A break in the recent rain Saturday allowed four Elkin area wineries to gather at Grassy Creek Vineyard & Winery for a wine and arts festival.

Representatives Grassy Creek, Elkin Creek Vineyard, Brushy Mountain Winery and McRitchie Winery & Ciderworks were on hand to provide festival goers with a taste of what the area's vineyards have to offer. Local artists and craftsmen were there to display their work and give recognition to the Elkin art and craft scene.

Derrill Rice, co-owner of Grassy Creek said the idea behind the festival was all for a common goal.

"We wanted to get recognition for the wineries of the upper Yadkin Valley," Rice said Saturday. "We now have four, we'll have more next year, and so we wanted to start building some recognition and working together as a group. We (the Elkin area wineries) started doing some shared marketing, and we came up with the idea to have a mini-festival environment to take advantage of the grounds we have here."

Rice, a former president of the Foothills Arts Council, said the local wineries and artists were a perfect combination to help promote the Elkin area as a tourist destination.

"About 90 percent of our traffic today has been outside of Surry and Yadkin counties," Rice said. "I think that is exciting for the Elkin community in terms of, these things seem to be reaching out beyond our borders and bringing in people that are seeing our area for more and more of a tourism opportunity."

Greg and Chris Stiling from Farmington said the festival was typical of most wine festivals they have encountered, but the setting helped to add unique quality as well. "It is typical to most wine festivals but atypical that it is smaller and a bit more approachable," Greg Stiling said. "I like the idea that their tying it in with the arts. It kind of broadens the appeal." The Stilings said they were planning on leaving with a bottle or two of McRithcie cider.

The Stilings were not the only people who felt the art aspect of the festival brought something special to the day. Eric Dahlager, current president of the Foothills Arts Council and local photographic artist, was at the festival to promote and sell his artwork. "I've mostly been traveling two to five hour drives to sell my art, and I'd love to stay in the area," Dahlager said. "From an arts council perspective we' d like to see this grow and grow." Dahlager said with the festival being a first time event, his expectations coming in were not as high, but towards the end of the day, he felt like it was a definite success, surpassing those expectations.

There was a "black and white" theme with prizes going to the best black and white costume and the best piece of black and white art. Kirsten Martinson and David Nielsen went all out and came bedecked as a pair of die. They were declared winners of the costume contest.

Local artists Barbara Elmore and Ralph Shoemaker tied for the art competition. Elmore for a glass plate holding to the black and white theme and Shoemaker for stained glass.

"We're very pleased," Rice said of the outcome. "We didn't know what to expect, but the weather giving us a break was a blessing and based on some of the feedback I've gotten from the wineries and the artists we're going to try to make this an annual event."