MIAMI (AP) — For practically 10 years operating, Lesley VanNess by no means missed the South Seashore Wine & Meals Pageant, a beachfront bacchanal of celebrities, booze and bites that tens of hundreds of attendees pay a whole bunch to hundreds of {dollars} to hitch.
It was about entry, the possibility to nosh and gab with the likes of Rachael Ray and Bobby Flayfolks she in any other case may expertise solely through the hands-in-pans purview of the Meals Community.
“I’d get the Meals Community Journal and there can be commercials for it. I’m like, ‘0h my god! You may go to that? Go to those nice occasions and meet these movie star cooks?’,” mentioned VanNess, a 44-year-old former restaurant proprietor from Iowa. “I’m in!”
That was in the course of the meals competition heyday, a decade-long stretch beginning round 2010 when copycat occasions popped up all over the place, making a circuit-like scene for A-list cooks (and ample wannabes).
Then got here social media, a drive that melted obstacles between followers and meals celebs. Folks like VanNess realized that as a substitute of crowding into soccer field-size tents to probability a chat with Flay, they might simply DM him.
Or higher but, they might tune in to on-line #instafood chatter to maybe uncover the following Ray or Flay, an entire new degree of social cred unlocked.
VanNess hasn’t been again to South Seashore since a minimum of 2020. “I’d moderately see them on social media or go to their restaurant,” she mentioned.
Final weekend, the South Seashore Wine & Meals Pageant turned 25, cementing it as one of many elders of the competition scene, together with its sister occasion, the New York Metropolis Wine & Meals Pageant, and the Meals & Wine Traditional in Aspen, Colorado. By all accounts, all three are going sturdy. However many smaller festivals have disappeared, victims of the pandemic, slumping ticket gross sales, hovering meals and labor prices, and chef disinterest.
So, are meals festivals nonetheless related?
“South Seashore and New York, they fill a distinct segment and I can see them occurring without end. However meals occasions and meals festivals are stepping into an entire different path,” mentioned Mike Thelin, one of many founders of the now shuttered Oregon competition Feast Portland.
Festivals’ success lengthy hinged on the necessity of cooks, wineries, mixologists, meals producers, and what solely now are generally known as meals influencers to achieve a wider viewers. In 2026, that’s an antiquated notion.
“In 2010, they needed to get on the map,” Thelin mentioned. “They don’t want that anymore.”
That doesn’t imply festivals are useless. There’s a recalibration occurring, he defined. What many name “white tent affairs,” a not-so-subtle nod to South Seashore’s occasions that stretch alongside the sands of the Atlantic, are fading.
“If I’m going to a sure area, I wish to know what makes that area particular,” Thelin mentioned. “I don’t wish to go into a large white tent that’s devoid of geography and drink a bunch of wines from California if I’m in Washington or Tennessee.”
Taking their place? A number of small, hyper-focused occasions grounded in folks and place. Occasions like AAPI Meals & Wine, a 3-year-old Oregon and New York Metropolis-based competition that highlights the work of Asian Individuals and Pacific Islanders.
“The foodie scene has modified a lot,” mentioned Lois Cho, one of many founders of that occasion, which attracts about 1,000 attendees a yr. “Folks didn’t notice wine and black bean noodles and izakaya and all these totally different Thai dishes — that they had no thought they paired. Creating a special narrative and group the place you possibly can join with folks, these are the varieties of occasions we’ll see now.”
Social media, she mentioned, unlocked so many neglected voices.
“And lots of people haven’t caught on as a result of it’s been plenty of cookie-cutter occasions for the final 20 years,” she mentioned.
It’s been an identical story for the Southbound Meals Pageant, which celebrates the culinary scene of Birmingham, Alabama. Began in 2022 and stretching over every week each fall, the occasion pulls assist not simply from cooks, but in addition the area’s artwork and music scenes.
“There’s much less attraction right this moment with these TV cooks. Nice cooks are all over the place,” mentioned Nancy Hopkins, one of many occasion’s founders. “Folks come to have fun and uplift Birmingham.”
Nonetheless, as Thelin mentioned, the South Seashore Wine & Meals Pageant and it’s New York sibling aren’t going anyplace anytime quickly, white tents, Meals Community faces and all. Tickets to almost all of South Seashore’s 110 occasions, which featured 500-plus cooks and meals personalities, offered out this yr. In its quarter century, the competition has raised greater than $45 million for the Florida Worldwide College Chaplin College of Hospitality and Tourism Administration.
Lee Schrager, the drive behind the 2 festivals, mentioned the South Seashore blueprint stays related right this moment.
“There’s one thing very totally different about DM’ing Bobby Flay than going to an intimate dinner at a desk of 10 that he’s doing that’s offered out in three days,” Schrager mentioned. “Social media has made everybody obtainable, however are you able to contact and really feel it?”
The primary South Seashore occasion, attended by solely 10 cooks, was little greater than a wine tasting. This yr, greater than 30,000 folks attended. Martha Stewart hosted a luncheon at Joe’s Stone Crab, Italian movie star butcher Dario Cecchini tossed slabs of beef into an keen dinner crowd, and Ray reprised her Burger Bash, the place all the things from Kool-Support pickles to foie gras adorned smashed wagyu patties on potato buns.
Schrager acknowledged that almost all smaller festivals can’t function the way in which his do, together with internet hosting occasions he is aware of will promote tickets even when they finally lose cash. He mentioned he offered $7 million in tickets this yr and introduced in $6 million in sponsorships — and netted just a bit over $1 million.
“It’s quantity within the competition world, nevertheless it’s not an incredible return in the event you’re operating a revenue enterprise,” he mentioned.
Ray, who has participated in practically each South Seashore and New York competition, continues to indicate up. It’s about loyalty to Schrager, who took her significantly when a lot of the meals world didn’t. However it’s additionally about in-person entry to followers.
“I like speaking to folks, being with folks, having folks climb throughout you, hold on you, provide you with a praise,” she mentioned. “I like being within the real-life expertise.”
J.M. Hirsch is a meals and journey journalist, and the previous meals editor for The Related Press.