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WHAT: Pensacola Martini Festival.
WHEN: 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: Palafox Place, downtown Pensacola.
TICKETS: $20 in advance; $30 at the door.
DETAILS: Visit www.pensacolamartinifestival.com.
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With events in downtown Pensacola growing increasingly popular, the Pensacola Martini Festival is adding to the downtown festivities by moving its annual charity event to Palafox Place from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Marcus Story, co-owner of Live Nightclub, originally organized the event, which was previously known as the Perdido Key Martini Festival, to bring business to the Perdido Key area during the off-season and raise money for charity. Each year, the festival grew and the number of charities increased significantly.
"We find nonprofit and charity organizations, and we donate tickets to them," Story said. "They sell the tickets and keep 100 percent of the money. They pre-sell the tickets for $20 (each) and (they keep) all $20 of it. So this raises thousands and thousands of dollars for charities."
While the charitable mission continues, Story sees moving to downtown Pensacola as a chance to grow the festival and to bring more foot traffic to Palafox Place businesses.
"Not only is it a charity fundraiser, not only is it a fun event, but it does have a huge economic impact on the surrounding businesses," Story said. Charities benefiting from this year's Martini Festival include the Jazz Society of Pensacola, Perdido Bay Youth Sports Association, the American Cancer Society, Jef Bond Kidney Foundation, and Asperger's Syndrome and Autism Research and Rehabilitation Institute, Inc.
Presale tickets also are available at local Gulf Coast Community Bank branches.
Tickets sold the day of the festival are $30.
Those who attend will have four hours of unlimited liquor sampling. About 20 sampling booths will be set up on Palafox Place between Garden and Intendencia Streets, and each booth will have five to seven different liquors to taste.
"It's just a great way to introduce customers to the vast variety of different tastes and liquors that are out there," Story said.
Arts and crafts vendors and event sponsors will also be set up. Dewey Rose and Bad Habits will take turns performing on the entertainment stage. The Extreme Bartenders from Vancouver will be performing high-energy flair, and the DMS Acrobatic Break Dancers from New Orleans will be showing off their skills.
But the main event for the festival is the Gulf Coast Bartender Competition. Local bartenders will battle for cash, prizes and the title of "Best Bartender on the Coast."
"Basically it's the who's who of bartending," Story said. "We're actually the largest bartending competition in the South. They have three minutes to make the best martini they can come up with. It's very, very intense. I mean, these bartenders have been working for months to get ready for it.
Katie Helpman, a bartender at Live Nightclub, has participated in the bartending competition for the past three years, and she has been practicing for months to perfect her signature martini.
"Guys have won every single year, and I know them well, but I want to be the first female," Helpman said. "I'm really excited about it. I've been working on this (specific) one, but I'm going to have a couple back-up ones just in case I tie (with another contestant). I think that moving downtown is going to be bigger and better and more people will know about it."
Last year, Patrick Bolster of 5½ Bar & Lounge won the title for the second time — the contest's only repeat winner.
A panel of judges from five of the event sponsors will judge each contestant's concoction based on taste, presentation, skill level and originality. Martinis are then auctioned off to the highest bidder.
"We had one of them go last year for more than $500," Story said.
The bartender with the best score at the end of the competition wins a minimum of $2,000 cash plus martini auction proceeds, a trophy and the title "Best Bartender on the Gulf Coast." Second and third place winners receive trophies and $500 and $250, respectively. All contestants will receive a goodie bag full of prizes.
For more information, visit www.pensacolamartinifestival.com.
