Upper Reach Winery Twilight Concerts in the Swan Valley

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Music, wine and a picnic at sunset overlooking a gorgeous vineyard – what more could one ask for really? I don’t know about you, but that’s the perfect combination for me on a Saturday evening after a very looooong week.

Mr. Spittoon and I were gifted two complimentary tickets from the Upper Reach Winery team to their latest twilight concert. We had the choice to go to any of the upcoming concerts however after reading the blurb on the Feb 14th music act, I just couldn’t say no to that one!

The music for the evening was by the Soul Sessions Fidelity, a local and relatively newly put together band who played the likes of  Stevie Wonder, Prince, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Justin Timberlake and Michael Jackson with an awesome touch of free-style rapping (see some video snippets at the end of this post). The slick presentation of the 6 guys in the group was fantastic, dressed in dashing suits and ties,  they really set the scene and mood for their soulful tunes which had virtually everyone up and dancing by the end of the night. The atmosphere was brilliant!

The music started at 6:30pm and finished up about 9:30pm, it was the perfect way to spend an evening out in the beautiful weather of Perth’s Swan Valley. Tickets to the Upper Reach Twilight Concerts cost $36 per adult and $15 for children 2-17 years old. On this particular night their was a mix of couples like us, families and groups of ladies out on girls’ nights.

Thank-fully I had been passed on the tip to get there as soon as the doors open at 5:30pm to get a good spot and we managed to get one right up the front with a fantastic view. It’s just a pity that the eager dances from behind us weren’t so careful when heading to the dance floor up the front as they must have stood on Mr. Spittoon’s feet/legs about 50 times!

There is plentiful parking options at the winery (so you just need to con a sober driver for the evening) and we found it super easy to get an Uber taxi to and from the event. We were a bit worried that it would take ages to get a cab home, but we got one within 5 mins.

The whole idea is to take a picnic, find a cosy spot and enjoy the night. The cellar door is open all night long so you can buy bottles of wine at cellar door prices as well as glasses, water and ice-bucket bags if needed. We ended up downing a bottle of bubbles ($35) and a fabulous bottle of Semillon ($30) during the concert and we brought home a bottle of bubbles too. It’s rude to leave empty-handed right? Anyway I think I’ll be heading back soon to stock up on that Sem as it was absolutely stunning! The sparkling is an old favourite, you can read my tasting note of the Upper Reach bubbles here.
Also note that there is no BYO alcohol, your bags will be checked at the door. Plus there is plenty of good wine at the cellar door to purchase anyway 🙂

Being the complete winos that we are, we of course had everything we could need in our awesome Thermos picnic backpack. We recently purchased this bag, so it was an awesome debut for it and I must say both Mr.S and I were very happy with how it performed! Of course we upgraded the plastic glassware to some shatterproof Champagne flutes, upgraded the corkscrew to our favourite one and chucked in a Champagne stopper just to make it perfect for wino picnics like this one.

If you’re looking for more of a swish night out and don’t care for glamping on the grass, you can also book in at Broads Restaurant to enjoy the live music from your own private table with fabulous service and food. Make sure you try to get in early to request a table on the balcony so you can have the best view in the house.

If you haven’t been to a twilight concert at Upper Reach, I would definitely suggest you get your A into G and get to one. There are only 2 left for the year, one on the 28th of Feb and the other on the 14th of March. You can find more info on the Upper Reach website here.

A HUGE thank-you to Upper Reach for the invite, we had an absolutely fabulous time! Check out some snippets of the concert below, and excuse my shotty camera-man skills!