Calabash - A Festival of Gourds, Art and the Garden

One of Sonoma County's most colorful art events - Calabash - will take place this year on Sunday, October 5 from 1 to 5 p.m. in the beautiful organic gardens of Food For Thought, Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank, in downtown Forestville.

This will be the organization's 8th annual Calabash festival. Proceeds from Calabash support Food For Thought's mission of feeding men, women, and children with HIV/AIDS in Sonoma County.

This year's event holds special significance as October marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the food bank.

Food For Thought provides food and nutritional supplements to 550 people living with HIV/AIDS in Sonoma County. With a dynamic grassroots tradition, the organization is largely staffed by 500 volunteers who participate in all facets of the operation.

Located  on a one-acre site in downtown Forestville, surrounded by organic  gardens and run on solar power, the food bank's facility is a testament to the organization's holistic view. And, Calabash - one of the organization's most successful annual fundraising events - also reflects this view.

One of humankind's first art mediums, gourds are the basis of an art form that mixes tradition with the avant-garde. Some exquisite examples of gourd art will be for sale during Calabash's silent art auction.
The event provides a lovely way to spend a fall afternoon. Guests are served fine wines, along with delicious hors d'oeuvres made by local chefs from the finest seasonal ingredients, as they visit the gourd auction and meander through Food For Thought's beautiful gardens. In October, the gardens are at their peak, brimming with gourds, fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plantings. Strolling musicians playing hand-made gourd instruments complete the scene.

Calabash is sponsored by Food For Thought, in partnership with the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, which helped develop the organization's organic gardens in a collaborative effort.

Tickets are available now