Some people attend monthly conferences. Others follow their favorite band around the country. But for a true taste of something different, why not travel the world hitting different food festivals at various exciting locations every month on a year-long global food tour? There are certainly worse ways to spend 12 months.
Resolve to eat better in the year ahead with this month-by-month guide to taste-tempting food festivals around North America.
January: Cayman Cookout
Calling the Cayman Cookout on Grand Cayman “the culinary event of the year” is not hyperbole. Not when you’ve got celebrity chefs like Eric Ripert, José Andrés, Emeril Lagasse, Andrew Zimmern and Stephanie Izard cooking up a massive high-end feast at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman’s picture-perfect Seven Mile Beach in the middle of January.
The event includes wine and beverage experts, as well as events like the Barefoot BBQ night event with live music, storytelling, cooking demos, beach games and more. Don’t ask questions. Just go.
February: South Beach Wine & Food Festival
As if spending five days in Miami in February isn’t already attractive enough of an option, throw in the massive food bacchanal that is the South Beach Wine & Food Festival and the call of South Beach becomes too loud to ignore.
With 100+ events taking place at various locations across Miami-Dade and Broward counties, you’ll join approximately 65,000 other guests hungry to see, hear and, of course, taste offerings from the leaders of the hospitality industry.
With a celebrity-rich roster of talent, including Martha Stewart, Rachael Ray, Guy Fieri, Bobby Flay, and many more, events include beach dinners, pizza parties, brunches, pool parties and seminars on how to make an array of eats, from pasta to pie to sushi.
March: Hilton Head Food and Wine Festival
Welcome the spring season on Hilton Head, South Carolina, with the annual Hilton Head Wine and Food Festival, which includes wine seminars, a local chef showdown, live entertainment and plenty of delectable down-home tastings.
The main Public Tasting event includes a gourmet challenge, 250+ wines and the famed waiter’s race, with additional events including a wine stroll, beachside brunch, low country food event with live music at sunset, and a New Orleans cuisine cooking class.
April: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
You’re bound to enjoy New Orleans’ arts and food scenes no matter the time of year, but a visit during the city’s famous New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival steps it up a notch.
While the Jazz Fest might be best known for its crowd-pleasing lineup of music performances (across all genres, not solely jazz), the food offerings are carefully considered, as well.
Sample dishes from dozens of Louisiana-based vendors, which offer everything from seafood and sausage to vegetarian options and refreshing desserts. Walk around and taste what’s happening.
May: BottleRock Napa Valley
Napa Valley has long been synonymous with some of the best wines on Earth. But it’s also become known for rock — at least when the BottleRock festival comes to town over Memorial Day weekend.
A food fest and music fest mashed into one, BottleRock has all the trapping of a culinary festival, such as gourmet food from Napa Valley’s finest chefs and restaurants paired with various stages of live music and dozens of wine cabanas where you can mingle with your favorite vintners.
There’s also a spa, silent disco, and art area, paired with dozens of musical acts, which in the past have included Imagine Dragons, Neil Young, Mumford & Sons, Santana and Pharrell Williams.
June: Food & Wine Classic in Aspen
While Aspen is of course known as one of the world’s premier ski destinations, summer is becoming an increasingly popular time to visit this mountain haven. And with the Food & Wine Classic popping up in downtown Aspen in June, food and wine lovers will have an even harder time staying away.
This event, sponsored by Food & Wine magazine, attracts a more intimate crowd of about 4,000 people who graze the Grand Tasting Pavilion sampling wines and dishes from around the world paired with stunning mountain scenery. The event also includes cooking demonstrations, parties, panel discussions, brand activations and more.
July: Key Lime Festival
Unlike some of the more fancy, pinky-in-the-air foodie events around the country, there’s nothing pretentious about the Key Lime Festival held over Fourth of July weekend.
As fun-loving and unapologetically weird as Key West itself, this event dedicated to the Key lime pie (which was invented in Key West) features Key lime pie making demonstrations and seminars, Key lime pie eating contests, Key lime cocktails and a Fourth of July fireworks picnic taking place at locations across Key West.
Don’t miss some of the more out-there events, like the Key Lime Pie Drop, during which local residents and festival attendees attempt to drop a Key lime pie from the top of a local lighthouse without damaging the pie. For real.
August: Maine Lobster Festival
It’s no surprise that a state as lobster-crazy as Portland, Maine, throws one of the premier lobster events of the year, Maine Lobster Festival. Rolling out over the first weekend of August, the festival cooks up 20,000 pounds of lobster for attendees. So, if a menu of lobster rolls, mac and cheese and bisque gets your taste buds watering, this is the place to be.
Between bites, cheer on amateur chefs in the seafood cooking contest, explore the Art Tent featuring works by Maine artists and savor local beer, wine and spirits at the Steins & Vines tasting.
Feeling competitive? Sign up for the International Great Crate Race, which will have you sprinting across floating lobster crates as quickly as you can.
September: Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta
Art is everywhere you look in Santa Fe. And the creative vibe that permeates every inch of one of America’s most unique cities fully extends to its food scene, with the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta showcasing the best of the region and beyond at locations across Santa Fe.
Pairing dozens of local restaurants with national wineries, the event typically features cooking demonstrations, wine seminars, winery lunches and dinners, a silent auction and a grand tasting event, as well as additional fun excursions (think a golf outing, bike ride, film festival and Champagne brunch).
October: Hawaii Food & Wine Festival
Billed as “the premium epicurean destination event in the Pacific,” the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival seeks to attract attention to Hawaii’s extraordinary culinary talent while promoting locally grown products.
Featuring chefs from across Hawaii and around the world, the festival’s October events take place on the Island of Hawaii over the course of a single weekend (later weekend-long events on Oahu and Maui follow separately). Festivalgoers may experience a wide range of culinary programming, including a Indigenous cuisines tasting, kid-centric culinary adventures, wine tastings and more.
November: Cornucopia
There’s more to Whistler than just skiing and mountains (although both of those remain phenomenal). There’s also food. Good food. And lots of it.
Dive into the finest tastes from the Pacific Northwest and beyond at Cornucopia, Whistler’s premier, 11-day celebration of food and drink. Fresh ideas and inspiration are as important as the tasting events here, and drink seminars, chef lunches and winemaker dinners help make this festival a must-visit.
Past events have included live comedy, a spa bubble bath, a silent disco and an art museum party at locations across Whistler.
December: Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival
By the time December rolls around — and with it cooler temperatures across North America — you might be ready to flock to sunny South Florida. And Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival is the perfect excuse to do so.
This multiday festival in Palm Beach brings together a celebrity-studded list of chefs, including the likes of Maneet Chauhan, Robert Irvine and Daniel Boulud. Eat your fill at themed tastings, chef chats, more formal, seated meals and other enticing culinary events.
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