Food & Wine Fest 2026

[IndyGuy4KI]

Tell us about your Food & Wine fest experiences in this thread!

 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

I didn't get to experience much of F&W during my short visit today, but I did look around a little. The paint-by-number station was set up and ready around 3:45PM, but they couldn't/wouldn't let me paint until the event officially started at 4PM. There's nothing wrong with that since they were doing their jobs and handled the interaction very politely — in fact I looped right back around at 4 with no issue — I just wish they would've roped it off or something until it was officially open. I got to see Chef Perez (is that his name?) completing some final food tent checks which was fun. There was a little band playing in the Carousel Pavilion which sounded really good. Matt the Mime was doing his routine as I exited the area. I'm glad they keep bringing him back!

Do I plan to purchase any of the festival items or attempt to complete the tasting card? No, but I think it's a good little event to have.

Goods and Bads: I really like the paint by number. The instructions are clear and the numbers are nice and large. The paint is also a good enough quality, though the sponge brushes are cheap (with good reason). I thought there were games at last year's event, but I didn't see any this year. I did not like how small the event is for being in its third year. There should at least be some offerings up and down International Street. The park should also bring the food truck out for this event. It doesn't need to take over the whole park, but I think part of where it loses guest participation is in the fact that it feels very appetizer-heavy. Put at least one specialty menu option at Grain & Grill, LaRosa's, and French Corner to make the event seem larger. Bonus points if a few non-alcoholic drinks were added to the event menu.

[brenthodge]

32 minutes ago, Losantiville Mining Co. said:

I didn't get to experience much of F&W during my short visit today, but I did look around a little. The paint-by-number station was set up and ready around 3:45PM, but they couldn't/wouldn't let me paint until the event officially started at 4PM. There's nothing wrong with that since they were doing their jobs and handled the interaction very politely — in fact I looped right back around at 4 with no issue — I just wish they would've roped it off or something until it was officially open. I got to see Chef Perez (is that his name?) completing some final food tent checks which was fun. There was a little band playing in the Carousel Pavilion which sounded really good. Matt the Mime was doing his routine as I exited the area. I'm glad they keep bringing him back!

Do I plan to purchase any of the festival items or attempt to complete the tasting card? No, but I think it's a good little event to have.

Goods and Bads: I really like the paint by number. The instructions are clear and the numbers are nice and large. The paint is also a good enough quality, though the sponge brushes are cheap (with good reason). I thought there were games at last year's event, but I didn't see any this year. I did not like how small the event is for being in its third year. There should at least be some offerings up and down International Street. The park should also bring the food truck out for this event. It doesn't need to take over the whole park, but I think part of where it loses guest participation is in the fact that it feels very appetizer-heavy. Put at least one specialty menu option at Grain & Grill, LaRosa's, and French Corner to make the event seem larger. Bonus points if a few non-alcoholic drinks were added to the event menu.

Year one it was also at the bar outside of FestHaus, then they cut that. There’s nothing about this even that really says “food”. It should be LiteBites and Wine. It does seem a bit better, but not sure why they don’t as you suggested at least til it into GrillandGrain and LaRosas with a good and wine pairing or 2.