Charleston Wine + Food — Local services in Charleston

Street Eats - This was an event that took place on Friday night. The event setting and music were wonderful. The alcohol was plentiful and there were some great selections. There were two items that made this event a two star event for us. First, on the website, the event was advertised as one in which there would be either shuttle or parking (with more information to follow closer to the event). Two years ago there was shuttle service to Riverfront Park in N. Charleston which worked well. A few days prior to the event, attendees were notified that would be no parking and no shuttle service and that we would need to use Ride Share. First, this is a significant extra cost which should have been disclosed PRIOR to tickets being sold. This also created quite a delay in getting to the event. We called an Uber for 6:45 which, due to high demand (Friday night, other CWF event in N. Charleston) did not arrive until 7:45. We were fortunate to get someone to agree to pick us up after the event because the quotes for those rides were about $60. This is not acceptable. Second, several of the food vendors ran out of food within 20 minutes of the start of the event and many ran out of food within an hour. This event was a 2 1/2 hour event that was supposed to be food oriented. To not have food available for a good part of the time was not acceptable. This was one of the more affordable of the events but with the cost of transportation doubling the overall amount spent that did not ring true. I think CWF could have done a better job providing more accurate information and food during the duration...

This organizer along with their payment partner SquadUp are a CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION. Last year my friend Nadieh van der Berg bought our tickets for a rain or shine event which was cancelled due to rain. We were given no option of refund and told to reach out about getting a credit for the next year. We reached out with NO RESPONSE multiple times, so decided to dispute with the bank. However the dispute did not go through because the finally reached out and said we'd get tickets or credit for next year. Well, here we are, no refund, no dispute credit, and no tickets or credit for what was spent. The excuse was that a dispute was put in. However, no money was returned because we had finally got in touch with them after a couple weeks of no response. So now we are out money but never received the promised goods, services, or a credit/refund. THIS IS THEFT. It is a CRIMINAL offense. I will be reporting this crime to Charleston police and in addition to the criminal report, I'll be filing a case in small claims court. At this point, I don't care if it costs more than we're owed because of the poor response, lack of empathy and transparency and overall poor management. I rarely ever leave a bad review, but this is absolutely unacceptable. If someone wants to reach out before I file, feel free, I'm open for solutions. I'll eat my words. Until then use extreme caution when dealing with this organization and their...

The March 2024 Wine Festival on the Riverfront was horrible. The venue was just awful. The riverfront, as one would expect, is totally industrial, dirty and completely lacking in any beauty whatsoever. I presume that the organizers were unable to book someplace lovely, like a plantation, so the bottom of the barrel was all that they could book. Additionally, for many days before the event, bad rainy weather was forecasted. But, in preparation of bad weather, no straw/hay was applied to the ground to prevent a muddy mess. So, as could be easily predicted, the ground was in fact a nasty muddy mess. Furthermore, the wonderful food options of yesteryear were nowhere to be found. Finally, the bus drop-off and return system was chaotic. We were dropped off far from the event with a long walk. And, there were no signs or directions to buses for the trip back. There were no buses to be found. We got lucky and a kind woman in a golf cart drove around until she found a bus driving down the road. She literally swerved in front of it forcing the driving to stop for us. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY. This event has significantly deteriorated. I'd give zero stars,...