Austin Food & Wine Festival—the city’s largest food festival—returned April 28 through 30, bringing along celebrity chefs and some 5,000 hungry attendees. The weekend marked the return of the festival after being canceled last year due to inclement weather.
The festival grounds took over Auditorium Shores, unleashing big-name chefs such as Tim Love, Jonathan Waxman, Christina Tosi, and others on stage, while Austin chefs like Tyson Cole and Bryce Gilmore fired up small bites. Drinks and wine were poured by Tequila 512, Rodney Strong Vineyards, Balcones Distilling, and others.
This year featured a new location for the festival’s two evening events, the Lone Star Nights (which highlighted Texas chefs) and Rock Your Taco (the food competition). Their normal venue, Republic, is undergoing renovations, so festival organizers moved to the Fair Market, a smaller space. Organizers made do by taking advantage of the outdoor lawn, as well as blocking off the street in the front of the building to allow crowds to flow more easily between food stalls.
Austin Food & Wine is hosted and organized by Food & Wine magazine and C3 Presents, the same company behind music-focused events ACL Festival and Lollapalooza. Here is how brands such as Toyota, Hendrick’s Gin, KitchenAid, and others vied for the attention of attendees.
