Overview The Wine and Food Festival is Drink Eat Relax's afternoon tasting, where a souvenir glass buys all-you-care-to-taste pours from more than 100 wines, plus craft beer and spirits, and the private Sun and Sip cabana comes with its own kiddie pool. It runs in two markets: Ballantyne's Backyard in Charlotte and the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. Drink Eat Relax produces tasting festivals for a living; its own count is more than 500 events and 1.5 million attendees over 25 years, and its other signature events include Beer, Bourbon and BBQ, Tacos N Taps and Das Best Oktoberfest. On site The gates run noon to 5 p.m. VIP ticket holders get the first hour to themselves, and general admission comes in at 1. VIP adds a Champagne lounge, a bottle of wine to take home and separate washrooms. A cabana holds up to 10 people under a private 10-by-10 tent, with the pool and extra bottles of wine on top. Bands play all afternoon. Food is sold by local pop-ups, restaurants and food trucks - Charlotte's in Ballantyne, Baltimore's in Timonium - and Charlotte also sets out a Rosé Garden and a Sensory Station. Brand presence Many of the promoter's clients are wine, beer and spirits companies, and it runs sampling programs and brand activations for them as well as the events themselves. Sponsorship comes in three levels, from a stage sponsor up to the presenting sponsor. The listing's inventory adds branded glassware, main stage activations and hands-on sampling on the tasting floor.