Montana Needs a Proper Wine & Food Festival. It Already Has One?

Sure there are a few decent small-scale food related events across the state but Montana is in desperate need of a proper food festival, including Montana beverages.

NOTE: I'm searching for something a little more pedestrian than what Billings currently offers. Higher end fundraiser are fantastic, but we were thinking along the lines of complete culinary inclusivity. Food trucks to fine dining, from across Montana, all in one place for a week or so.

There are so many talented chefs here and we certainly have a population that loves good food of all price points. Why on earth has someone not done a proper, large-scale and well promoted Montana Food & Beverage Festival yet? Seems insane to me. Oh wait. There IS a Montana Wine & Food Festival????

Let me be clear about a couple of things without knocking any existing food related events. FOR INSTANCE: Billings is host to the "Montana Wine & Food Festival" but until starting this piece, I had never heard of it. Has Billings just been keeping this event a secret?

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That says to me that it's either an intimate event or they've not done much marketing outside of the Billings area. Perhaps it's an amazing event but I know DOZENS of people who would travel for something like that and a few foodie friends just texted back that they hadn't heard of it either...AND IT'S BEEN GOING ON SINCE 1992!!!

The event doesn't even have it's own dedicated domain as far as we can find and it's next to non-existent on social media. That says to me there's room for growth. You'll find a Facebook page but it's used primarily for MSU Billings Foundation news, not tidbits, videos, pictures and past teasers of their Food Festival.

So where would be a good place to hold a genuinely Montana inclusive, open to the public Montana Food Festival? (Even if it's called something completely different as to not step on the fundraising event held in Billings...)

Want to see a decent list of "the best food festivals" according to Delish.com?

Or perhaps the 13 favorite food festivals as named by the Travel Channel?

Perhaps this is a good time to list what Montana DOES HAVE in terms of food-related events or festivals.

Garden City BrewFest: Saturday, May 7th, Caras Park in Missoula, MT
30th Anniversary Wine & Food Festival: May 9 – 14, 2022, MSUB Foundation, Billings, MT (as of this writing, there are no details about the 2022 event schedule and tickets are not yet available.)