About this guide
Food Festivals Guide lists food festivals and culinary experiences around the world, each one tied to a destination: a town, a region, a country. A listing says where and when it takes place, how to get there, what to taste, what to book ahead and which sources the facts come from.
What the guide covers
- Food festivals: harvest and wine fairs, beer festivals, truffle and cheese fairs, seafood weekends and town feasts where food or drink is at the heart of the event.
- Food tours: guided walks through a neighbourhood or a market, with tastings along the way.
- Winery and distillery visits: tastings at the cellar door and guided tours of vineyards, cellars and stills.
- Producer visits: farms, mills and estates that open their doors to visitors and end the visit with a tasting.
- Tastings run by a producer or a cellar, and weekly food markets that draw visitors from well beyond their own town.
Two things are outside the scope of the guide. Cooking classes are left out: a class is something you book once you are already there, not a reason to make the trip. Christmas markets are left out as well.
Who it is for
Travellers who plan a trip around food: a weekend built around a festival, a city break with a food tour, a wine region visited from one cellar to the next. It also serves people who already know where they are going and want to see what is on while they are there. The advice stays practical: when to arrive, how crowded it gets, how to get there, what it costs and what sells out.
How a listing is chosen
One question decides: is this worth a trip and a night on site? A festival or a visit enters the guide when people travel for it and book somewhere to stay. Food or drink does not have to be the only attraction, but it has to be one of the main ones.
Each festival also carries a reach level, so you can tell a destination in itself from a good stop on the way:
- Worth the trip: an event people cross a continent for.
- Worth a weekend: a reason to spend one or two nights in the area.
- Day out: a visit for the day, from where you are staying.
- Local gathering: a regular event worth fitting into a stay in town.
A listing goes in or stays out on this criterion alone. Commercial links have no say in it: how the guide earns money is explained on the Transparency page.
Languages
The guide is written in English. French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and traditional Chinese versions are in preparation. Each page opens in a language once its translation has been reviewed.
Who publishes the guide
Food Festivals Guide is published by Empanada Group, a French simplified joint-stock company (société par actions simplifiée) based in Paris. Its full details are on the Legal notice page.
To report a mistake or ask for a listing to be updated, use the Contact page.