Things are already in full swing for the fourth annual Wine, Women, Wow! event, hosted May 8 this year at the city’s new showpiece, the ShoWare Center.
Hosted by the Kent Downtown Partnership, Wine, Women, Wow! is designed as a girls’ night out filled with shopping, pampering and fun.
And event chairwoman Libby Seidel promises this year’s version will be bigger and better than any that came before it.
“This year is going to be different for the other three,” Seidel said. “We will have up to 60 vendors. It’s doubled last year.”
Seidel is also expecting attendance to continue to grow. Last year, she said, approximately 300 people showed up. This year, she’s expecting nearly twice that.
For the past three years, the event was hosted by Green River Community College at Kent Station, but with the opening of ShoWare in January, Seidel has moved the event there and is opening it up even further, allowing companies from around the region to participate as vendors, not just those from Kent.
“We’re going to the next step,” Seidel said.
Seidel said this year’s vendors include any services or industries that in some way ease a woman’s everyday life. For example, a cleaning service has been given a booth this year. Local service clubs are also being allowed in for the first time.
“I thought why not give them the opportunity to do some marketing to women,” Seidel said.
And in a change from year’s past, this year’s wine will come from Olympic Cellars, a Port Angeles-based winery.
Seidel said she discovered the wine while on a trip with her husband. After ordering the wine, they discovered it to be made at a winery owned by three women. She thought it would be a great fit for the event and invited them to attend.
But the primary focus of the evening remains a fun opportunity for women to get together in an essentially male-free environment.
“Just a girlfriends’ night out,” she said. “It’s just a way to get out and have fun.”
Mayor Suzette Cooke has opened the event for the past three years and will be on hand again at this year’s festivities and said she looks forward to pampering herself and her mother.
“I think it’s just a fun event primarily by and for women,” Cooke said. “They always have such a variety of things.”
Cooke also said she was looking forward to seeing a larger version of the event at ShoWare Center. She said while the event at Green River was wonderful, it was broken into different rooms.
“You never got the full sense,” she said.
Cooke said her favorite part is seeing all of the female-owned businesses.
“I’m most impressed with seeing the number of women in business,” she said.
Seidel said that while a night out is nice, there are ulterior motives.
“I want them to see downtown,” she said of the women heading to ShoWare. “I want them to see it’s not the old Kent.”
“If nothing else, they will hear about Kent,” she said.
Cooke said the evening also provides an opportunity for women to meet and network with each other, though sometimes just taking some time for one’s self can be important.
“It will be well worth taking the time to come and just play,” the mayor said. “We need that more than anything right now.”
Tickets to Wine, Women, Wow are available for $21 pre-sale and $26 at the door. For ticket availability call Libby Seidel at the Kent Downtown Partnership at 253-813-6976.
Info: www.winewomenwow.com.
If you go
Tickets to Wine, Women, Wow are available for $21 pre-sale and $26 at the door. For ticket availability call Libby Seidel at the Kent Downtown Partnership at 253-813-6976.
For more information visit www.winewomenwow.com.
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