Overview The St. Augustine Food + Wine Festival is a spring week of all-inclusive tasting events on a farmstead outside St. Augustine and at a Vilano Beach hotel, closing on a Saturday Grand Tasting that pours more than 300 wines, beers and spirits. Publix presents it, and the 2026 edition was its sixth. The 2026 week opened with a dinner, then ran through the Harvest Awards on Thursday and ST. A Soiree on Friday to the Grand Tasting on Saturday, with a VIP lounge at the last two. Every event is 21 and over. The AdFish Group and its Culinary Communities Foundation produce it, alongside festivals in Lake Charles and Vilano Beach, and proceeds go to Vilano Beach Main Street. On site Ancient City Farmstead, about ten minutes from the historic district, carries the two biggest nights. The Grand Tasting is a walk-around afternoon: regional restaurants and food trucks serve bites, every guest gets a souvenir glass, 20-plus artisan vendors sell knives, jewelry and smokers, and in 2026 the cooking stage ran three 30-minute demos, sampling the first 100 people at each. VIP guests come in an hour early to an air-conditioned barn with private gardens, an open bar and a Bloody Mary bar. ST. A Soiree, which replaced Smoke on the Walk, is the Friday barbecue night on the same grounds. The Harvest Awards move to the Hyatt Place at Vilano Beach. Audience It is a traveling crowd. The festival's 2026 sponsor guide put hotel use at about 60% of guests, and after Florida the top visitor states were Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi and New York. Talent and Influencers The Harvest Awards are a contest: Northeast Florida restaurants build dishes around local seafood and crops, and a panel scores them. The 2026 judges included Jesse Blanco, Jordan Wilkerson of First Coast Living, Susan Griffin of The Recorder and Craig Smith of the Alhambra Theatre, and the field included The Reef, O-Ku, Cordova Coastal Chophouse, La Cocina and Pesca. The 2026 week opened with the Saltworks Supper at Michael's, a salt-themed dinner cooked by Michael Lugo and Jason Stanhope of Sullivan's Fish Camp in Charleston, and live-fire cook Captain Ron Dimpflmaier worked the Grand Tasting stage. Track record The festival quotes USA Today calling it one of Florida's top ten food and wine festivals. The AdFish Group and the Culinary Communities Foundation say their festivals had raised more than $600,000 for local nonprofits over 13 years by the 2026 season, and the foundation has funded culinary school scholarships in Lake Charles and St. Augustine. First Coast Technical College students and instructors work the kitchen support. Brand presence Publix holds the presenting position, so there is no separate title sponsor; its name is on the cooking stage, and Publix Liquors and Coca-Cola poured the open bar in the 2026 Soiree VIP lounge. Corporate sponsors get a hospitality pavilion on the Friday and Saturday grounds, from 10 by 10 feet up to 20 by 20, with tables and a logo banner, plus tickets and logo placement. At the top tier a sponsor can take the name of a single event, which the festival sells to one corporate, one media and one beverage partner each. The campaign starts six months out with TV and radio partners, and sponsors hold first right of refusal on the following year.