GSDP revs up for unWINE Downtown

The Greater Starkville Development Partnership is selling tickets for its upcoming retail promotional event — the second 2017 unWINE Downtown scheduled for Tuesday.

Tickets are available on the unWINE Downtown website and at the office on Main Street for $20.

The GSDP hosts three unWINE events every year, and February's event was so popular that glasses were sold out. Registration for the event on Tuesday begins at 5:30 p.m. and ends at 6:30 p.m.

The event is geared toward driving foot traffic on Main Street until after it ends at 9:30 p.m.

GSDP Interim Director of Tourism Jennifer Prather said the retail promotion event couples wine-tasting with night-time shopping. Each participating shop will feature a different type of wine, so participants can travel from store to store tasting a variety of flavors and browsing different merchandise. Stores also host sales during the unWINE event, with merchandise in stores being 20 percent off to participants.

“UnWINE Downtown is designed to expose a group of people to the unique and vast shopping opportunities that are offered in our town while at the same time furthering the quality event experiences that we hope to provide for our residents and visitors,” Prather said.

The GSDP will launch its fall schedule of events on Aug. 1 where it will list the dates of the final 2017 unWINE Downtown event as well as the second annual Night Market. The Night Market is another event that promotes eating and shopping local.

“We find that our market of customers at events are different every time, which is really exciting for us from the prospective of promoting retail,” Prather said. “We feel like anytime we can diversify the foot traffic that is in our retail stores gives them more exposure to a different market.”