A Guide to Upcoming Bay Area Food Festivals

The sun is shining and spring is almost in the air, which means that Bay Area food festival season is about to kick into full swing, starting with this weekend’s Flavor Napa Valley and the California Artisan Cheese Festival in Petaluma.

To help get your calendars in order, here’s a round-up of some of the more notable food and drink events happening around the Bay Area over the next few months.

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Flavor Napa Valley (Now-March 20):  First up is this annual event, which benefits the The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. In addition to numerous chef demonstrations and winemaker workshops, there’s also the grand tasting event on Saturday featuring dozens of restaurants from around Wine Country. For more information and tickets: flavornapavalley.com.

California Artisan Cheese Festival (March 18-20): When it comes to an abundance of amazing Northern California dairy, Petaluma is hard to beat. While a number of the farm tours are sold out, tickets are still available for a handful of events, including this Sunday’s (March 20) artisan cheese tasting and marketplace, featuring over 90 producers. For more information and tickets: artisancheesefestival.com.

Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival (March 31–April 3): Hundreds of celebrity chefs and winemakers schmoozing, plus cooking demonstrations, grand tastings and more — all set against the beautiful backdrop of the Monterey coast’s luxe Pebble Beach Resort. No wonder this is considered the crème de la crème of foodie events. For more information and tickets: pbfw.com.

Lodi Wine & Food Festival (April 2): The newly revamped festival will feature wine tastings with over 40 local wineries, olive oil tastings and more. For more information and tickets: grapefestival.com.

Cochon555 (May 1): The annual pigfest returns to San Francisco, with yet another nose-to-tail cooking competition featuring five chefs (line-up TBA) working their magic on heritage breed pigs. For more information and tickets: cochon555.com

San Francisco International Beer Festival (May 21): This fundraiser for Telegraph Hill Cooperative Nursery School, now in its 33rd year, will feature dozens of craft brewers, including Fort Point, Magnolia and Laughing Monk. For more information and tickets: sfbeerfest.com.

BottleRock (May 27-29): Napa’s music fest attracts major industry names, like Stevie Wonder and Florence + the Machine, but it’s also a celebration of Wine Country’s first class culinary scene. While multi-day passes are sold out, individual day passes for Friday and Saturday are still available. For more information and tickets: bottlerocknapavalley.com.

Mill Valley Wine, Beer & Gourmet Food Tasting (June 5): 65 wineries, 11 breweries and over 40 different food options will be featured at the 35th annual Mill Valley event. For more information and tickets: enjoymillvalley.com/2016-mill-valley-wine-beer–gourmet-food-tasting.html.

Pinot Days (June 18): Over 100 domestic Pinot Noir makers will be on-site for this one day tasting event in downtown San Francisco, which touts itself as the largest gathering of Pinot Noir producers in the world. For more information and tickets: pinotdays.com.

Lodi Craft Beer Festival (June 18): Over fifty breweries, including Lagunitas, Anchor and 21st Amendment, will be participating in Lodi’s annual beer fest.  For more information and tickets: lodicraftbeerfestival.com.

Livermore Valley Wine Country’s Taste our Terroir (July 21-24): This annual four day pairing event celebrates the best of Livermore Valley food and wine.  For more information and tickets: lvwine.org.

Outsidelands (August 5-7): Like Bottlerock, Golden Gate Park’s massive music fest is another event that also serves as a food and wine extravaganza, with entire areas dedicated to various local comestibles, including WineLands, CheeseLands, BeerLands, ChocoLands and culinary demonstrations at the GastroMagic stage. For more information and tickets: sfoutsidelands.com.

Eat Drink SF (August 25-28): The Golden Gate Restaurant Association‘s annual celebration of San Francisco’s abundant food and drink will take place once again at Fort Mason. Line-up TBA. For more information and tickets: eatdrink-sf.com.

Eat Real Fest (September 23-25): The annual craft food festival and fundraiser for Oakland’s Food Craft Institute will be back at Jack London Square this coming September. Line-up TBA. For more information and tickets: eatrealfest.com.

Article and images sourced from http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2016/03/18/a-guide-to-upcoming-bay-area-food-festivals/#photo-746804