This is one of our favorite events in the Northwest, and its become one of the best jazz festivals on the west coast. We drive down from Seattle every year to see our Portland friends, and enjoy this festival. They always have world-class jazz and blues acts, really excellent wines and fine artists from all over Oregon and Washington. Great lineup for 2017 too!

I was disappointed in this years Festival. There didnt seem to be very many choices anyway. Coco Montoya and Judy Collins were fantastic. However, food vendors left much to be desired comma with dry chicken in a noodle dish and a gyro.

This is a poorly organized and inaccessible event. Nowhere on the entrance did it imply entry; the only sign said Re-Entry. I walked the entire perimeter trying to find the entrance. I realized this was also the entrance.I had a ticket won from a raffle. The man at the door gestured to the entry; I went to the left, a straight shot to ticketing. The woman there asked if I had a wrist band and said this was reentry only and I would need to walk back through to the front, to get to the real entrance. Mind you, that path led to booths about 15 feet from me. I also have a cane and was using it very visibly. Walking right to the right to redeem my ticket would be much easier than walking through the entire entrance again but I did as asked. The man at the entrance laughed and said, Oh yeah, thats reentry! which he failed to mention beforehand. I walked through the path to the ticket booth and got in after unnecessarily winding through the path.I realized samples were not included in my ticket and left shortly after, out the ONE exit accessible. Another woman asked if there was a closer reentry point to the park for people with disabilities where she was taking her kids (she was using the stroller as a walker). The woman at the exit said, i just got sat here, I dont know.This was a very disappointing event that would have been redeemed with a clearly marked entrance and more than one exit/entrance. I didnt want to give any money to this event and neither should you until it made easily accessible to all.

Great Music! My wife and I have attended this festival off and on for the past 10 years. We come up from LA to spend time with our friends in Portland, and we make this our weekend hang when we are visiting them. It has great music, and a nice selection of wine and arts. This year they have a good mix of straight-ahead jazz, smooth jazz, blues, and more. Looks good!

The increased rules for no outside food, no outside water put a damper on the event. Water had to be purchased in 8 oz. bottles for $1. That seems counterintuitive when running a wine festival. Esther Short Park is a lovely setting. The Saturday line up was lower energy than last year. But Shemekia Copeland and her band were worth waiting for. Probably will not attend again.

Hopefully 2015 will be better than last year. The festival seems to be going downhill, almost as if they are trying to kill it. Same entertainment as previous years- while good, lets get some new blood PLEASE! And the wines? They contract in the big name distributors, so we see way too many California and supermarket mass produced wines. Meanwhile, we are living in the Northwest- home to some of the most amazing wines in the world!! Maryhill is local, but they are no where near as good as whats from Oregon or even farther out in the Washington hills. And then there is the food. We are a captive audience inside the fence. We need to eat. Last year it was hot dogs and fried food, and basically that was all!! Nothing that goes with wine (cheese? Pizza?) and nothing edible. This could again be a wonderful, worldwide event if the right people got their acts together. Esther Short park is the perfect place for this. Bring back the glory days. Get decent wine, food & music!!

The owner of the event has some sharp sarcastic replies... is he 8 years old?Very immature.

I wanted to take a nap after I ate my commercialized buffet noodles. The music was quiet, and non existent at times. Big waste of money. I thought for the price there would have been some reason to go, but this is the lamest festival in town. More like Vancouver Commercial Wine & Sleep Festival.

So not worth the $30 price.Ill take part of the blame because I did not know I had to bring my own lawn chair to this event, so it was very uncomfortable sitting on the grass for an extended period of time.Food was subpar, county fair style; got some dense starchy noodles from a hawaiian food stall.Wine was ok, nothing special, but they must have had volunteers manning the booths, because the people working had no knowledge or excitement about their product.The one act I saw was great, unfortunately the whole event was not conducive to sticking around for more.I should have just walked away when they made me leave my water bottles at the door... seems like others got the hint as there were more attendees at the farmers market next door than at the wine festival.