Fresh food, delectable desserts, delicious wines and beers and a cool atmosphere are a few things to look forward to at Opelika's upcoming 15th biannual On the Tracks Food and Wine Festival.
The festival is Friday, April 12 and takes place in historic downtown Opelika from 8:00 p.m. to midnight.
Attendees can walk the trail of shops, restaurants and vendors and receive samples of different foods, wines and beers from each while they relax and browse.
There will also be live entertainment from Destiny Brown, Jo Moore and Funk N Wagnols.
"The music is all outside and there are restaurants set up outside that you can go by food from a la carte, but the actual tastings take place inside all the stores," said Pam Powers-Smith, director of Opelika Main Street. "You get a map and it tells you where to go and you're walking around all night long."
There are 21 stores on the trail, including Venable's Sweet Shop, Fringe, The Gallery, FlipFlopFoto and Heritage Gifts and Gourmet.
Barbara Patton, owner of Heritage Gifts and Gourmet, has participated in every On the Tracks since its beginning.
"On the Tracks brings all of the downtown together. It's a community event and people love just being together and socializing," Patton said.
Patton's store sells many different items and will offer tastings of an assortment of their different gourmet items at the event.
"It's a lot of mixes. We have ready-made dips, dip mixes, green pepper jelly, cheese straws, things like that," Patton said.
Brittany Hinton, senior in dietetics, and Saramia Arenas are sales employees at Coveted Closet, another shop on the trail.
"We've only been here since November, so it's our first time participating," Hinton said. "We're really excited to participate and get our name out there."
Coveted Closet is a boutique for all ages and has a wide assortment of casual clothing, "going-out" attire and conservative pieces that women can wear to work.
"I shop here, my mom shops here, and we have some of the same things as places like Behind the Glass, but it's slightly more affordable," Arenas said.
In addition to the shops in the downtown area, outdoor food vendors are coming from all over the Auburn area.
Arricia, Piccolo, Belle Chevre and Overall Company are a few of the vendors that will be serving food and wine outside on the trail.
"They'll sell you something that's very affordable because they want you to taste what they've created, but it's still kind of small portions so you have an opportunity to try everything," Powers-Smith said.
Tickets for the trail are $25 and can be purchased through On the Tracks website, onthetracks.org.
Tables, which seat 10, can also be purchased.
"If you want to hang out and listen to the music and have somewhere to sit, then it's really your best option," Powers-Smith said.
There are also Facebook and Twitter pages for people to like and follow to get information about the event and special tips about which shop to visit depending on what kind of food people want to taste.
Powers-Smith encourages anyone to come out and relax downtown, even if they aren't participating in the trail portion of On the Tracks.
"You don't have to do the trail," Powers-Smith said. "You can just come, listen to music, buy something from one of the restaurants outside, get a drink from any of our restaurants and then come back outside and just enjoy the night."
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