Twist and Stout
As you enter Quiet Waters Park, you’ll see welcome signs, trail signs, pavilion signs and signs prohibiting alcohol.
If you want to have your wedding in the park, you’ll have to get the liquor license yourself. Other festivals and parades in the park have always been dry — until now.
This month, Anne Arundel County Department of Recreation and Parks presents Twist and Stout, a fine wine and craft beer festival at the picturesque park. Produced in partnership with the Maryland Wineries Association, the festival includes tastings from nine state wineries and six craft breweries.
“We haven’t had this type of festival in any of the county parks so far,” says Bill Martin of the festival team. “It’s exciting to bring music, food, art and craft tastings all together in the park.”
You’ll find some breweries and wineries that’ll ring a bell. Calvert Brewing and Crooked Crab have an established beer-drinking following, while many more are growing their base. So Twist and Stouters are able to taste familiar brews and grape, experiment — or do both.
The festival benefits both the Capital Gazette Memorial Scholarship Fund and Quiet Waters Park Nature Center Campaign to promote environmental education, advocacy and stewardship.
The $30 ticket includes unlimited tastings at each tent plus a commemorative six-ounce festival glass.
For $75, VIPs enjoy shaded tents with seating and premium wine and beer samples from Bay Ridge Wine and Spirits, light hors d’oeuvres from Grumps Café and a stemmed 12-ounce glass.
Designated driver tickets at $25 include two bottles of water.
If you get hungry — as we do at festivals — you’ll have food truck options. Go for wings, burgers, tacos, flatbread, pizza, cheese steaks or tastes of Jamaica or Hawaii.
Browse artisan booths featuring handmade goods like jewelry and candles. Six local painters work en plein air, capturing the festival in the moment. Other works by the artists are also for sale in a pop-up art gallery benefiting the Friends of Quiet Waters Park.
“It’s part of the Quiet Waters mission to feature art,” Martin says. “We want to make sure that artists of different mediums play a part in Twist and Stout.”
Two bands perform in the Quiet Waters Park amphitheater. The first, Saved by Zero, is a high-energy, Maryland-based band specializing in 1980s’ dance music. Up second are the Groove-Spot Band and Show. This international group, just back from Canada and Ireland, brings back old-school beats, mixing R&B and funk from the 1980s and crowd favorites from the ’70s.
“I picked bands that play in Annapolis occasionally and have a strong regional following,” says Colleen Joseph of recreation and parks. “What’s really great is both Rob Pierce of Saved By Zero and Vance Wilkerson of Groove Spot, grew up in Annapolis.”
“I played little league at Quiet Waters,” says Vance Wilkerson, percussionist and manager for the Groove Spot Band and Show. “It’s exciting to play 10 minutes from where I grew up. We fly all over for shows, but this one feels special.”
Tickets: $75 VIP; $40 general admission; $25 designated driver: www.marylandwine.org/twistandstout