NASCAR and the state fair are big draws to Kent County, and the Firefly Music Festival keeps getting bigger and better, but those aren’t the only events generating attention for the capital region. The long-running Dover Days and the more recently minted Delaware Wine and Beer Festival have both been named among the Top 100 Events and Festivals for 2014 by the American Bus Association.
Dover Days got its start 81 years ago as a home and garden tour, notes Lorraine Dion, director of special events and public relations for the Kent County and Greater Dover Convention and Visitors Bureau. Now the three-day event, which drew 48,000 festival-goers in 2013, includes living history re-enactments, artisans, family activities, music, food and traditional maypole dancing. In keeping with a statewide tourism theme connected to Winterthur’s Downton Abbey costume exhibition, the 2014 Dover Days (May 2-4) will highlight Delaware during the Edwardian Age through the Roaring ’20s.
The Delaware Wine and Beer Festival, which debuted in 2010, showcases wines, beers and spirits made by a growing list of Delaware’s wineries, craft breweries and distilleries. This year, the festival (scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 18-19) will again be held on the grounds of the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village. Local eateries provide the food at the homegrown festival, and dozens of local artisans sell their handicrafts.
“More than half of the 2,500 festival tickets sold last year went to out-of-state people. We even sold tickets to Germany,” says Cindy Small, executive director of the Kent County and Greater Dover Convention and Visitors Bureau. “This is the kind of event that people come to because they’re passionate about local wines, beers and spirits, and we believe the Delaware Wine and Beer Festival will only continue to grow and attract attention to Kent County.”
