The sixth-annual Atlanta Food & Wine Festival rolls in to Midtown June 2-5. We caught up with festival co-founder Elizabeth Feitcher to see what exciting new events she and co-founder Dominique Love have cooked up for attendees.

What changes can attendees expect this year?

We have a lot new this year. Learning Experiences will be held at Loews Atlanta Hotel again this year, and classes will be Friday and Saturday. Sunday we are expanding our brunch and making that a larger, more active experience.

What can we expect this year at the Tasting Tents?

We moved the Tasting Tents this year to the Greensward Promenade at Piedmont Park. I love the area. It has a grassy area and fountain, and gives us more opportunity for café space and guests to cop a squat on the lawn. Another thing that’s different is that we’re moving the Friday Tasting Tents to Friday night from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. We’re calling it Friday Night Bites. The tents will be lit up and it will be beautiful. We’ll also have a tailgate area with the Fox Bros. and other pitmasters from around the South.

What else will be a first for the AF&WF this year?

We are building a pop-up vineyard on 14th Street across from the Four Seasons hotel— it’s the first time one has been built in U.S. We are moving the vines from North Georgia and re-planting them to create the vineyard in a vacant four-acre lot. We’ll use the space for events during the festival and guests will get the feel of being in an actual vineyard. It will also remain open for about six weeks after the festival, and we’ll continue to have events there.

What are you most excited about for this year?

We continue to shape talent through our advisory council. We have folks continue to join us every year. We have amazing new relationships that we’ve developed over time. One of my favorite things is seeing all of these people come back time after time and hang out together and kick back and relax. I’m excited about the talent and new faces that we continue to discover along the way.

Atlanta Food & Wine Festival
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