Kirkland Uncorked

I enjoyed my first time at Kirkland Uncorked.
So, first of all, I love the downtown Kirkland area. There are parks, there is water, there are galleries, there is food, there are… lots of things. There are definitely some things I enjoy about having a festival in a space that’s super close to all kinds of regular businesses. In part because I think it gets people that might not have normally been there to check those spots out.
So the festival itself: There was the wine (and beer?) garden, there were lots of vendor booths, informative booths, sign-​ups for a chance to win [blank], acrobats performing (just heard about that one), and luxury boats! The luxury boats were exciting because they let you explore them (with shoes off, of course). It’s kind of fun to check out boats that cost as much as (or more than) many people’s houses.
I also saw lots of people walking around enjoying ice cream and… corn dogs? I was a bit surprised about that last one!
The one thing I was bummed about was that I thought that the wine would be a bigger focus of the festival. That wine garden definitely looked busy, but I felt like it was just «a small part» of what was happening. I guess that’s cool because not everyone would be interested in a wine festival and that’s not all that Kirkland/​Washington have to offer, but… I just thought it would play a bigger role.
The crowd: All ages! There were plenty of 20−30somethings, but the majority (when I was there) seemed to be families and older individuals. I didn’t see any punks or hippies or off-​the-​wall characters that I see (and love) at most of the Seattle festivals, but there were still a LOT of people.