The Philomath Area Chamber of Commerce will host its annual Sip and Stroll event from 3-7 p.m. Saturday to offer participants a chance to explore downtown Philomath while sampling wine, spirits and beer.
Chamber board president Lindsey Free said this year’s event will showcase significant improvements to the downtown vicinity following the completion of the city’s streetscapes project.
“It’ll be a big change from last year to this year because we kind of worked around construction last year,” Free said. “A lot of that has been completed and I think that will be the thing that I’m most looking forward to — just drawing people into Philomath so they can take a look at how much work we put into the place.”
The event serves a dual purpose for the chamber. Primarily, it aims to attract new visitors and returning guests to discover local businesses and encourage future visits that will benefit the community economically.
“When we put this on, a big part of it is to bring new people and maybe past visitors to our town of Philomath and hopefully they’ll fall in love with some of our host places and maybe other places that are on the route,” Free explained. “So they’ll want to come back and visit us again and bring that revenue to our community and our members.”
Additionally, proceeds from the event help support the chamber’s scholarship fund.
As of Wednesday morning, Free said that 16 beverage vendors were signed up for the event, including 11 wineries, three distillers and two breweries. No cider vendors were registered.
Tickets can be purchased on the day of the event on the east end at Marys Peak True Value (1732 Main St.) and on the west end at Compton Family Wines (810 Applegate St.). They can be purchased in advance online (through 5 p.m. Thursday). Those tickets can be redeemed on site.
Two tasting packages are available — $25 for those who want a stemless wine glass and $35 for those who want a stainless steel tumbler. Participants also receive a wristband that proves age verification, a swag bag and 10 tasting tokens for those who buy in advance or five tasting tokens for those who buy on site. Additional drink tokens can be purchased.
The event will also feature a raffle of gift baskets filled with various items.
Free said that as of Wednesday morning, there were more than 100 tickets sold. Last year, attendance was 311 — that figure based on 180 wine glasses and 131 tumblers that were distributed to paid attendees.
For the Love of Scenic Wine Tours will provide complimentary shuttle service with stops at Marys Peak True Value, Les Schwab Tire Center and Compton Family Wines.
Organizers made one notable change for this year’s event by deciding not to include food trucks after trying them in 2024.
“The food trucks were not as successful as we thought maybe they would be so we opted not to have that this year,” Free said. “We found it a little challenging to have those … just because a lot of our host locations do offer food fare and it seemed to take away from that.”
Asked for advice for any newcomers to the event, Free said, “Bring some sort of shade, have lots of water and put your walking shoes on.”
