Foster City Arts and Wine Festival

Shell Boulevard was closed to traffic all weekend. It was the 36th Annual Foster City Arts and Wine Festival.

The sunny skies, free admission and parking, not to mention the county-fair ambience, attracted thousands from around the Bay Area. The FCAWF harks back to a simpler day of ring-toss games, barbecue, merry-go-rounds, Ferris wheels, and booths offering doodads and delicacies that you won’t find at Target or Wal-Mart.


We manned the church’s ice cream booth on Saturday afternoon (all profits go to Heifer International, which distributes domestic animals to third-world villages). Traffic picked up after lunch as temperatures rose and parents sought to placate bored toddlers with dessert.


I was momentarily at a loss for words when one passerby inquired about the church (Episcopalians aren’t used to evangelizing). I gave him a brochure and glanced at his stroller. We have an excellent Sunday School program for kids of all ages. Our minister will be coming by in an hour and would love to talk to you. [That’s my favorite move…punt to the authority figure.] The young father said he would give us a call and departed. I’ll bet the Baptists or Mormons wouldn’t have let him get away.

The cash box had $250 more when we ended our three-hour shift. The profits would be enough to buy a llama or alpaca for a family in Peru. I picked up some chicken and a heaping plate of garlic noodles at the barbecue stand. All food eaten at the Festival doesn’t count. © 2007 Stephen Yuen

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