Overview The Atlanta Food and Wine Festival is four days of Southern food and drink built around walk-around Tasting Tents that open every day of the festival under a different theme and host; in 2026, its 16th year, the run went from The Atlanta Standard on Thursday to Kardea Brown's Homecoming on Sunday. Around the tents sit themed parties, intimate dinners, a demo stage and Whiskey and Fire, a live-fire and whiskey night. After the 2025 edition in Historic Fourth Ward Park, the festival moved to The Home Depot Backyard in 2026. It is produced by a21, whose portfolio includes the South Beach Wine and Food Festival, the New York City Wine and Food Festival, Heritage Fire and Whiskies of the World. On site In 2026 Monti Carlo, the AJC's food editor, hosted Thursday, Andrew Zimmern Friday's Flavors of Atlanta and Shawn Osbey Saturday's Southern Spread. Ford Fry hosted Stacked: The Burger Social, and Kelli Potter hosted Southern Fried, a fried-chicken event that Bravo filmed. Whiskey and Fire paired Heritage Fire's open-fire cooking with Whiskies of the World at Guardian Works. Chefs cook live on the Publix Culinary Demo Stage, and the Morehouse marching band played Sunday. Talent and Influencers More than 250 chefs took part in 2025. The 2026 floor included Deborah VanTrece, Ronald Hsu of Lazy Betty, Duane Nutter, Billy Kramer of NFA Burger and Jonathan and Justin Fox of Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q. Lorenzo Washington's brisket with apricot-jalapeño glaze won the 2026 Heritage Fire Hero, and No Idea Burger Joint's Gangnam Spicy Burger took People's Choice. Track record In 2025 the festival added a fourth night of Tasting Tents and launched Whiskey and Fire, and Invesco QQQ came on as presenting partner; that year the festival's presenting, Tasting Tents, demo stage and dinner series naming rights all sold. In 2026 the Event Zero Foundation recovered 3,358 pounds of food from the festival for about 50 nonprofits. Brand presence Naming rights run from the festival itself down through the Tasting Tents, Culinary Demo Stage, Dinner Series, VIP Lounge and Whiskey and Fire; in 2026 Goya presented the Tasting Tents, Publix the demo stage, and Mike's Amazing put its name on the burger social and the People's Choice award. Every partner gets activation space and sampling at its events, a logo at the Tasting Tents entrance, chef and consumer gifting and a dedicated fulfillment manager, and higher tiers add social posts, e-blast banners and category exclusivity.