Fuyu Fest 2026

Sunday, February 22nd, 2026
The Redd on Salmon
1-5 PM, 21+ with ID

Fuyu Fest is a Portland, Oregon sake festival celebrating Winter in the Pacific Northwest.

Entering our fourth year (!), Fuyu Fest is an exploratory, educational, PNW Winter-themed sake festival, with activities, demos, food, artists and cultural activities in addition to tasting just over 100 curated sake with the passionate people who make and import them.

Local food, coffee, and specialty vendors will have lunch, snacks and other goods available from 1PM onward (a great opportunity to check in early), while passionate sake professionals will fill your glasses and your minds from 2-5PM. Visitors to Portland can also expect classes, collabs and popups around the weekend in support of the main festival. 

20% of ticket revenues, a majority of our net, is donated to SE Portland senior lunch and community program, Ikoi no Kai.

Ticket types:

There are two Fuyu Fest ticket types available before January 1st: 

Early Bird ($79-- limited to 200)
Early Bird + Commemorative sakazuki (two types) 

In addition to this, you'll find a ticket type JUST for additional sakazuki:
+ Commemorative sakazuki only (this does NOT include admission to the festival).

After 1/1/25, Early Bird pricing will be replaced with General Admission pricing ($89). 
Note: 500 tickets are available-- this is 75 more than 2025, and <50% the size of Sake Day SF. 

What is a commemorative sakazuki?

Every year, we collaborate with a talented artist to produce a custom sakazuki-- sake cup-- that you, Fuyu Fest ticket holders, can opt to purchase. These commemorative sakazuki are individually made works of art designed in collaboration with Sunflower Sake. 

This idea was born from the frustration I felt with all the "collectible" branded tasting cups and glasses I've received attending wine, beer and sake festivals over the years. Almost all of these are low quality, produced in bulk... they're not a pleasure to drink from. They detract from our enjoyment of the sake, and honestly, most are destined for thrift store shelves or landfill. 

As an artist myself, I wanted to offer an alternative to our attendees while also supporting the artist community here in Portland, and perhaps even introducing you to the incredible world of thoughtfully handmade shuki (sake wares). We choose a different artist every year, embracing a wide variety of shapes, materials and designs.

For 2026, our sakazuki artist is Maria Enomoto. Maria is a glass artist based in Portland, Oregon-- for a bit about her background and philosophy, see this article in CanvasRebel Magazine. While she primarily works in glass, Maria is a very talented painter and ceramic artist as well, employing beautiful, bright poppy colors and surreal, moody shapes my excessively literal mind could only dream of. 

It's expensive to make glass-- really expensive! I was shocked when Maria and I spoke about the material and energy costs, including the kiln (literal energy) as well as the many stages and deep individual attention required to form a shape from melting glass freehand, apply color, and finish. As such, our 2026 sakazuki is particularly special-- I'm not sure we'll see glass much again. But I'm especially excited about it because we were able to work with Maria to design two different sakazuki I'm thrilled to use myself. 

Sakazuki orders placed before 1/1/25 are guaranteed, but after 1/1 supplies will be limited and may sell out. As each one is handmade, she will need time to complete orders. You can meet the artist at Fuyu Fest, where she'll be vending additional works (perhaps complete the set with a matching snack dish?), as well as our prior years' sakazuki and poster artists.

Activities

Demos and Experiences: many more to be announced

Collaborations

Commemorative Sakazuki 2026
Every year, Sunflower Sake collaborates with a local PNW artist to create a limited edition piece of functional art. Works like these add to your sake experience, bringing depth and beauty beyond the drink itself, & contribute to the PNW artists’ community we are so proud of. Please note that Maria's glassware are one of a kind due to the very nature of glass blowing, and as a result, you can expect a slight variation in size, shape and color. Your sakazuki will be washed and ready to pick up and use at Fuyu Fest 2026 as you enter the event hall.
You are still welcome to use/take a regular Fuyu Fest tasting cup in addition to your commemorative cup-- Fuyu Fest tasting cups are still mass-produced, but made of natural, sustainable materials like wood, bamboo or ceramic.

Artist Statement
“My love for making one-of-a-kind works come from my love for how colors change under different circumstances. Especially in glass, there is a lot of variation to contend with, and instead of fighting it, I like to embrace it by trying to understand what the material wants to do over what I would like. I love the back and forth of reacting and responding to the material world.

What sets me apart from other artists is perhaps my deep love for color. What’s interesting to me is not just color, but the ways in which colors are a result of reacting to its environment. There’s a kind of instability in colors because of how, say, metal oxides or pigments will react in a reductive or oxidative environment. As in glass, there’s also an element of the colors reacting to each other when they make contact. Not only that, there’s the element of transparency and opacity in glass, which is a great consideration when conceiving a work of interest.

When I design something, I take a long time considering color. I work slowly, and I work deliberately, with the understanding that as an artist, I have the ability to make each object unique."

Website: https://www.mariaenomoto.com
Instagram: @maria_made_a_thing

Artist Bio
Maria Enomoto has been working with glass since 2011, graduating with a BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design. She currently lives and works in Portland, Oregon primarily in glass at the Vitreluxe studio, while also dabbling in ceramics and painting.

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