Nez Perce County Idaho Grape and Grain Festival
The event recorded under this title was never, in any organiser layer, a festival standing on its own. It was a single-evening wine and craft-beer tasting fundraiser in Lewiston, the county seat of Nez Perce County, held at the Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts & History. It began as a signature component of the Dogwood Festival, later returned alone as a fall fundraiser, and has now ended in its Grape & Grain form. The final held edition took place on 10 October 2025, and the organiser states it will not be held in 2026.
About Grape & Grain in Lewiston
The published names do not merge into one tidy title. Releases from 2013 through 2020 used Confluence Grape & Grain, with the spelling variant Confluence Grape and Grain in body text. Releases and the event page for 2024 and 2025 used Grape & Grain, and 2025 material also used Annual Grape & Grain and the phrase annual Grape & Grain fundraising event. The forms Grape and Grain Festival and the full title above appear in no published layer, a gap stated plainly rather than smoothed away.
Lewiston is the setting in every organiser layer; no edition is placed in another town. The venue throughout was the college’s Center for Arts & History on Main Street in downtown Lewiston, described earlier as historic downtown. Earlier releases printed a street number, not used here, while later ones printed only at the Center or at the center in downtown Lewiston.
Who ran the evening changed, and the wording changed with it. Early on it was presented or hosted by the Center together with the college’s Business Student Organization, the 2018 and 2019 releases varying between put on by and sponsored by, both recorded as printed. In 2024 and 2025 the Center hosted it alone. A separate daytime account of a wine and craft fair with plant workshops contradicts this evening record in every particular and was never used as evidence.
Quick Facts
| Item | Record |
| Published name forms | Confluence Grape & Grain and, later, Grape & Grain |
| Kind of event | Single-evening wine and craft-beer tasting fundraiser |
| Host town | Lewiston, county seat of Nez Perce County |
| Venue | Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts & History, Main Street |
| Parent festival, April era | Dogwood Festival of the Lewis-Clark Valley |
| Later organiser | Center for Arts & History alone, in 2024 and 2025 |
| Final held edition | Friday 10 October 2025, six to nine in the evening |
| Status | Ended in its Grape & Grain form after the 2025 edition |
| Attendance rule in priced layers | Open to the public, attendees at least twenty-one years old |
A History That Runs From April to Autumn
No organiser layer states a founding year, so none is given here. The layers give instead annual billings, quoted as billings rather than converted into a chronology. An October 2013 release billed an edition for 19 April as the twenty-third annual, its own internal dating untidy. The edition of 11 April 2014 was billed as the twenty-fourth Annual, that of 17 April 2015 as the twenty-fifth Anniversary, and that of 15 April 2016 as the twenty-sixth Annual. The billings continued with the twenty-eighth annual on 20 April 2018 and the twenty-ninth annual on 19 April 2019.
For a useful comparison, see the Nez Perce County Idaho Winter Spirit Festival for another county festival.
Each release expressly described its April edition as a signature event of the Dogwood Festival of the Lewis-Clark Valley, each was held at the Center, and each ran from six to nine in the evening. Grape & Grain was therefore a component inside a larger spring festival, not a separate festival running alongside it.
The April sequence broke in 2020. That edition, billed as the thirtieth annual, was originally scheduled for April, then rescheduled to 14 August 2020 at the Center, and never took place. In a release dated 20 May 2020 the organiser cancelled it, together with Art Under the Elms and the Dogwood Show & Shine, because of pandemic crowd-gathering challenges. A single ticket price had been published in March 2020 for that cancelled rescheduled edition.
Then came a gap the organiser in 2024 described as after a five-year hiatus. The last pre-hiatus edition actually held was in 2019. When the Center brought the event back, it returned in a different season: on Friday 13 September 2024 it ran from six to half past eight at the Center, as a fall event, and the 2024 release stated no Dogwood Festival connection at all.
The fall form held one more edition. On Friday 10 October 2025 it ran from six to nine at the Center in downtown Lewiston, billed as the annual Grape & Grain fundraising event. A second college layer from the same day tied it to an art exhibition opening and interactive artist demonstrations, giving it a stronger gallery character than the April tastings carried.
An open conflict crosses the return and is left open here. The billings above give thirtieth annual to the cancelled 2020 edition, yet a college sponsorship document for the 2024 return bills that return as marking its thirtieth annual occurrence. Both stand with their years, 2020 and 2024, unreconciled, and no first year can be inferred from either.
The ending is stated by the organiser. The current event page and notes say Grape & Grain will not be held in 2026, the Center is taking a new direction with our fall celebration, the event is evolving, and the fall celebration is being reimagined, with a brand-new fall event coming in 2027. That unnamed, undescribed successor leaves Grape & Grain ended in its own form after October 2025.
What to Expect
Because the event has ended, this section describes what documented editions were. Across the April editions from 2013 to 2019 the core was sampling a set number of selected wines and microbrews in a souvenir glass, with hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction, and live music. Performers were named by year in 2016, 2018, and 2019. Catering was named differently by year: a hotel caterer from 2013 through 2016, and a named Lewiston dining business in 2018 and 2019, each kept to its own years.
Participants were likewise named by year, never as one combined roll. Nine wineries were named in 2018 and ten in 2019, figures counting participants, not people through the door. The only attendance figure in the record is a general claim in the May 2020 cancellation release, which stated that Grape & Grain has attendance of over 275. Offered while explaining the cancellation, it is not a counted turnout for any single held edition.
In 2024 guests received tastings, hors d’oeuvres by a named Lewiston restaurant, live entertainment, and a silent auction, with six tasting samples included in admission, further tastings available to purchase, and a commemorative glass. In 2025 the offer was a curated selection of local wine and beer tastings from four named wineries and two named breweries, a gourmet charcuterie spread, live piano music by a named current college student, and interactive demonstrations by two named artists throughout.
Proceeds shifted by period. In 2014 and 2016 they benefited the Center and the Business Student Organization Scholarship Fund. In 2024 they benefited the Center, with a portion donated to the college’s Accounting & Business Student Organization scholarship fund. In 2025 all proceeds benefited the Center’s programming for the college and the broader community.
Planning Your Visit
There is no 2026 edition to plan for. The event page states Grape & Grain will not be held in 2026, and the Center describes taking a new direction with its fall celebration. The one honest course for a reader who valued this evening is to watch for the announcement of the brand-new fall event promised for 2027, unnamed, undescribed, and not a renamed Grape & Grain.
Historical prices belong strictly to their own years. Tickets in 2013 cost twenty-five dollars in advance. The price was thirty dollars each in 2014 and 2015, and thirty dollars apiece in 2016. In 2018 it was thirty-five dollars each before the day and forty-five dollars on 20 April itself. In 2019 it was thirty-five dollars in advance and forty-five dollars on 19 April. In 2024 tickets started at fifty dollars, with sixty dollars at the door. The 2025 release published no price and directed readers to the official event webpage, so no 2024 figure is applied to 2025. No resale prices were found, and in all priced layers the event was open to the public, attendees at least twenty-one.
One Documented Evening, Hour by Hour
The final edition, on Friday 10 October 2025, gives the clearest surviving outline of such an evening, offered as history only. It began at six o’clock at the Center, with tastings from that year’s four wineries and two breweries central, and the gourmet charcuterie spread accompanying them rather than forming a seated dinner. Live piano music from a current college student played, and two named artists demonstrated interactively throughout, alongside the art exhibition opening recorded for the same day. It closed at nine, the April editions’ three-hour span.
Grape & Grain Beside Its Parent Festival
The most useful comparison is with the Dogwood Festival itself, the umbrella whose programme also included, until their shared cancellation in 2020, Art Under the Elms and the Dogwood Show & Shine. Grape & Grain was one signature component inside it in its April years, occupying a single evening at one venue.
Against its parent it was narrower in every dimension the record supports: three hours on one night, attendees aged twenty-one and over in its priced layers, ticketed tasting in a souvenir or commemorative glass, and proceeds directed to the Center and scholarship funds. After the hiatus the relationship ended: the 2024 and 2025 editions stood alone in the fall with no Dogwood connection stated, so the former component outlived its place in the parent programme before ending after 2025.
A Checklist Drawn From the Record
- Remember the names as Confluence Grape & Grain for 2013 to 2020 and Grape & Grain for 2024 and 2025.
- Treat the festival title above as a filing label no organiser layer ever printed.
- Place every edition in Lewiston at the Center for Arts & History on Main Street.
- Read the annual billings as printed claims, not as a founding date.
- Keep both thirtieth billings visible, for cancelled 2020 and for the 2024 return, unmerged.
- Keep each year’s ticket price inside its own year, and leave 2025 without a price.
- Count the nine wineries of 2018 and ten of 2019 as participants, never attendance.
- Note that no edition is scheduled for 2026.
- Watch only for the Center’s unnamed fall successor promised for 2027.
Beyond the Tasting Tables
In the April years, what lay beyond the tasting was the Dogwood Festival around it: a guest at the Center was also inside a larger spring celebration, though the evening stayed within the Center’s rooms. The silent auction extended it into fundraising for the Center and scholarships.
In fall the beyond turned toward the gallery. The 2025 edition was tied to an art exhibition opening, with artists demonstrating while tastings proceeded, and proceeds went to the Center’s programming for the college and broader community. Other Lewiston tastings, and the valley wine scene generally, sit outside this record.
Why This Small Fundraiser Carried Weight
Grape & Grain mattered less for scale than for the work its proceeds did. For the Center it was a recurring fundraising evening that in different years also supported the Business Student Organization Scholarship Fund and later the Accounting & Business Student Organization scholarship fund. For the Dogwood Festival it supplied a signature evening across the April editions from 2013 to 2019, with a defined audience, venue, and a glass guests took home.
Its record is also honest about how local events end. The billings disagree about which edition was the thirtieth, the 2020 edition was announced, rescheduled, and cancelled in public, and the closing wording speaks of evolution rather than pretending continuity. Preserving those untidy details keeps this account faithful.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Grape & Grain still held in Lewiston?
No. The current page states Grape & Grain will not be held in 2026, describes the Center as taking a new direction with its fall celebration, and promises a brand-new fall event in 2027 instead. The last held edition was on 10 October 2025.
Under what names did the organiser actually publish this event?
Releases from 2013 through 2020 used Confluence Grape & Grain, with Confluence Grape and Grain as a body-text variant. The 2024 and 2025 layers used Grape & Grain, with Annual Grape & Grain also appearing in 2025. Neither Grape and Grain Festival nor the full title above appears in any published layer.
Why did the edition billed for 2020 never take place?
That edition, billed as the thirtieth annual, was scheduled for April 2020, then rescheduled to 14 August 2020 at the Center. The organiser cancelled it on 20 May 2020, alongside Art Under the Elms and the Dogwood Show & Shine, citing pandemic crowd-gathering challenges.
What did admission include at the fall return in 2024?
Admission in 2024 included six tasting samples, further tastings available to purchase, and a commemorative glass, alongside hors d’oeuvres, live entertainment, and a silent auction. Tickets started at fifty dollars, with sixty dollars at the door, figures belonging to 2024 alone.
What to Expect From the Next Nez Perce County Idaho Grape and Grain Festival
How often is Nez Perce County Idaho Grape and Grain Festival held?
On the documented record it was held as an annual-billed spring component of the Dogwood Festival through 2019, cancelled in 2020, then held in the fall in 2024 and 2025. That pattern has stopped, since the organiser states it will not be held in 2026.
When is the next Nez Perce County Idaho Grape and Grain Festival?
There is no next Grape & Grain on current organiser wording. It ended in that form after 10 October 2025, and the organiser instead promises a brand-new fall event in 2027, unnamed and undescribed in every layer so far.
Will the dates change?
The question no longer applies to Grape & Grain, since no further edition is scheduled in that form. Its dates already changed once, from April evenings between 2013 and 2019 to 13 September 2024 and 10 October 2025, and any date for the promised 2027 successor belongs to that new event.
A Closing Note
Grape & Grain leaves a compact trail: a Dogwood signature evening in April, a public cancellation in 2020, a five-year hiatus in the organiser’s own words, two fall editions standing alone, and a stated ending with an unnamed successor promised for 2027. That trail, conflicts included, is the whole story the record supports. No organiser layer gives this event a founding year, a festival name, or a 2026 date, and this account invents none of those three.
