Deep Creek Lake Art, Wine & Beer Fest

The twenty-second annual Deep Creek Lake Art, Wine & Spirits Festival unfolds across two days in Maryland’s western highlands, beginning Friday, September 11, 2026, with a Premium Wine & Spirits Tasting from five to eight in the evening, featuring expertly curated vintages from wineries around the world alongside single-barrel bourbons distilled exclusively for the event and signed by their creators. Saturday, September 12, brings the main celebration to the Garrett County Fairgrounds in McHenry, running from noon to six, where visitors can sample more than two hundred regional, national, and international wines, explore craft spirits ranging from small-batch tequilas to handcrafted vodkas and whiskeys, and browse handcrafted works from dozens of local and regional artisans displaying everything from oil paintings and hand-carved woodwork to artisan jewelry and painted furniture.

Ticket options include wine-only tastings, spirits-only tastings, combination passes, and Friday-Saturday packages with advance purchase discounts, and all adult tasting tickets include a coupon redeemable at the on-site Wine & Spirits Store. Please note that pets are not permitted at the festival, though many area lodging partners welcome four-legged guests, and all proceeds benefit HART for Animals, the local nonprofit dedicated to rescuing and rehoming animals throughout western Maryland and the tri-state region.

The festival traces its origins to 2004, when the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce’s newly formed Marketing Roundtable sought an attraction that would fill beds after Labor Day, when summer crowds retreated down the mountain. Wine festivals had proven successful elsewhere, and the concept seemed suited to an area already known for scenic drives and leisurely afternoons—though the committee nearly foundered when they discovered, after months of planning and advertising materials at the printer, that their original venue wouldn’t satisfy liquor board requirements. A hasty phone call outside the courthouse secured the fairgrounds, and what began that first year with wine sold through the window of the fair board’s cramped office has grown into one of the region’s premier autumn gatherings, drawing nearly three thousand visitors annually. The Football Lounge screens the college game of the week while Mountain State Brewing Company pours craft beers on tap, and the cigar bar, supplied by The Stogie Co. with boutique blends hand-rolled in Estelí, Nicaragua—one of the few remaining factories using traditional Cuban triple-cap construction—offers a genteel refuge for those who prefer their relaxation wreathed in smoke.

Deep Creek Lake itself exists because of a different kind of engineering ambition. In the early 1920s, the Youghiogheny Hydro-Electric Corporation set about damming Deep Creek, a tranquil stream flowing between Roman Nose Ridge and Marsh Hill Ridge, to generate power for industrial customers in western Pennsylvania. Workers cleared thousands of trees from the valley floor, relocated fifteen miles of roads, and constructed a 1,340-foot earthen dam that sealed the creek about eight miles north of Oakland. Heavy rains and snowfall filled the reservoir in mere months rather than the anticipated half-year, and on May 26, 1925, at four in the afternoon, the hydroelectric plant hummed to life, sending water through a seven-thousand-foot tunnel to twin turbines capable of generating twenty megawatts. The resulting lake—Maryland’s largest freshwater body at 3,900 acres with sixty-five miles of shoreline—lies west of the Eastern Continental Divide, its waters eventually flowing to the Gulf of Mexico via the Youghiogheny, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers. The state of Maryland purchased the lake bed in 2000 for seventeen million dollars, and today the reservoir’s controlled releases support both a renowned trout fishery and some of the most challenging whitewater kayaking and rafting runs on the East Coast.

Saturday’s festivities pair naturally with the rich food scene that has grown up around the lake. Mountain State Brewing Company, which opened its Deep Creek outpost in August 2008 as the first brewpub in Garrett County, serves wood-fired flatbreads and handcrafted ales like their Cold Trail Blonde and Seneca IPA in a rustic log interior that captures the mountain’s bluegrass soul. Ace’s Run Restaurant & Pub occupies the historic Will O’ The Wisp property where Helmuth “Ace” Heise and his wife Evelyn first welcomed guests in 1953, opening their Four Seasons Dining Room in 1961 to instant acclaim for its panoramic lake views—vintage photographs throughout the current restaurant trace that half-century of lakeside hospitality. For something more intimate, Dutch’s at Silver Tree has served the community since the building operated as the Silver Tree Inn beginning in 1976, though the site’s history stretches back further still to its days as the Nemacolin Inn, when the menu offered only two entrées and guests arrived by roads that existed more in hope than fact.

Ready to raise a glass where the Appalachian ridges meet Maryland’s largest lake? Start planning your stay now on Lake.com.