Wine festival highlights South Okanagan weekend events

PENTICTON – This weekend the South Okanagan is alive with wine related activities. There’s also a gruelling foot race to end the running season, a walk for a good cause, and a not-so-sexy comedy at the Cleland Theatre.

The Okanagan grape harvest is well underway, perfect timing for the Fall Okanagan Wine Festival which began earlier this week.

The wine festival is entering its 38th year and runs until Sunday, Oct. 7.

The 10-day festival has been ranked amongst the top 100 events in North America for the past 16 years, with 80 events taking place throughout the valley. Many local Penticton wineries are staging events during the wine festival. For more information go to the Wine Festival website here.

The Mighty Quail Trail 100 K is a challenging point-to-point solo trail race for those who can run comfortably on rugged and remote terrain.

The race runs on Saturday, Sept. 29 at 7 a.m. The course is made up of obscure, technical and sometimes lonely trails, parts of which are steep and rocky. It’s a race not recommended for beginners. Only 60 per cent of those registered finished the course last year.

The cost is $120 and all the proceeds go to local charities. Find out more at the Covey Race Crew website here.

The 7th annual Defeat Depression Penticton walk runs Saturday, Sept. 29, starting at 1 p.m. See the Defeat Depression website for more information.

The Comic Strippers is a male stripper parody and improv comedy show, taking place at Cleland Theatre on Saturday, Sept. 29, form 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

The fictitious male stripper troupe is made up of some of Canada’s best improvisational comedians, performing a comedy show where guys trying to be sexy just comes out funny. The show has been a big hit in Australia and has recently sold out theatres all over the U.S. and Canada.

Tickets are $39 each or $34 for group packages of six or more. The show is for all genders, 19 and up. For more information visit this website.

It’s Flying Destruction Day at Penticton Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 30, starting at 2 p.m. The program includes hornets, Street Stocks, Hit to Pass and the always popular Flying Destruction. For more information, see the Penticton Speedway website.

The Penticton Farmers' Market goes Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the Penticton Downtown Community Market, also on Saturday, is from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The B.C. SPCA flea market is Sunday, Oct. 21 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., located at 1500 Main St. Vendors are welcome.

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