Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Cornucopia promises tasty end to week

While tickets for many events at Whistler’s biggest food and wine festival, Cornucopia, have sold out - including the signature party Crush! — there are still plenty of events to take advantage of.

While tickets for many events at Whistler’s biggest food and wine festival, Cornucopia, have sold out - including the signature party Crush! — there are still plenty of events to take advantage of.

A Serious Tasting for the Serious Set, new this year, Thursday, Nov. 10 at 5:30 p.m. removes any muddying factors from the wine tasting experience. Wine aficionados are free to swirl and swish in a lights-up environment devoid of music and food. The tasting includes the winners of the festival’s Top 25 Wine Challenge. The wines will also be showcased at Crush! the following evening.

The more the merrier at the Whistler Arts Council’s 10th Annual ARTrageous artist bash all day and evening long Thursday, Nov. 10 from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. with an 8 p.m. concert at the Garibaldi Lift Company (GLC).

During the day, free admission allows the public to come and go to the GLC where artists showcase everything from photography and painting to pottery and woven baskets. Mission Hill Wineries will also host a wine tasting at the event.

The stars come out at 8 p.m. with the message-driven, psychedelic funk of Wassabi Collective. Tickets are $25 and include two Mark Anthony Group drinks. Special prices for Whistler Arts Council (WAC) members.

Starting Friday morning, the festival seminars begin to pour in with everything from sexes battling it out at an interactive blind tasting to guests sampling home cooking at Sturdy North Arm Farm in Pemberton.

Pace yourself with the sold-out Crush! Friday, Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. at the Telus Conference Centre.

Tickets are still available for the festival’s two after parties Friday, Nov. 11 at 10 p.m. Araxi’s Bubbles, Jazz and the Deep Blue Sea promises an elegant, dazzling evening of champagne, cocktails, fresh seafood and sweet delights. The Bearfoot Bistro’s MasqueRave, a debaucherous circus expecting up to 2,200 guests, combines circus acts, three live bands, DJs, nude models and everything raunchy into one electric night.

More seminars explore a variety of food-wine topics on the Saturday, Nov. 12. Kick start your morning after a zealous wine-drinking evening with the Art of the Latte at 9 a.m. at the conference centre. Wined out? The What’s Brewing? workshop at 4 p.m. will give suds lovers a taste of unusual and interesting beers.

More than half of the winemaker dinners are now sold out. Reservations are still available at Araxi, Hy’s Steakhouse, Quattro, Whistler Cooks and The Wildflower. Keep your eye out for other restaurant set menus around town, which get into the festival spirit even though they are not officially involved with the festival.

Festival-affiliated restaurants donate a portion of the evening’s proceeds to the festival’s charity recipient, WAC, Whistler’s patron of the arts. All proceeds from the Crush! Silent Auction will also benefit WAC.

If your senses aren’t completely overwhelmed after four days of sipping wines and sampling cuisine, there are still tickets available for the Bubbles and Brunch Sunday, Nov. 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Whistler’s only four diamond-rated restaurant, the Wildflower at the Fairmont Chateau.

For more information, visit www.whistlercornucopia.com . Tickets can be purchased on line or by phone at 1-888-999-4566.