his own while performing at one in Italy.

“This is what we envisioned: a cultural event where it’s music, wine, art, food,” he said. “You smell taste, hear, see, touch. … Every aspect, you think of it as a kind of an artistic experience.”