2021 South Beach Wine and Food Festival has been postponed. Here are the culinary bash’s new dates
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The culinary beast and moveable feast known as South Beach Wine and Food Festival has been bumped from winter to spring, organizers said Tuesday.
The sprawling food bash that typically draws thousands of foodies and Food Network chefs to South Beach, Miami and Broward will now take place May 20-23, 2021, festival director Lee Brian Schrager told the Sun Sentinel on Tuesday. The news come two weeks after Schrager said his festival would return Feb. 24-28, 2021 with in-person dining events and leaner attendance.
“The vaccines will be out in a few weeks, and I think the extra three months will give people enough time for feel comfortable to attend,” Schrager says. “By May we’ll see a new normal. I feel really good about it.”
Even as COVID-19 cases continued surging in November, Schrager said celebrity chefs — Giada de Laurentiis, Guy Fieri, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Andrew Zimmern and Bobby Flay — committed to attending in February. But over the long Thanksgiving weekend, Schrager says, he wrestled with the question of whether to keep the original dates. In the end, he called chefs and sponsors with his decision: the festival would be delayed until May.
“No one pressured me to do this,” Schrager says. “I didn’t get a phone call from [festival sponsor Florida International University] or the mayor of Miami Beach. It was me. I will say that all my partners feel a heck of a lot more relieved now. As soon as I called top talent, they all said, ‘Wise decision. Great call.’ "
When it returns the festival will be leaner overall, but don’t expect socially distanced dinners with 10 guests. There will be 57 total events (half of 2020 1/4 u2032s lineup) over five days, Schrager says. All events will be hosted outdoors and total attendance will stop around 20,000 visitors (about a third of 2020). Tickets will go on sale early next year.
Other than the shifted dates, all other events and COVID-19 protocols will stay intact, Schrager says. The Crave Greater Fort Lauderdale series is still axed, and Broward will host four Hallandale Beach events and a chef dinner in Fort Lauderdale.
One returning event is Hallandale Beach Food and Groove, a tasting with 20-plus restaurants at Gulfstream Park that drew 500 visitors in February.
The South Beach festival will require masks except while seated at tables, mandatory temperature checks and one-way lines at all events. Only guests who order tickets together will sit together. Larger tented affairs, such as Grand Tasting Village and the beachside Burger Bash, will be divided into two timed-ticket sessions instead of one, he adds.
“I’m more confident now, but if things aren’t better by April, we may push the festival back again or cancel it,” Schrager says.
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