Overview The Beer, Bourbon and BBQ Festival is an all-you-care-to-sip tasting day on tour through the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic: guests get a souvenir tasting glass at the gate and sample freely from 60-plus beers and 40-plus bourbons, and no alcohol is sold on site. Each stop runs the same format, with pit barbecue, a live music stage and seminars from distillers and pitmasters. The 2027 tour was scheduled for nine stops, from Tampa and Atlanta up through the Carolinas and Virginia to Timonium, Maryland. Drink Eat Relax Events produces it, alongside its Tacos N Taps, Das Best Oktoberfest and wine and whiskey festivals. On site General admission gets a four-hour session, and VIP tickets come in two hours earlier with a barbecue dinner plate. The Shrine of Swine puts whole hogs on show, and the pit lineup runs pulled pork, ribs, brisket, chicken and sausages. A main stage carries rock, blues and bluegrass, the Tasting Theater holds seminars with master distillers, brewmasters and pit masters, and the Cochon Carnival sets out giant Jenga, Connect Four, basketball and arcade games. There is a cigar area and vendors selling breweriana, hot sauces and barbecue gear. Two-day stops add a Friday evening session, and private cabanas take groups of up to ten with their own tent, a bottle of bourbon and a case of beer. Audience Nobody buys a drink. Every pour is a sample from a supplier's table in the tasting tent, so guests work their way from table to table for the whole session with a glass in hand. Entry-only tickets, without sampling, are sold at the gate. Brand presence Under the festival's 2026 program, Drink Eat Relax buys the product for each sampling table itself, through the distributor or direct, up to four SKUs per table, and supplies a pourer, the table, linen, cups and ice; the brand gets its name on signage at the event and its logo on the festival website. Tables sit in a communal tent with 8 to 12 other supplier brands, and a brand that wants more room takes a 10-by-10 space under its own tent. Above that the festival sells presenting, stage and area sponsorships.