Strawberry & Wine Festival

Stretching seven miles along the Atlantic Ocean is the small town of Ocean Isle Beach. Here you’ll find a quiet, family beach atmosphere attached to mainland by a bridge. Communities like Ocean Ridge Plantation and Brunswick Plantation call this barrier island home, giving you the luxury of living by beautiful beaches and other bodies of water for that peaceful coastal lifestyle. But this coming weekend it will host more than just a beachy atmosphere. How do you like your strawberries?

This Saturday, May 3 from 12-6 p.m., marks the second annual Strawberry and Wine Festival in Ocean Isle Beach. By themselves, dipped in chocolate, in short cake, or with a glass of wine—this is the festival where you can enjoy the both the delicious fruit and the wine of Silver Coast Winery.

Silver Coast Winery opened in 2002, creating a wine palate modeled after classic, European styles. All the wines are made in-house by award-winng wine maker Dana Keeler, using regionally grown grapes. With an assortment of wines, from whites and blushes, to reds, you’re bound to find a wine suited to your tastes. There’s even the Silver Coast Wine Tasting Room in picturesque downtown Southport (their second location), where you can try a variety of wine and beer. The day of the festival, Silver Coast Winery will have tours at 1 and 3 p.m.

But the wine’s not all. Eat your strawberries and sip your wine as you sway to the beat of one of Carolina’s favorite groups, The Imitations. This Wilmington, NC, based group started in the summer of 1995, and has been crooning out tunes for almost 20 years. Singing live and preforming to pre-recorded dance and party music, you’ll get a range of music from Jackie Wilson and Kool And The Gang, to The Temptations. Their show currently consists of four acts, singing songs by The Temptations, the Blue’s Brothers, The Beach Boys, and an Elvis set. It’s the perfect entertainment to pair with the main fare of the day.

There will be other vendors at the festival too, like authors, artists and crafts galore. Peruse tables of jewelry, pottery, art, photography and much more. Get your groove on with dance lessons with Calabash Flash. Indulge in the barbeque-y goodness of Jerome’s BBQ. Most importantly, enjoy spending time in this beautiful area—because rain or shine, this festival is set to go.