Music City Food and Wine Festival Returns With the City's Chef Royalty

The festival that pulls the country's top chefs into Nashville every spring is back. The Music City Food and Wine Festival runs April 24 through 26, three days of tastings, competitions, guest-chef dinners, and late-night after-parties spread across downtown venues. The festival's curator is the city's honorary ambassador of hospitality, and the alumni list reads like a who's who of Bravo and the James Beard Foundation.

The Grand Taste tents anchor the weekend — dozens of local restaurants pouring and plating alongside touring chefs from New York, Charleston, and Austin. Evening events move indoors for seated dinners hosted by notable pairings, and the Saturday late-night "Harvest Night" has become the festival's ticket-you-have-to-fight-for. Beer, spirits, and Tennessee wine fill the edges of the program.

If you're going: Grand Taste tickets go quickly each week leading up to the festival. Pace yourself — ten tasting booths in the first hour is a rookie move. Water stations are plentiful.

Sources: Underwood Manor Nashville 2026 guide, Nashville.com April events