Texas Reds Festival: Celebrating Steak and Wine

Dancing to live music at the Texas Reds Festival.

The Texas Reds Festival is a free, two-day celebration of live music, juicy steaks, and local wines. This annual event, which began a mere four years ago, has blossomed into a major regional shindig. Last year, attendance topped 25,000, and this year even more are expected.

The 2010 Texas Reds Festival takes place June 18th and 19th in the city of Bryan, in conjunction with Messina Hof Winery & Resort . Highlights of the weekend include a steak cook-off and grape stomping contests. For $5, you can join in on the grape stompings, which are held throughout the day. All stomping proceeds go towards the Texas Reds 4-H Scholarship program.

Grape stomping contest at the Texas Reds Festival.

Each year, 20 Texas wineries are chosen by a committee to showcase at the festival. This year’s featured wineries include: Flat Creek Estate, Texas Legato, and Windy Winery. On Friday, wine concessions will be available, but Saturday’s events include wine tastings, as well as wine on sale by the bottle and glass.

The Texas Reds Festival is not just for the over-21 crowd, however. There’s a special Kid Zone with a petting zoo, zip line, laser tag, climbing wall, and more. A $10 wristband gives kids unlimited access to everything in the Kid Zone, or they can choose to pay for amusements separately, at a price of $1 for each activity. There are arts and crafts booths, too, plus a selection of food and drinks for sale.

The festival has two stages, from which you can expect to hear live blues, jazz, southern country and dixieland throughout the event. Musical acts include Kevin Fowler, Tejas Brothers, Texas Twister and more. The Texas Reds Festival is only two days long, but manages to pack a lot of entertainment into that brief period. If you haven’t been to one yet, come see what you have been missing.

What: 2010 Texas Reds Festival
When: June 18th (6pm – 10:30pm), June 19th (10am – 10:30pm)
Where: Bryan Texas (map)
Price: Free (park and ride, festival admission and live music). Rides in the Kid Zone are $1.00 each, or $10.00 for a wristband which allows unlimited rides.
More information: Visit the Texas Reds Festival
official website.

Photo credits: Courtesy of Texas Reds Festival