120th Valley Of The Moon Vintage Festival Lights Up Sonoma

Thousands took advantage of perfect weather to enjoy the three-day Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival over the weekend in the City of Sonoma Square. The festival celebrated its 120th year. The Sonoma Valley tradition brings the valley together, honoring community spirit, the region's rich history and most importantly, the harvest.

According to the festival's website:

Since 1897 the Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival has been celebrating the Sonoma Valley’s bounty, community, and local culture. California’s oldest festival, this Sonoma tradition takes place the last full weekend of September in downtown Sonoma’s historic Plaza. The Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival benefits many Sonoma Valley community projects and non-profits. This three-day event is organized and presented by a group of local volunteers, including an all volunteer Board of Directors.

This year's party started with an opening night gala Friday featuring over 50 wine-and-food stations at the Sonoma Barracks across the street from the square. Music from a live band drifted through the city's streets.

Art, food, wine and community vendors set up booths in the park, drawing large crowds. A popular attraction was a booth manned by Boy Scout Troop #200 of Sonoma, where potatoes were flying through the air for a good cause. Similar to a carnival-toss game, potato spuds were thrown like fastballs toward a thin sausage link hanging on a string about 25 feet away. Anyone who hit the sausage got to take one home.

Another fun event for all ages was a grape stomp, which involved climbing into a wine barrel sawed in half and filled with grapes — the object being to stomp one's feet enough to generate the most grape juice.

In a longstanding Vintage Fair tradition, the Bear Flag Revolt reenactment took place Saturday evening just before the start of the "Get Your Glow On" parade. Local merchants and church and school groups, including the Sonoma Valley High School band then dazzled festival-goers with their creative, lighted floats and entries as they paraded down 1st and Spain streets.

Article and photos by Al Francis/Napasonomaphotos.com