CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV — Charleston’s Wine & Food festival officially kicked off Wednesday night with an opening party in downtown Charleston at the Culinary Village in Marion Square.
“We have record attendance for this year’s festival. We think that at this point, we’re going to blow last year’s numbers out of the water. We welcomed over 24,000 guests to the city last year, and people from almost every single state in the country and over a dozen countries outside the US,” said Gillian Zettler, Executive Director of Charleston Wine & Food festival.
Event staff are getting the rest of the village ready for the festival’s other events happening Thursday through Sunday. The festival hosts dozens of chefs and hundreds of food and wine samples for people to choose from.
The festival has a major economic impact on Charleston as tens of thousands of people visit the Lowcountry. “Last year’s economic impact for the festival was record breaking, it was 9.6 million dollars in a five day span, and we believe we’re on par to be doing that again this year if not more,” said Zettler.
If you want to go but haven't bought your tickets to the festival yet, you should act fast. The festival is almost completely sold out and only has a limited number of openings. Click here for more information.