MGM Resorts International is making a large-scale bet on destination beverage tourism with the debut of Drink Las Vegas, a four-day food and cocktail festival set for September 24–27, 2026. Tickets are now on sale for the inaugural event, which will roll out programming across more than 30 venues on the Las Vegas Strip, marking one of the most ambitious F&B activations the resort giant has staged.
Produced in partnership with a21, an experiential event agency, the festival will leverage some of MGM's most high-profile dining and bar destinations — including venues within ARIA, Bellagio, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, and Park MGM. The company is positioning Drink Las Vegas as a way to cement its standing as a serious player in the global culinary and cocktail conversation, competing directly with established food-and-drink festivals in markets like New Orleans, Charleston, and Aspen.
For operators and hospitality professionals watching beverage industry trends, the announcement signals a broader shift: large resort operators are increasingly packaging their F&B talent and venue ecosystems into ticketed, consumer-facing festival formats. Rather than relying solely on individual restaurant reputations, MGM is bundling its portfolio into a single experiential product designed to drive incremental visitation and room nights around a shoulder-season window in late September.
The programming slate — described by MGM as "star-powered" and featuring "world-class culinary and beverage talent" and "global tastemakers" — is being rolled out in waves, with the first wave of confirmed names released alongside today's ticket on-sale. That phased reveal strategy is a well-worn tool in festival marketing, designed to sustain media attention and drive early ticket purchases before a full lineup is locked.
For Strip properties, the event also represents an opportunity to drive covers and cocktail revenue across multiple outlets simultaneously, rather than concentrating spend at a single venue. It's a model that restaurant and hospitality industry analysts have pointed to as particularly effective for integrated resort operators with deep venue inventories. Whether Drink Las Vegas can build the kind of national audience that justifies annual programming will be the metric to watch when September arrives.
More programming details and ticket information are available through MGM Resorts' official event channels. Food & Beverage Magazine will continue tracking the event's talent announcements and operator impact as the festival approaches.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
