A (Second) Downtown Day

Yesterday was another beautiful day in downtown Columbus. We took advantage of the fine weather to enjoy two other events that were attracting crowds to the core downtown area.

First, we checked out the Columbus Arts Festival along the Scioto River. The Arts Festival covers both the Main Street bridge and the Rich Street bridge and parts of the shoreline on the east and west sides of the river and features dozens of artists’ tents, food trucks, and live music stages. When we got there at around 1 o’clock it was packed with people, especially along food truck row on the west side of the river, as shown in the photo below.

From the Arts Festival we headed back to Gay Street to try a new event: UnderCurrent: BAM. UnderCurrent is a conscious effort to create events that highlight Current, the fishnet sculpture that hangs over the intersection of Gay and High Streets. As the name suggests and as the photo above shows, this UnderCurrent event was held under the sculpture, with “BAM” being short for “Bar, Art, Music.”

The “Bar” part was the Columbus Natural Wine Festival, comprised of multiple tables for different wine distributors and wine shops. Participants got small tasting wine glasses and a pamphlet identifying the different wine offerings, so you could pick and choose the wines you wanted to try and take notes on your reaction. You then bought tokens that entitled you to a one-ounce “tasting pour” of whichever wine you selected. There also were food tables with offerings from some of our best local restaurants, although we didn’t try any of the grub.

This was a really fun event that was well attended by wine aficionados (and probably others who just liked the idea of enjoying an outdoor drink on a dazzling summer Sunday). I particularly liked my taste of the Santa Tresa Frappato from Vintage Wine Distributor, a Sicilian wine that was cool and refreshing and perfect for a sunny afternoon. I also savored some of the other Italian reds, including the Cataldi Madonna ‘Malandrino’ Montepulciano, also from Vintage Wine Distributor, the Ruvido Wines ‘Barbara S’e’ Pers’ from Winecraft, and the Rottensteiner Schiava, a northern Italian wine from Rarm Imports described in the program as “perfect for hot dogs . . . seriously”–which made me wish I had a hot dog handy.

The Columbus Arts Festival is here to stay and seems to get a bit bigger every year. Given yesterday’s turnout, I confidently predict that the UnderCurrent: BAM Natural Wine Festival is also going to become a summer staple.