The Hydrofest Flyer Still Says WineGirl Wines. The Building Isn't a Winery Anymore.

If you've grabbed a copy of the Manson HydroFest schedule for the weekend of September 25 through 27, you already know where the Friday night kickoff is supposed to happen. WineGirl Wines, downtown Manson, five to nine, meet the drivers and get a close look at the boats before the racing starts. That's the same instruction the flyer has carried for years.

The building at that address hasn't poured a glass of wine since last September.

That's not a rumor passed around the dock. It's a business story that played out in the Wenatchee World last fall, and it matters more to Crystal View Estates residents than it does to weekend visitors, because you're the ones who'll actually walk down Wapato Way expecting a tasting room and find something else standing in its place. Here's what's true this year, what's changed since the flyer was written, and what the rest of the weekend still gets right.

What's Actually Happening on the Water

The racing itself hasn't moved. Hydroplanes run in Manson Bay Saturday and Sunday, September 26 and 27, under a Pacific Northwest Boat Racing Association sanction, with heats that in past years have started late morning, somewhere around 10 or 11 a.m. Organizers typically don't post exact daily start times until closer to the event, so if you're planning your Saturday around the first heat, it's worth checking the Chamber's page the week of rather than trusting a schedule printed in August.

Three spots handle most of the crowd, and each does something different:

• Manson Bay Park sits directly on the course and costs nothing to use, which makes it the default choice. It's grassy, has a swim area, and shares a shoreline with the marina. The tradeoff is that dogs aren't allowed inside the park, so if your Saturday plan includes a leash, you'll want a different vantage point.
• The boardwalk running from downtown to the park and marina is short, level, and gives you a rotating set of angles on the course without committing to one patch of grass. It also keeps you close to food and restrooms, which matters more than it sounds like it would by hour three of racing.
• Downtown Manson along Wapato Way works best if you'd rather park once and walk. The compact footprint means you can duck into a shop or grab a snack and still make it back to the shoreline before the next heat.

None of that has changed. What has changed is the building you'd walk past to get there.

The Building That Isn't There Anymore

WineGirl Wines opened its Manson tasting room, known locally as The Blending Room, back in 2010. It closed that location on September 1, 2025, as part of a broader transition. New owners took over the brand and began pouring instead at Stella's Boutique and Wine Bar in Leavenworth, with plans to expand to Lake Life at 146 E. Woodin Ave in downtown Chelan and to a third spot in Ellensburg. The former Manson building, meanwhile, is being converted into a sports bar and pool hall, with a commercial kitchen, a full bar, and big screen TVs planned for the space.

That means the Friday night registration party, if it happens under the old name at all this year, isn't happening in a wine bar. It might not be happening at that address at all.

The address on the flyer is right. The business behind the door hasn't poured Hydrofest's kickoff wine in a year.

If you want to see the boats up close on Friday evening the way you have in past years, the safest move is to check the Manson Chamber's HydroFest page the week of the event rather than assume the printed schedule is current. If you're just after a glass of something local before the racing starts, Lake Life on Woodin Ave is now the closer bet, and it's a drive most Crystal View Estates residents already make for downtown errands anyway.

Pit Passes, the Kid Zone, and What Doesn't Change

The parts of Hydrofest that have nothing to do with a tasting room's address are the parts that have stayed consistent year over year. Pit passes, which get you close enough to talk to drivers and see the boats between heats, typically go on sale online in late August through the Chamber's page. In recent years, a one-day pass has run around $10, two-day around $15, with family passes covering up to two adults and three kids priced near $25 for one day and $40 for two. Passes are also sold in person during the event, usually at a booth near Manson Bay Park.

The Kid Zone runs through the racing hours with games and craft activities aimed at younger kids, and a lakeside stage carries live music into the evening once the day's heats wrap up. Food vendors lean on Chelan Valley sourcing, and in years past that's included the Manson Fire Department selling burgers and hot dogs as a fundraiser for local assistance programs, a detail that tells you more about the scale of this event than any attendance number would. It's still small enough that the volunteer fire department can run a grill table and make a dent in a community fund.

If You'd Rather Skip the Crowd Entirely

Not every Crystal View Estates household wants three days of engine noise on the water, and late September gives you a real alternative that doesn't require leaving the neighborhood's orbit. Chelan Ranch, out on the orchard roads above Manson, runs its u-pick season through September with organic SweeTango and Honeycrisp apples, plus a discounted rate on blueberry picking as that crop winds down for the year. It's a quieter version of the same week, with a bucket and a farm stand instead of a shoreline and a loudspeaker, and it works well as a Sunday morning plan if you've had enough of Saturday's crowd.

Either way you spend it, this is the kind of weekend where the details that changed matter as much as the ones that didn't. Manson Bay Park is still free and still the best view on the water. The Chamber still runs pit passes the same way it always has. But the building on Wapato Way that's supposed to kick off the whole weekend has spent the better part of a year being something other than a winery, and the flyer hasn't caught up yet.

If you're the kind of neighbor who likes catching these details before they trip up a weekend plan, that's the same instinct that makes Lake Chelan worth knowing well beyond any single event on the calendar. For more of what's actually happening around the valley, season by season, Jessie Simmons keeps a running local guide worth bookmarking.