My favorite weekly event at the Festival of Art? Easy. Thursday evening’s “Art, Jazz, Wine & Chocolate.” It’s a great evening of wine and chocolate tastings, with great music to boot!

I’m not sure that this event needs a lot of salesmanship. When you have art, live jazz, wine and chocolate at your disposal for two full hours, life can’t get much better. It happens every Thursday night through the festival season from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

You’ll be able to sample a variety of Kendall Jackson wines, each of which is expertly paired with a variety of high end chocolates from XAN Confections. As you enjoy your chocolates and wine, you have free run of the Festival grounds to peruse art from 140 California-based artists. Meanwhile, different jazz ensembles entertain weekly. Thursday, July 11th  features Ty Taylor’s Nouveau Mid-Century Romance Songbook. He has toured with Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Celine Dion, Macy Grey, Joss Stone, and Fiona Apple. Taylor was also in the Top 10 hit band, Dakota Moon on Elektra Records. As front man for Los Angeles-based Rhythm and Blues, Soul, Rock and Roll band, Vintage Trouble, he has opened for The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, 51 shows for The Who on the Quadrophenia Tour, Lenny Kravitz, Mavis Staples, KISS, and Bon Jovi.

Tickets
Tickets for “Art, Jazz, Wine & Chocolate” are $20, which does not include Festival of Arts admission or reserved seating. You must be 21 to participate.
The Festival is always free to Laguna Beach residents and military. Otherwise, General Admission on Thursday evenings is $10, $7 for seniors and $5 children, ages 6-12. Gates open at noon.

VIP Seats a Plus
If you’re more interested in sitting and sipping vs. walking through the art show, limited reserved seating is available for the jazz at an additional $35 per person. Go online to http://foapom.com, click the CALENDAR, and then choose your Thursday evening attendance. You will be able to reserve your Thursday VIP seats from any Thursday page.

See you at the FOA!