Wine, Old Hollywood glamour and live music
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 27, 2026
On Saturday, Jan. 31, the Elma Chamber of Commerce is hosting the much-looked forward to Winter Wine Festival at the Elma Fairgrounds from 12:30 to 9 p.m.
This year’s theme is Old Hollywood, which Lexi Rice, the public relations/event planner for the Elma Chamber of Commerce, loved when growing up and thought would be a fun theme.
For those who have attended previous Winter Wine Festivals, they will find returning wineries with new names added to the list. What is different this year is the beer and cider vendors being grouped together, similar to how it’s done at beer festivals, instead of being scattered amongst the wine vendors.
“I wanted to give those vendors an opportunity to really connect with customers and be able to sell their product, especially since this is a new thing that we’re doing,” said Rice.
And there will be more food vendors this year to pair with wine samples. Attendees can also do gift shopping because there will be gift and merchandise vendors too.
A new ticket-add on is a paint and sip with Kayli Johnson, a graduate of Elma High School and elementary school art teacher in Oregon. Attendees could choose to paint Marilyn Monroe or the Hollywood sign; there are still slots open for the Marilyn Monroe paint and sip from noon to 1:30 p.m.
“We’ve noticed in the past years, before the bands get started that it’s pretty quiet, it’s pretty slow around there,” Rice said. “So we [the board] thought paint and sip, it’s pretty trendy right now and that would add a little extra fun for people and get people to attend in the earlier hours as well to enjoy Ben [Fagerstedt].”
Last year, Fagerstedt sang as he walked through the event space, which he will again do this year from noon to 2 p.m.
We received a lot of positive feedback of people loving him, so he’ll be back this year, said Rice.
And this is Rice’s first time organizing the Winter Wine Festival since being hired last year.
“I feel like everyone has been super helpful and gracious with their advice,” she said. “It’s been really awesome to hear from people that have attended in the past to give me feedback of what they liked or what they didn’t like. … And so I hope that this year when they walk in, they just have the best time.”
Tickets include admission, a keepsake wine glass, and an initial set of tasting tickets (for wine or beer/cider). Must be 21-plus with valid ID. A single presale ticket is $35 and a couple presale ticket is $60. They may be purchased at https://www.elmachamber.org/wine-festival.
