Wine lovers crowd around to dance to VinoFest’s live music performances.

VinoFest DC 2015 was held this past Saturday, May 9, 2015, at Storey Park NoMa in Washington D.C. VinoFest is a diverse live music and wine festival presented by Vinolovers. Upon entering the festival, tents were lined up along the gated perimeter with various activities (such as painting and life-size beer pong), wine tastings, and food trucks. Front and center of VinoFest was a stage that eventually had the entire crowd dancing by the end of the night.

The stage featured Questlove (from The Roots), Black Masala, White Ford Bronco, Trouble Funk, Alison Carney (and her electric blue hair I could not stop staring at in admiration), DJ Adrian Loving, DJ Neekola, and D.C.’s DJ Hazzard. The musicians performed a beautiful mix of originals and old school classic covers (my favorite was TLC’s “No Scrubs”) that had almost every head at the festival swaying to the beat of the music.

Food line-up: Dirty South Deli, Red Hook Lobster Pound DC, Slate Wine Bar + Bistro, Straw Stick & Brick Delicatessen, Swizzler, and Puddin’.

Although I unfortunately did not get to try every single food vendor, I was able to experience Slate Wine Bar + Bistro’s chicken paella as my first VinoFest dish of the day and it was absolutely delectable.

My second dish came from Swizzler and it was a savory tray of truffle fries. The perfect snack to share with a friend while under the warm Saturday May sun.

My last dish at VinoFest was the David Wooderson sandwich and Fingerling Potato Salad from Dirty South Deli. The grilled asparagus, fried egg, and lemon-pepper ricotta were my favorite components in the David Wooderson (which also included English peas, mint, and trumpet mushrooms on ciabatta bread). The Fingerling potato salad was a refreshing side of potato chunks served with gochujang (Korean red pepper paste) marinated cucumber, red onions and mint.

The wine tasting tent quickly became the focal point for majority of the VinoFest attendees (obviously) and staff members worked hard to serve the vino loving masses. I was pleased to see how professional and passionate the staff members were and am even more pleased at how proceeds of VinoFest DC 2015 will benefit DC Central Kitchen, Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic, and Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). Over 1,800 vino lovers attended VinoFest DC last year so I am curious to see how many attended last Saturday.

VinoFest DC 2015 was a huge success and I look forward to see what VinoFest has to offer next year. Until then, cheers!

-EHY