Pine Avenue Food and Wine event canceled

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Festival on Pine Avenue in Anna Maria canceled. Islander Photo: Jack Elka

It’s official: 2016 was the final year for Food and Wine on Pine.

The spring event has been hosted for the past five years on Pine Avenue in Anna Maria by the Chiles Group, the trio of restaurants owned by Ed Chiles of Anna Maria.

Caryn Hodge, marketing director for the Chiles Group, announced Jan. 2 that the annual wine-tasting event would not return in 2017.

Hodge cited the labor involved in organizing the event as the reason for the cancellation.

After a sudden storm rained out much of the 2014 festival, organizers had concerns about the logistics of planning an event that could be interrupted by bad weather and decided to end the event on a high note.

However, the success of the 2016 event made the group reconsider.

“We had said last year that it was going to be our final year and then it was a huge success and, of course, after a success like that, you want to do it again,” Hodge, who served as event chair, said in a phone interview.

“So we said we’ll do it again, and then as time went by and we started doing the logistical planning, we rethought about it and realized it’s a lot of work…. So we said well, let’s get back to our original decision,” she continued.

After a key organizer, Ruth Uecker, Hodge’s mother, dropped out as volunteer coordinator, the group struggled to find someone willing to manage 350 volunteers. “That was a big part of the decision,” Hodge said.

Food and Wine on Pine, first held in 2011, was the brainchild of Chiles, but Hodge said, the decision to cancel the event was left up to the event organizers, not Chiles. “He really just listened to the people that had boots on the ground, myself and the committee chairs,” she said.

The annual event eventually incorporated as a nonprofit and shared proceeds with other organizations. In the five years the event was held, it donated $111,300.

The Anna Maria Island Concert Chorus and Orchestra, the Center of Anna Maria Island, the Anna Maria Island Historical Society and others received funding.

AMIHS president Lynn Brennan said she was sorry to hear of the event’s cancellation. Following the 2016 event, she said, the historical society received a $2,500 donation. “They’ve been great donors,” she said.

Brennan said many AMIHS members volunteered for the festival, including herself and husband Jack Brennan.

“I thought it was great PR for the city and for the island itself. The fact that the moneys were donated to nonprofits, I think, really sets a tone for the event being more than just a retail event. It was really more about the community and helping out,” she said.

In addition, Brennan added, the event also gave local restaurants an opportunity to reach out to new customers. “Featuring local restaurants and having people be able to walk around and taste the local fare, that really promotes the restaurants. …I’m sorry it’s been canceled,” she said.

Hodge said her committee wanted “to go out on a high note and let everyone remember it as a wonderful event and let everyone appreciate it.”