Stamford’s first city planner sketched out a vision for a Central Park-style green space along the Rippowam River all the way back in the 1920s, according to Connecticut Public.
That plan sat completely untouched for nearly 80 years while old dams turned the river into a stagnant, flood-prone mess running straight through downtown.
It took a full century, a torn-out dam, and a small army of city planners and private donors to actually make it happen.
Now that same stretch of downtown is finally the park Stamford always wanted, and this Saturday, it’s shutting itself down for an entire afternoon of unlimited beer, wine, and spirits tastings instead.
Here’s what to know about the festival and how to score last-minute tickets before it sells out.
A hundred years to build a park
The turnaround didn’t start until 1995, when Stamford’s newly elected mayor dug the old plan back out of storage and tapped a retired marketing executive to convince the city it was finally worth doing.
A nonprofit collaborative formed in 2003, the Army Corps of Engineers tore out the old dam in 2009, and by 2013, Mill River Park & Greenway finally opened to the public, according to the park’s own official timeline.
The payoff was worth the century-long wait.
Today the 28-acre park holds the largest cherry tree grove in New England, a carousel, a seasonal ice rink and fountain, and enough landscaped riverfront paths to make it feel nothing like the flood-prone eyesore it used to be.
The American Planning Association took notice too, naming Mill River Park one of the Great Places in America in 2018.
What’s actually happening this weekend
This Saturday, August 29, that same hard-won park is hosting the Stamford Beer, Wine & Spirits Fest, a single-session tasting event running from 1 pm to 4:30 pm.
Here’s what a ticket actually gets you:
- Unlimited tastings from more than 100 styles of beer, wine, and spirits from around the world
- Face time with the actual brewers, sommeliers, and master distillers pouring the samples
- Live music and interactive games running throughout the session
- Food available for purchase from local vendors on-site
- A designated driver ticket option for $15 for anyone skipping the pours
Tickets start at just $35 for general admission, and this is a strictly 21-and-over event with valid photo ID required at the door!
Getting there from NYC
Stamford sits about 35 miles northeast of Manhattan, and this is about as easy as a day trip out of the city gets.
Metro-North’s New Haven Line runs directly from Grand Central to the Stamford station in under an hour, and Mill River Park is a short walk from there, no car, no highway traffic, no searching for parking downtown.
Driving is just as simple if that’s the preference, roughly 45 minutes to an hour up I-95 depending on traffic, with paid parking available near the festival grounds.