As president of Trigger Agency, Nivens will oversee this year’s National Harbor Wine and Food Festival, held May 5 to 6. Trigger Agency produced last year’s event along the Potomac River.
The event’s attendance tripled in 2011. What’s the expectation this year?
Our expected attendance is about 12,000 for the weekend. … We have our hard-core foodies. We get couples and young professional looking for something fun. We get families that come out. And we get wine freaks that just want to try stuff. We try to keep it accessible to everyone.
Why has wine tasting grown to such popularity?
The beer thing has really exploded, and the proliferation of craft beers has helped the overall spectrum. You have people who used to drink Bud Light actually taste something that has flavor, and now they want that to carry over to everything they try. And the whole wine snobbery thing is disappearing. People have become educated, and they’re not afraid to order wine and say they like it, even if it’s Yellowtail.
How will this year’s event be different than 2011?
People loved the jazz last year so we added two more stages. We’ve added a Cinco de Mayo pavilion. We’ve revamped the whole VIP area because we didn’t have enough food. It wasn’t as impressive as we wanted it to be. We have a beer garden, a play area for kids with a moon bounce. We have a vertical wine tasting covering 40 years, which is really very unique.
What about D.C. makes it a unique backdrop for this event?
There are some really worldwide and fantastic foods that are done. It’s such a diverse culture, and you have the best of the best. We are definitely taking advantage of the environment we’re in and all of this food culture.
