Bordeaux Fête le Vin: An extremely popular tenth festival comes to a close

he tenth Bordeaux Fête le Vin festival ended last Sunday with a red, white and blue firework display, a nod to France’s victory in the round of 16 in the Euro football championship. For four days, crowds thronged to the festival, breaking new attendance records with 56,000 tasting passes sold and 650,000 tastings conducted, according to organisers Bordeaux Grands Evénements. The previous event in 2014 attracted 620,000 visitors and sold 51,300 passes, out of a total 56,000 available.

Even when the festival reached its peak however, with 6 glasses served every second on Saturday evening, June 25th, there were no alcohol-related incidents at the event. Stéphan Delaux, deputy mayor of Bordeaux tasked with tourism, was delighted and hoped to demonstrate that “during the ongoing debate on wine and alcohol, sensible drinking brings a sense of well-being and conviviality rather than problems”. 

The festival epitomises the constructive collaboration between brand Bordeaux, the city and its vineyards, added Stéphan Delaux. “At last, we have created an operational dynamic”, he said with undisguised pride. “The joint construction of the event is what makes it unique”, commented Bernard Farges, chairman of the Bordeaux wine market council which is naturally the festival’s leading private sponsor. “This festival is unique, even though we hold sister events elsewhere, in Hong Kong, Quebec and Brussels. We are probably the only wine region in the world that can unite a thousand or so wine growers and major merchants for this type of event”, the Bordeaux wine grower pointed out.

Source and photo: Vitisphere.