My Guide to Charleston Wine & Food Festival
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I love Charleston SC! from its colorful historic homes to the coastal vibe, I always love driving up for a visit. This time we came to THE Charleston Wine & Food Fest! an amazing celebration of over 50 restaurants, experiences and vendors!
In this post I'll cover how I bought tickets, my hotel and the parking, what we ate, what I loveddd and disliked about the event and of course if VIP was worth it or not.
Note this is the WINE & FOOD fest, not to be confused with the FOOD & WINE fest... which is also cool but is also $2000 out the gate for your tickets. It's on my list! but not at this time.
I got my tickets direct online, just by subscribing to the event's email newsletter. This is a MUST if you want to get your tickets, even at a better presale price. The event is in March, I bought my tickets in November, about a month after they went on sale.
We drove up from Florida, no flights needed, and stayed at a Hilton for 2 nights near the airport for a better price (using points of course)!
I paid for $620 for 2 VIP tickets. General Admission is about $200~. For about $100 more a ticket, VIP gets you early access and access to a lounge with more seating and restrooms. Spoiler... it was well worth it.
Not only did VIP get us in an hour earlier for food and such, this also meant you could enjoy the space with less people/lines, have a first crack at super close AND FREE parking at the Citadel and a private area to take a break!
My Vote on VIP: YES!!! ✅totally worth the additional $100
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| Booths with Goodies |
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| Rows of Tents with Booths |
I packed and dressed light for the event, it is outdoors but mostly covered. The food booths were spaced really well between the 4 different areas. I'd say it was easy to get around BUT the bathrooms were not as plentiful as id like. You get a wine glass, yes glass 😳, and a bag to hold any swag items.
CONS:
- Not enough bathrooms, thank goodness for VIP bathrooms
- Hope you didn't forget about that GLASS wine glass - we still can't after seeing a woman fall upon hers and cut her neck - Yes they were beautiful but I couldn't even keep mine for being afraid id break it too
- Some of the vendors were clearly rushed, we had a few undercooked items
PROS:
- Not too huge of a space, it was easy to do a few loops so you didn't miss anything
- There were 2 phases, more than 1/2 the booths had a new restaurant part way through the event - I thought this was an awesome way to use the space and offer more tastings
- Great selection of restaurants, many different types of foods and I felt like all the booths had something different
- Great food to booze ratio - I'd say 75%food 25% booze - thank goodness!
What we ate, drank, my favorites and dislikes:
Plates were mostly pork or chicken, the mini thanksgiving dinner was fun, with fried sage and a potato puree
The fresh pizza with squash and arancini were delicious! I also loved this peach hard cider. this noodle dish with chicken was one of my favorites - it was super popular too!
A cheeseburger eggroll, with brown butter cookie, luke warm noodles? (didn't like), and cold chicken sandwich were underwhelming - I am very picky about wine but this resiling was perfectly refreshing for how warm it was that day.
Here is the indoor and upstairs VIP area, had a good bit of room, seating and extra food items. This colorful tent had local vendors where you could purchase items.
Now, I'll be honest. Did I feel like I ate +$200 worth of food, 100% but I don't think I'll go back next year just so I can try other festivals.
It's still on my list because I always love their offering of chef experiences and classes AND I am so happy to support them after getting flooded the prior year - they definitely came back with a great plan, in an awesome location, with a great event! I'll come back in a few for sure! to try their workshops and experiences!
If you want to go - sign up for their email newsletter here! I'm sure their 20th anniversary is going to be amazing!! Charleston Wine + Food
Stay tuned for my next food fest post! MIAMI - Happy Travels!
