Pecan & Wine Fest returns for 23rd year 

People wait in line for wine at the annual Pecan and Wine Festival on March 19, in Camp Verde. The 23rd annual Pecan and Wine Festival returns on Saturday and Sunday, March 16 and 17. In addition to various local and state wineries, the festival will also feature vendors and live music. Daulton Venglar/Larson Newspapers

Camp Verde’s annual Pecan and Wine Festival will return for its 23rd year on Saturday and Sunday, March 16 and 17, at 75 E. Hollamon St. in Camp Verde. 

The two-day festival hosted by the Verde Valley Wine Consortium and the Town of Camp Verde celebrates the region’s pecan growers and wineries. The event will feature fifteen wineries from the Verde Valley with opportunities to taste wine, meet the winemakers and purchase wine by the glass and bottle. There will also be a pecan pie contest, live music, food trucks, a Budweiser beer garden and over 90 local artisans and vendors. 

Participating local wineries include 1764 Vineyards, Alcantara Vineyards, Arizona Stronghold Vineyards, Bodega Pierce, Cella Winery, Cove Mesa Vineyard, Da Vines Vineyard, High Lonesome Vineyard, Laramita Cellars, Oak Creek Winery, Omphalos Winery, Page Springs Cellars, Salt Mine Wine, Southwest Wine Center and Su Vin. 

The festival has been taking place in Camp Verde for over 20 years with slight changes in name and management. At one point the festival was named Pecan, Wine and Antiques, among other variations. 

The festival is open to all ages and entrance is free. Wine tasting tickets are available for purchase. 

The event will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. 

The live music schedule is as follows: 

Saturday, March 16 

  • Noon: Chris Berry and Tall Paul Epoch, blues and Americana 
  • 2:30 p.m.: Thunder and Lightning, country
  • 5 p.m.: Billy Bonds and Austin Lynn Austin, country 

Sunday, March 17

  •  Noon: The Tommy Dukes Band, blues
  • 2:30 p.m.: Garry Segal and Jeff Compton, blues and Americana
Alyssa Smith

Alyssa Smith was born and raised in Maryland, earning her degree in Media Studies from the University of North Carolina Greensboro after a period of traveling out West. She spent her high school and early college years focusing on music journalism, interviewing, photographing and touring with bands and musicians. Her passion is analog photography and she loves photographing the scenes of Jerome, where she resides. Her love of the Southwest brought her to the reporter position at Larson Newspapers where she enjoys hiking with her dog along the Verde River and through the desert’s red rocks.

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