Plan your travels around one of these delicious events, which almost always include live music, cooking demos and art fairs — as well as the occasional pig race, rubber-duck competition and bocce tournament.
BBQ Challenge
The smell of barbecue takes over the Summit County hub of Copper Mountain each June at this Kansas City Barbecue Society-sanctioned event, and all who attend are guaranteed to leave with sticky fingers and a full tummy. This perfect Father’s Day weekend event also includes cooking demos, pig races and activities for the kids.
FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen
Taste the crème de la crème of epicurean delights at this hugely popular and glamorous June event. Taste wine, sample food and learn from some of the world’s more recognizable chefs, all under Aspen’s brilliant alpine skies. Past speakers include Rick Bayless, Masaharu Morimoto, Jacques Pepin, Andrew Zimmerman and many more. While you're there, check out Whole Journeys' three-day hiking and tasting tour.
Telluride Food & Vine
Though this festival claims a devotion to wine, organizers of one of Telluride’s longest standing annual events leave plenty of room on the schedule for food. Between the sipping and swilling, festivalgoers attend cooking demonstrations, concerts, decadent meals and seminars led by sommeliers and celebrity chefs each June.
Crested Butte Wine & Food Festival
For serious wine lovers and culinarians, Crested Butte's July fest offers the chance to meet winemakers and sommeliers, take a James Beard Celebrity Chef Tour Dinner and attend seminars on artisan cocktail-making and New World vs. Old World wines, all set amid the town's mountain splendor.
Breckenridge Food and Wine
Breckenridge’s quintessential mountain-town Main Street bustles each July with fun during this event, including live music, food demos and, of course, an around-the-world wine festival for the adults set amid the town’s spectacular riverside setting.