Ozarks Public Television cancels annual Wine & Food Celebration

Ozarks Public Television has canceled an annual event that doubles as a tasting for local food and wine and a fundraiser for children's educational programming at the station.

The cancellation of the 36th annual Wine & Food Celebration was announced on the event's Facebook page yesterday and on OPTV.org; it had been scheduled for Oct. 18. In a statement posted to the website, Ozarks Public Television officials cited challenges in the food and beverage industry, specifically that businesses are "navigating significant pressures, including staffing shortages and rising costs."  

Rachel Knight, general manager of Ozarks Public Broadcasting, said in an email to Springfield Business Journal this morning that the 2025 event was canceled "because we were unable to secure sufficient participation from vendors."

"With the challenges facing both the hospitality and beverage industries, we were not going to be able to achieve the level of participation we have had in years past," Knight said. "Rather than fall short of the event’s decades long legacy, we wanted to end on a high note."

Knight said it is unlikely that Wine & Food Celebration would return next year.

The 2024 event netted roughly $26,000 for children's programming on Ozarks Public Television, she said, noting attendance was around 500.

"While that was up from the prior year, it was below historic averages," Knight added. "The event had yet to fully recover from the challenges posed by the pandemic, and it became clear this year that layers of challenges were going to make that rebound impossible."

The cancellation also follows Ozarks Public Broadcasting's recent funding cut of roughly $1.3 million annually from the federal government. However, the federal funding cut was not mentioned in the Wine & Food Celebration statement, nor by Knight. 

Earlier this year, a similar event called Taste of SoMo was postponed to this fall. The Downtown Springfield Association, which organizes the annual downtown restaurant sampling event, cited rising food costs and wages for vendors, according to past reporting. 

The Taste of SoMo page on the DSA website does not currently list a date.