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The Wine Tourism Services regional award spotlights a wine tourism business for elevating the wine region through creative programming, driving visitation and improving the visitor experience. Festival Napa Valley's programs and events take place throughout the entirety of Napa County during the 3-week summer festival at 30+ Napa County wineries and estates. Festival Napa Valley also presents 20+ programs and events throughout the year promoting Napa Valley wines throughout the United States and abroad. These programs and events promote more than 125 different partner wineries, restaurants, hotels, and culinary businesses each year and include Taste of Napa, the Festival’s annual celebration of Napa Valley wines and food. 

Festival Napa Valley honored vintners Robin and Michelle Baggett with a celebratory gathering on Thursday, September 11, 2025. Hosted by incoming Festival board chairman Steven Stull and his wife Claire at their stunning home overlooking Napa Valley, the event celebrated Robin’s distinguished tenure as chairman of the board and highlighted the couple’s many enduring contributions to Napa County youth, the arts, education, and community causes.

Each summer, Festival Napa Valley transforms the sun-drenched landscape of California wine country into a sweeping celebration of classical music, opera, jazz, and dance. The 2025 festival, held from July 3 to 21, featured 63 events across its main stage and satellite venues, offering an expansive yet intimate experience for artists and audiences alike. For the third year, Meyer Sound systems worked with Sound Image, a Clair Global brand, to support diverse performances with clear, balanced sound in every seat and on every lawn.

 Gaetano Donizetti’s La fille du régiment seems like a grand opera, certainly when you see singers straining to fill a big auditorium. But in Opéra Royal Château de Versailles’s historically informed production, which reached the Festival Napa Valley Stage at Charles Krug Winery on July 18, the show was restored, you might say, to its right size and staged for nimble comedy rather than showstopping vocal moments.

Festival Napa Valley’s Arts for All Gala shattered its fundraising record on July 13, raising an extraordinary $5 million at the sold-out celebration held at Nickel & Nickel winery. Gala Chair Mary Beth Shimmon orchestrated an evening that seamlessly blended world-class entertainment with committed philanthropy, as seven-time Grammy and Oscar winner Jon Batiste delivered a stirring performance against the backdrop of Far Niente’s lush vineyards.

Napa Valley's philanthropic spirit reached new heights on July 13 as the Arts for All Gala at Nickel & Nickel raised a stunning $5 million, cementing Festival Napa Valley's position among America's most successful arts fundraisers.

Gala chairs Mary Beth and David Shimmon have certainly raised the bar for Festival Napa Valley’s tentpole fundraiser benefiting arts education. This year, the Shimmons and co-hosts including Leslie and Rich Frank helped bring New Orleans to Nickel & Nickel winery in honor of the night’s A-list musical guest, Jon Batiste, who started his career in the Big Easy.

Peck has achieved an unusually wide following for a ballet dancer. Recently, she starred as Eva Cullman in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Amazon Prime series Étoile, and her latest children’s book, XO Ballerina Big Sis, which was written to encourage young dancers, will be published in October by Penguin Random House. In late June, she married fellow NYCB principal Roman Mejia, with whom she will share the stage at Festival Napa Valley’s ‘Evening of Dance’ on July 19.

The annual summer festival of music, wine and food returns with events at the Culinary Institute of America, Jarvis Conservatory and the Meritage Resort in Napa, Charles Krug Winery in St. Helena, Nickel & Nickel in Oakville, and other locations. Scheduled highlights include the Royal Opera of Versailles performing Donizetti’s “La Fille du régiment,” a documentary film screening of “Flicka,” followed by a Q&A with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, appearances by Jon Batiste, pianist Forrest Eimold performing works by Gordon Getty and more.