Overview Feast Wilmington is a spring food and drink weekend on the Cape Fear River in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, and its Saturday morning pairs 20 local breweries with 20 local chefs, each chef cooking one dish for one beer. Three ticketed events make the weekend: Craft + Cuisine on Saturday morning, the Pier Party on Saturday night and Brunch Elevated on Sunday, with more than 70 chefs across them in 2026. It runs at Live Oak Bank Pavilion on the Riverwalk, tickets include the food and the drinks, and Wilmington Media + Marketing produces it. On site Chefs work from tents on the riverfront, and guests walk from station to station collecting small plates while live music plays on the main lawn. Tables are scattered through the site, but most people stand, and the lawn is open with little shade. Events run rain or shine. Craft + Cuisine is built with the Cape Fear Craft Beer Alliance and runs 11 to 2. The Pier Party, 6 to 9, is the night event, with local seafood and farm-to-table dishes. Brunch Elevated closes the weekend with brunch plates, mimosas, coffee and mocktails; for 2026 it added cocktail stations and a seafood focus, with chefs including Keith Rhodes, Luke Owens and Jamie Davis. Audience The festival pitches the Pier Party as a night out for couples, friends and colleagues, and Visit Wilmington's guide steers visitors to riverfront hotels a walk from the pavilion. Tickets are all-inclusive, so guests graze the whole floor rather than buying plate by plate. The festival's own survey found 92% of attendees said Feast met or exceeded their expectations. Track record Promotion runs across social media, radio, TV, billboards, WILMA and the Business Journal, with the convention and visitors bureau, ILM airport, hotels and breweries as partners. Melissa Bucci, director of sales and marketing at Embassy Suites by Hilton Wilmington Riverfront, the festival's official hotel partner: "The Pier Party is the best event I've ever attended in Wilmington!" Brand presence Four levels sit above a chef appreciation sponsorship. The presenting sponsor's name goes on all marketing and the Feast stage, and Novant Health took that position for 2027. Gold sponsors each take one event exclusively, with a company-branded VIP area. Every sponsor works out its activation with the Feast team and can take activation space at the weekend's events, and sponsor logos go on guests' VIP badges and in the Feast Wilmington Guide. The chef appreciation sponsor hosts a table at a private event for the chefs and restaurant owners.