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, Aug. 8th  features renowned singer/songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Kleber Jorge. 

His debut solo CD Voltar Pro Rio (Back to Rio) produced by Dori Caymmi for Sonic Images is a favorite of Brazilian jazz fans throughout the world. His vocals are described as masterful, soulful and capturing the essence of Brazilian emotion. In addition to touring with Sergio Mendes, Kleber is frequently invited to collaborate with many musicians both in America and Brazil. He has recorded and toured with Boney James, Sadao Watanabe, Jane Monheit, Diogo Nogueira, Kevyn Lettau, Chris Bennett, Rita Lee, Fabiana Passoni, Lisa Ono, Leny Andrade and others.

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!