Overview San Diego Food + Wine Festival, formerly the San Diego Bay Wine + Food Festival, is an eight-day celebration of the food, wine and culture of Southern California and Baja. Chef dinners, tastings and a cross-border culinary expedition fill the week, and it closes with a Grand Weekend on the waterfront at the Port of San Diego's Embarcadero Marina Park North. Fast Forward Events produces it, and proceeds fund culinary, oenology and hospitality scholarships and grants. On site The Grand Weekend opens with Icons + Legends, an evening tasting of award-winning chefs, rare bottles and premium spirits at JULEP Venue. Saturday's Grand Tasting brings more than 300 tastemakers and purveyors to the bay, with live-fire VIP experiences, chef demos, regional wine pavilions and the Chef of the Fest competition. Sunday's Grand Fiesta turns to Baja and Mexico, with Tijuana and Baja chefs, Mexican wines and spirits, art installations, live music and the Taco TKO. Culinary districts such as Smoke + Fire, Sweet Street, So San Diego and South of the Border run through both days, and more than 800 wines and spirits are poured over the week. Audience Food and wine enthusiasts from San Diego, the wider United States and Mexico, a crowd the festival itself calls affluent and returning. Tickets are all-inclusive, so guests spend the afternoon tasting their way through the park. Grand Weekend events are 21 and over. Talent and Influencers The lineup mixes Food Network and Top Chef names with chefs honored by the Michelin Guide and the James Beard Foundation. Recent headliners include Top Chef finalist Joe Sasto, James Beard winners Maynard Llera, Susan Bae and Matt Vawter, two-Michelin-star chef Suzette Gresham, and Michelin-recognized Baja chefs Javier Plascencia, Roberto Alcocer and Sabina Bandera. San Diego chefs such as Tara Monsod and Eric Bost cook beside them, and sommelier Cha McCoy leads the wine side. Track record The festival has run for more than two decades and was twice voted Best Wine Festival in the country by USA Today 10Best readers, and FestForums named it Festival of the Year. It has awarded more than $600,000 in scholarships and grants, and its food recovery program with Rethink Food and the San Diego Food Bank sends surplus food to San Diegans facing food insecurity. A record 56 brand activations ran at the most recent Grand Weekend. Brand presence Southwest Airlines presents the Grand Tasting and Grand Fiesta as Official Airline, with the Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Cards as Official Credit Cards. Partners build full activations: Southwest ran a branded VIP lounge bar and a vineyard swing photo op, Nestle paired Acqua Panna and S.Pellegrino with El Faro caviar, and Brandt Beef anchored a western-themed restaurant row. The Port of San Diego and Baja California Tourism back the festival.