Brighton Center's 19th annual Wine Over Water fundraiser returns to the Purple People Bridge on Saturday, Sept. 12, running from 5:30 to 9 p.m., with wine, local food and live music spread across the historic span connecting Newport and Cincinnati. The event typically draws around 700 attendees and comes as ticket prices are set to rise starting September 1, giving procrastinators one last day to lock in the lower rate.
The fundraiser, first reported by Cincinnati CityBeat, will feature tastings from a lineup of regional food and beverage vendors, including Alexandria Brewing Company, Center Table, Catering with a Purpose, City BBQ and Gee's Caribbean Kitchen. Additional vendors on the bridge will include Modern Water, New Riff, The Little Spoon Cafe, Lumpia Queen and Newport Pizza Company, alongside The Party Source, Tito's Vodka, WX Brands, Revival Bottle Shop and Stonebrook Winery. Live performances from About Last Night and Seanti-Aeris will provide the evening's soundtrack, according to the same report.
General admission tickets are priced at $50 and include six food tasting tickets, six beverage tasting tickets and a commemorative tasting glass, per the outlet's reporting. VIP tables, meanwhile, run $250 for two guests or $500 for four, and come with curated wines from The Party Source, a complimentary wine tumbler, heavy appetizers, a private reserved table in a dedicated tented area for the night, and access to every food and beverage stop across the bridge.
A Milestone Year for Brighton Center
“Wine Over Water celebrates community with purpose,” said Wonda Winkler, president and CEO of Brighton Center, according to CityBeat's report. The nonprofit is marking its 60th anniversary in 2026, having been founded in 1966 as a storefront community center on Eighth and Brighton Streets in Newport to help rural Appalachian families adjust to urban life, according to the Northern Kentucky Tribune. Winkler, who joined the agency more than three decades ago, also leads Brighton Properties, Inc., a subsidiary that manages 308 income-aligned housing units across Northern Kentucky, per the same report.
Every ticket sold directly supports Brighton Center's work in early childhood education, workforce development, housing and basic needs, the outlet notes. In its 2025–2026 reporting period, the agency served 26,602 individuals — ranging from infants to senior citizens — across 45 distinct community programs in Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati, according to Brighton Center's own figures. Those programs include family support services, education, employment and leadership initiatives.
Funding Programs Like the Scholar House
Among the concrete projects underwritten by fundraisers like Wine Over Water is the Northern Kentucky Scholar House in Newport, which provides 48 subsidized apartments and an on-site child development center for low-income single parents pursuing college degrees, according to Brighton Center. The multi-generational campus lets parents earn degrees while their children receive quality early education nearby. As part of the 60th-anniversary celebration, Brighton Center also partnered with New Riff Distilling to release a commemorative single-barrel bourbon bottle etched with the organization's anniversary logo.
Brighton Center's growth from a micro-budget operation into a major regional institution has been decades in the making. The agency became a United Way partner agency in 1970, when it received an initial $10,000 allocation out of a total annual budget of just $25,000, according to tax filings reviewed by ProPublica. Today it operates as a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving tens of thousands of people annually across housing, workforce and early-childhood services.
The Bridge Behind the Party
The venue itself carries its own layered history. The Purple People Bridge originally opened on April 1, 1872, as the Newport and Cincinnati Bridge — the first railroad span across the Ohio River in the region — before a $4 million restoration reopened it as a pedestrian-only bridge in 2003, according to TrailLink. Officially named the Newport Southbank Bridge, the 2,670-foot structure got its popular nickname after community focus groups chose purple paint during the early-2000s restoration, per background from the bridge's own website. Economic development group Southbank Partners spearheaded the conversion, transforming a former streetcar and automobile crossing into the recreational and event space it is today.
The bridge routinely hosts major regional gatherings beyond Wine Over Water, including the 11th annual Boom on the Bridge fireworks watch party during Riverfest, scheduled for Sept. 6. Hoodline has also covered other food and drink events on the same span, including the Margarita Madness tasting festival earlier in August, underscoring how central the crossing has become to the region's calendar of civic and culinary events.
