is held annually, the

First weekend of June at Lake Skinner Recreation Area in the Southern California Temecula Valley AVA.

The event features morning balloon launches, evening balloon glows, wine tasting from more than 20 wineries, wine competition, food and wine pairing, concerts featuring country on Friday, Classic Rock and Rock on Saturday, and Jazz on Sunday. There is also a giant arts and craft faire, kids faire, and fine art paintings on exhibit within the wine gardens.

The Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival,

then known as the Rancho California Balloon and Wine Festival, was started in 1983 by Walt Darren, a commercial airline pilot and avid balloonist and by Evelyn Harker a veteran event organizer and fund raiser. The seed money was provided by Kaiser Development Company and sponsors came from the local community giving what they could with many contributions consisting of in-kind services and products.
At this time, there were only six wineries in the region.

There are over 30 wineries in the region now.

The first Balloon and Wine Festival was launched in the Spring of 1984 and was a monumental success for a town of only 9,000 residents. More than 4,000 people were in attendance that year as 35 balloons were launched from the Rancho California Plaza area off Ynez Road (now Tower Plaza).

As the Festival grew, music was added and the event was moved to the Sports Park.

In 1986 as the event continued to grow, it was moved to Cherry Avenue and the first ever poster contest was held. During 1987-1988, the Festival was moved back to the Sports Park and in 1989, it was moved to its current location at Lake Skinner. In 1988, the Festival featured live entertainment with the Coasters and Little Anthony and the Imperials. In 1991 the Beach Boys entertained.

Africa Queen is an original song by The Shival Experience,

a #1 New Times Readers Choice Award Winning Band in theWorldbeat category, for the song,"Thankful Dread" on the bands 3rd CD? If you have, then Boom Boom Ladies and Gentlemen, its time again to get your dancin shoes out of the closet and get ready to Shake that Thang! If you are not Experienced, then Now is your chance to experience the Culturally Rich and Rhythmic Music of Guitar Virtuoso, Al "Shival" Redwine and his band...some appearances also feature other great musicians that join the Jam as guest artists at his request.

Filmed at the Morro Bay Harbor Festival A boatload of family fun, "Anchored In Tradition",

come experience the annual Morro Bay Harbor Festival. The Harbor Festival is one of the premier events on California's spectacular Central Coast.

Sample wine from more than 30 wineries and enjoy seafood from some of Morro Bay's finest restaurants

in our incredible Wine and California Cuisine Pavilion. You can try our seafood right off the boat at the popular fishermen's barbecue.


You'll be surprised and delighted by the strolling entertainment and performance art. Children will be amazed in the free, 4,000 square foot interactive Discovering Science exhibit.

Big Sur Jade Festival a benefit for the Pacific Valley School Jade fest of the world

We film on the Central Coast and went to the annual Big Sur Jade Festival will be held at Pacific Valley School, located 60 miles south of Monterey, 40 miles north of Cambria on beautiful Hwy. 1, across from Sanddollar Beach, in the Los Padres National Forest. This event is a benefit for the Pacific Valley School PTO and the South Coast Community Land Trust.

The Big Sur Jade Festival features jade

and other lapidary arts by artists from all across the USA, Canada, and New Zealand It is one of the largest lapidary shows of it's type in the world.

The festival also features selected vendor art, fine food and 3 days of live entertainment.

Our Central Coast Wine Filming series of tour videos and the was

1,000 of Pelicans, with seagulls mixed in and even whales that were breaching along the coast.

Many reasons have been suggested for breaching. Whales are more likely to breach when they are in groups, suggesting social reasons, such as an assertion of dominance, courting or warning of danger. Scientists have called this theory "honest signalling". The immense cloud of bubbles and underwater disturbance following a breach cannot be faked; neighbours then know a breach has taken place. The Pelicans were many over a 1,000 at least.

The fossil record shows that the pelican lineage has existed for at least 30 million years;

the oldest known pelican fossil was found in Early Oligocene deposits at the Luberon in southeastern France and is remarkably similar to modern forms.

Its beak is almost complete and is morphologically

identical to that of present day pelicans, showing that this advanced feeding apparatus was already in existence at the time