The ARA’s mission is to reduce alcohol-related harm through combating the misuse and abuse of alcohol beverages and promoting only their responsible use.
Stellenbosch Wine Festival
The annual Stellenbosch Wine Festival, which was held between 31 July and 3 August, played host to thousands of local and international visitors.
Participating for the second year in a row, ARA produced and designed quirky awareness campaign stickers that promoted responsible wine drinking and enjoyment. The stickers were handed out to visitors on arrival to wear on their clothes.
ARA’s involvement with the festival provides an opportunity to continue promoting the responsible drinking message to consumers and also ensure that festival organisers adhere to rules and regulations of responsible use of alcohol among festival goers.
Visitors were able to sample from a variety of over 500 wines made by the cheerful, professional and fun-loving wine community. A range of activities took place including comparative wine tastings, exclusive meet-the-winemakers dinners and a fashion show.
For the first time this year, a Wine Connoisseurs Evening was hosted on 31 July, to cater for the more mature wine lovers, while kids were entertained at the Festival Café.
The show is the largest and oldest regional wine festival in the country and offers great opportunities to visitors, wine producers, sponsors and exhibitors.
The festival, in its current format was re-launched in 2002. The festival, now in its 8th year has shown continuous growth over the years in both exhibitors and visitors with a record of 13,500 visitors in 2009.