Field Guide Festival is an annual Austin food festival connecting attendees with the local food system. This year was the 4th annual event, and I finally made it.
I volunteered at the main tasting on Sunday. My day-long experience was impactful, and I want to put this event on your radar for next year. Keep reading to learn about it!
Why Field Guide Festival?
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know I am passionate about local eating and supporting local farmers and artisans. You may remember my year-long local challenge or have seen posts trying things like chicken butchery or visiting a flower farm. Field Guide Festival is for fellow foodies who have similar interests.
Field Guide Festival is a special event that brings together the local food community, from chefs and farmers to producers and foodies, to strengthen our connections. This event celebrates and honors the talent and commitment to being a farmer and chef. It illustrates the beautiful, symbiotic relationship that makes a community thrive. Farmers and chefs can’t survive without each other, and when you support the local relationships, they thrive even more.
These reasons stick out to me about why we need the Field Guide Festival:
- Connection to Food: The abundance and convenience of grocery stores are great, but we’ve lost connection and appreciation to the people who grow and raise our food. Being able to meet our farmers and experience their work can help with that connection.
- Creativity: Chefs and farmers are focused on their jobs, and bringing them together to discuss, connect, and spark ideas encourages creativity. We want creativity and innovation in our restaurants.
- Culture: What does Austin want to be known for? I see authenticity, fun, and values in the food community. This festival leads the way to ensure we, as a food community, keep focusing on what’s important.
- Fun: Where else can you try Austin’s best restaurants in one place? If you love food, you’ll like trying all of these unique bites. It’s also a great way to learn about restaurants you haven’t visited.
If we want to support our local food community and want Austin to keep growing as a foodie city, events like this are necessary to stay knowledgeable and innovative.
What is Field Guide Fest?
This event has evolved since its inception in 2021, growing into a larger event every year. Field Guide Festival is a 3-part/day event benefitting the Central Texas Food Bank, and you can purchase tickets for each event.
Friday is Land to Larder ($200), a seated dinner at Boggy Creek Farm. This dinner features chef and farm collaborations in a coursed meal. This event is a more intimate and formal meal compared to Sunday’s event.
Saturday is the Symposium ($30), where there are multiple talks with chefs and farmers. If you’re a food nerd, you might love hearing the discussions about topics like sustainable agriculture and regenerative farming.
Sunday is the main Field Guide Festival ($70-300, $140 General Admission). This tasting-focused event is from 1-5 pm, where you can eat and drink continuously! About 11 different booths offered plentiful bites, plus there was a rapid-fire pizza happy hour at the end of the day.
Favorite Field Guide Festival Activities
I attended Sunday’s event, which is what I would recommend for first-timers. If you’ve been to past Texas Food & Wine Alliance Events (Live Fire and Wine & Swine), you’ll see similarities to the sip and stroll format. The number of booths and attendees is lower than those events, so the event overall feels more intimate.
There are about 12 booths featuring a chef/restaurant paired with a farm. The chef’s dish features produce from their partnered farm. I didn’t try all of the bites, but here are some of my favorites:
- Smoked Vegetable Quesadilla by Chef Kevin Cannon of Barley Swine and Phil Green from River Field Farm
- Lion’s Mane and Chocolate Gelato by Chef Marco Silvestrini from Dolce Neve and Sean Henry from Hi-Fi Mycology
- Smoked Kohlrabi Tartare with Fennel Chutney and Kale Cream Brioche by Chef Je Wallerstein from Fabrik and Alison Stone and Nia Howze from Hope Full Farm
- Carrot Gelato by Ariana Quant from Uchiba and Carissa Eckle and Terence Tagoe from The Refugee Collective Farm
Some other event features include a live fire area to watch chefs in action, baby goat and chicken petting, and various beverage companies with samples.
Save room for pizza! The pizza happy hour starts around 4 pm. Four Austin pizzerias start putting out pizza slices for attendees to try.
How to Attend
Follow Field Guide Festival on Instagram and sign up for their email list to find out when tickets for next year’s event open up in the fall. The event has typically been in April.
If you’d like to volunteer at the event, their call for volunteers goes out around March. As a volunteer for the Sunday event, you are there for about 6 hours and given a 1-hour break to enjoy the festival.
I’m so glad Field Guide Festival exists! Be sure to put it on your calendar for next year!
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