Nearly a mile of Castro Street in downtown Mountain View shuts down to cars this weekend for the 54th annual Art & Wine Festival, a free two-day street fair packed with more than 400 artisan booths, live music on two stages, and a wine garden pouring tastings from eight heritage wineries. The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13, stretching along Castro Street from El Camino Real to Evelyn Avenue.
According to the Mountain View Voice, which cited a Mountain View Chamber of Commerce press release, the festival offers more than 22 wine tastings alongside craft beer, canned cocktails and other beverages for purchase, with wine-tasting tickets priced at $55. The Chamber of Commerce hosts the annual event, which first launched in 1971 as the organization’s original fundraiser and, per Funcheap, is expected to draw 150,000 attendees in 2026.
Beyond the wine garden, the festival’s footprint includes a kid-friendly zone with games and activities, plus a community-created mural where visitors can add their own artwork. Funcheap’s rundown of this year’s lineup also points to an Xfinity Pigskin Party Lounge showing live sports, including football and baseball, on a giant LED screen, an Italian Street Painting Block Party, and a DJ Dancepark for those looking to dance between wine pours.
A Downtown Built for the Crowd
The festival’s home turf isn’t just a temporary street closure — it’s a permanent fixture of Mountain View’s redesigned downtown. The 100 to 300 blocks of Castro Street were converted into a car-free pedestrian mall after the city closed them to vehicles during the pandemic for outdoor dining, according to San José Spotlight. The same report notes the city is now pursuing a $1.7 million capital project to install 21-foot-wide central crosswalks at the Villa and Dana street intersections, aiming to eliminate the side-crosswalk breaks that currently interrupt the corridor’s walkability…