Orcas Island Cider & Mead Festival
In The News!
Preparations are being made to hold our Third annual Orcas Island Cider & Mead Festival on May 11, 2013! The festival is the result of a collaboration of Ray's General Store and Pharmacy on Orcas Island, the Northwest Cider Association and the Orcas Island Farm to Cafeteria Program (www.orcasislandf2c.org) which benefits from the net proceeds raised at the event.
Our
first Cider and Mead Festival happened on opening day of the Orcas Island
Farmers Market in May 2011. Without much time and promotion, it was
a great success with more than 250 people entering the tasting tent
to sample some of the Northwest's finest ciders and meads from 9 Northwest
cider and mead producers. The event also included Orcas Island restuarants
featuring cider and mead pairings with their menus during the week before,
an Orcas Home Brew Competition and live music by Orcas musicians on
the Village Green Stage. It was virtually a happening!
In 2012, we started a lot earlier and promoted the event from Oregon to British Columbia had more than 350 people entering the test for tastes from 16 Northwest Cider and Mead producers (see our participating producers on this site.) We also got a lot of wonderful press and promotion from media throughout the area.
Click here to view a gallery of 2012 photos!
Below are links and downloads of other CiderFest stories and information:
Article
on the Home Brew Competition (download)