Summer Food & Wine Festivals in Colorado

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 Frisco 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 Wine Festival

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.

A Taste of Colorado

One of the state’s best-known festivals takes over Denver’s Civic Center Park each Labor Day weekend, with thousands of end-of-summer revelers gathering to taste distinctive Colorado dishes. Tour the state’s menus with samples from more than 50 restaurants, see cooking demonstrations, dance to live music and peruse the masterpieces in 270 booths in the Arts & Crafts Marketplace. Note: Not held in 2023.

Colorado Mountain Winefest

This celebration of wine goes right to the source in September, taking place where much of Colorado’s wine is made — in Palisade. Sample the wares of 56 wineries; meet wine, cheese and peach growers; and talk with painters, ice carvers and chefs. Savor a chocolate-and-port pairing, tour a winery, attend winemaker dinners and even stomp a few grapes.

Snowmass Wine Festival

With the towering Snowmass Mountain as a backdrop, oenophiles will taste an array of wines from around the world, plus indulge in delicious cuisine from local chefs. Music performances, a live auction and the coinciding vintage car race round out the September-weekend experience.

Pueblo Chile and Frijoles Festival

This event is your best chance to taste of the pride of Pueblo — a special, intensely flavorful variety of green chile. Served smoking on a stick, chopped and tucked into a quesadilla or sprinkled in salsa, it’s the star of this show. Cooking competitions, live music, dancing, arts and crafts, and a farmers’ market round out the festival fun each September.

Additional Wine & Food Fests

• Taste of Fort Collins, June, Fort Collins 
• Strawberry Days Festival, June, Glenwood Springs
• North Fork Uncorked, June, Paonia and Hotchkiss 
• Reds, Whites & Brews, June, Avon 
• Keystone Wine & Jazz Festival, July, Keystone 
• Olathe Sweet Corn Festival, Aug., Olathe
• Vail Wine Classic, Aug., Vail
• Breckenridge Wine Classic, Sept., Breckenridge
• Sugar Beet Days, Sept., Sterling

Want More?

Read 11 Quintessential Summer Festivals in Colorado, 9 Must-Eat Foods in Colorado, Amazing Colorado Music Fests and 8 Ways to Love Summer in Colorado.

Photos: Courtesy of Food & Wine Classic in Aspen/Riccardo Savi; Steamboat Wine Festival; Festival Italiano.