Oswego’s Wine on the Fox fest provides taste of local wines, businesses and music

If you ask Todd Kummer, popcorn goes with everything – including wine.

“There’s nothing that popcorn doesn’t pair with,” said Kummer, the owner of The Popcorn Store in Oswego, one of the businesses participating in the two-day Wine on the Fox event in Hudson Crossing Park along the Fox River in downtown Oswego. The event came to a close on Sunday.

The store offers a variety of options.

“Between our regular flavors and our seasonal flavors, we have at least 60 flavors,” Kummer said. “We just started a new one the other day called ice cream sundae. It’s a vanilla popcorn with a chocolate drizzle, peanuts and then you can add a little bit of banana popcorn to make it a banana split. It’s a neat one.”

The village began hosting Wine on the Fox in 2005. In 2020, it was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wine on the Fox is presented by John Greene Realtor.

The Popcorn Store is celebrating its 10th anniversary, having opened in 2013. Kummer has owned the store for about 5 1/2 years after taking it over from the previous owner.

He has his favorite flavors.

“We have one that’s called loaded baked potato that I really like,” Kummer said. “It’s got sour cream and cheese and bacon and tomato and chives.”

Jinxy’s Studio Boutique also was selling its wares at Wine on the Fox. The store recently opened at 5 S. Madison St. in downtown Oswego.

“I create my own designed T-shirts, I do jewelry and I make 3-D art,” said Jinxy’s CEO and manager Ally Smith. “We also have a studio space at our shop, so we’re going to have fun little art design classes for both adults and children.”

Business has been steady since the store opened, she said.

Along with drinking wine, those coming to the festival also had the opportunity to paint wine glasses. This is the first time that Tricia Frost, owner of Frost Art Studio in Oswego, has taught a painting class at the festival.

Learning to paint while enjoying a drink has become a popular activity the past few years. Frost thinks she knows why.

“I think it makes it more about the experience of it,” she said. “It’s not just about the art that you create, it’s about being with each other and having fun with each other. I think that’s why.”

In another artistic endeavor, Floral Expressions & Gifts in Oswego gave festival-goers the chance to put together their own flower arrangements. Sisters Melissa and Kristen Beneke of Aurora were among those partaking in the activity.

This was the first time Kristen Beneke had attended Wine on the Fox.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “I’ve been to another wine tasting event in Michigan and I like this one better because it does have a better layout. It’s a little easier to walk around and see all that you want to go look at.”

Melissa Beneke said she was enjoying putting together her own flower arrangement.

“I really like yellow, so I went with yellow and white and purple, which is a nice contrasting color,” she said.

They also enjoyed the variety of wines being offered at the festival.

Among the bands that provided musical entertainment during Wine on the Fox was The Lil’ Big Band, a jazz combo whose members grew up in Oswego.

“All five of us grew up in Oswego,” said band leader and trumpet player Ryan Kazda, who is a music education major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

This is the third time The Lil’ Big Band has played at Wine on the Fox.

“Playing in the community is always a pleasure,” Kazda said. “And my parents have been enjoying Wine on the Fox since they moved here. It’s been so much fun being a part of this community and making music. We kind of started the band going into our senior year of high school, so we’ve been playing together about four years.”

Kyle Bachara, who plays trombone in the band, agreed.

“It’s great to play with all these musicians and it’s cool because now since we’re all at college, we only really come together during the summertime. And it’s cool to hear kind of like what everyone’s been working on throughout the year. What’s really cool about this group is that I think when we play, we kind of mesh together.”