Art Coast Food & Wine Festival
The inaugural Art Coast Food & Wine Festival brought three distinct experiences to the waterfront at Singapore Yacht Club in Saugatuck, Michigan, from November 5–7, 2026. Thursday’s Welcome Luau kicked off the weekend, Friday’s Club Sugar paired a DJ set with live violin, and Saturday’s Grand Tasting featured wine tastings, live music, and cooking demonstrations from a chef lineup headlined by Kristen Kish, celebrity chef and host of Top Chef.
Brothers Molloy Events provided full-service event production, working directly alongside the chamber and festival organizers as one team. We brought our production experience into day-to-day planning, from building the budget and coordinating chef bookings to sourcing vendors, supporting permitting, and creating the run of show. On site, we oversaw the installation of an 85-by-200-foot temporary event venue pavilion and coordinated the staging, power, audiovisual equipment, and rentals that allowed it to serve three different events.
A core BME crew spent a full week on site, arriving three days before the first event and staying two days after the last. Our full seven-person team was on site for five days, working 14-, 13-, and 14-hour shifts across three consecutive event days. The team started flipping the space from Club Sugar to the Grand Tasting at 11 p.m. Friday, finished at 1 a.m., and were back on site at 6 a.m. That overnight reset turned a late-night party into a daytime tasting venue with a working demonstration kitchen and food and beverage stations for the festival finale.
During the Grand Tasting, our team coordinated headlining talent, kept the cooking demos and live music on schedule, and worked with caterers and volunteer runners so guests could taste the dishes they’d just watched chefs prepare. At the same time, the team managed guest entry, coat check, vendor needs, and sponsor activations.
One comment we heard repeatedly was that the festival ran like it had been around for ten years. People were also surprised by how much seven people handled.
With experienced staff who knew their roles and could step in wherever they were needed, a seven-person crew could feel like a team of twenty.
Brothers Molloy Events Provided:
Full-service production in close partnership with the chamber and festival organizers
Budget and ticketing guidance, chef and winery coordination, and permitting and safety planning support
Oversight of the 85-by-200-foot temporary event venue pavilion installation, plus staging, power, audiovisual equipment, and rentals
An event worksheet covering site layouts, crew assignments, vendor load-in and load-out, and the run of show
A week of on-site production coverage, including five days with the full seven-person crew
Overnight venue resets between the Welcome Luau, Club Sugar, and Grand Tasting
Talent coordination and stage management, including support for headlining chef Kristen Kish
Guest entry, coat check, volunteer coordination, sponsor activations, and tasting service logistics
Teardown, rental removal, and final site close-out
