Festival in photos

Fort Worth Food + Wine Fest 2026 in photos: Best bites, sips and sights

The Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival, the city's premier multi-day culinary event, returned April 9-12, 2026 with a smaller schedule but a mightier feast.

Four ticketed events drew over 5,800 hungry foodies to The Heart of the Ranch at Clearfork over four days:

It started Thursday night with Tacos + Tequila, the ever popular event that sold out well before gates opened.

The Main Event took over Friday evening and had crowds lining up for bites from some of the city's top-tier restaurants (such as the caviar-topped cornbread from Bricks and Horses, which attendees voted "best bite").

A brand new event called Fork + Fire blazed onto Saturday's schedule, welcoming distinguished chefs from all over Texas.

And "Sunday funday" called for The Big Brunch, featuring an open-flame grilling zone and live gospel music.

The restaurants with the dishes voted Best Bites were:

Tacos + Tequila: Lucky G's Bistro
The Main Event: Bricks & Horses
Fork + Fire: Lao'd Bar
The Big Brunch: Lil' Boy Blue

Rather than recapping it all with many words, let's view some photos that perfectly capture the event. Scroll through the gallery above for pro shots from photographers Nancy Farrar and Christina Tapia.

If you attended the festival, you'll get to revisit some delicious memories. If you missed out, you'll have a chance to parlay that FOMO into tickets for next year's festival (stay tuned for details).

But if you need a little foodie fix before FWFWF 2027, you can nab a last-minute ticket to the CultureMap Fort Worth Tastemaker Awards, an all-out feeding frenzy and awards ceremony honoring the best in Fort Worth food and drink this year.

It takes place Thursday, April 30 at Social Space, and a portion of the proceeds benefit the nonprofit festival organizers, the Fort Worth Food + Wine Foundation, which grants culinary scholarships and assistance to chefs.

Limited tickets are still available here; get $15 off with code FWFWF at checkout.

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Celestina Blok contributed to this story.

Photo by Christina Tapia

The Dos Mares team scaled up their fun at Tacos & Tequila.

festivals fundraisers tastemaker awards fort worth food & wine festival

RIP, Wally

Grapevine hero Wally Funk, oldest woman to travel into space, dies at 87

Wally Funk aboard Blue Origin New Shepard

Photo courtesy of Blue Origin

The 82-year-old Wally Funk became the oldest person to go to space on July 20, 2021.

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — Wally Funk, an aviation pioneer who was the oldest woman to launch into space, has died. She was 87.

Funk died Wednesday, July 8 at her apartment in an assisted living facility in Grapevine, Grapevine City Councilwoman Duff O'Dell said Thursday. O'Dell, who described herself as Funk's caregiver, said she was by Funk's side. Funk had fallen a couple of times recently and had an infection in her leg.

“It took its toll,” O'Dell said in a phone interview.

Wally Funk became a hometown hero in Grapevine. Facebook/Wally Funk's Space for Race

Funk was one of 13 female pilots who went through the same tests as NASA’s all-male astronaut corps in the early 1960s but never made it into space. In 2021, she got her chance aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket. At the time, the 82-year-old was the oldest person to go into space, though the record was later broken by “Star Trek” actor William Shatner and Ed Dwight, America’s first Black astronaut candidate. They were both 90.

Bezos chose Funk as an “honored guest” to ride alongside him and two others on an up-and-down hop from West Texas aboard his Blue Origin rocket.

In interviews after the 11-minute flight, Funk enthusiastically told reporters, "I loved every minute of it. I just wish it had been longer.”

Wally Funk in her '20s as a flight instructor. Facebook/Wally Funk's Space for Race

She became a hometown hero when she returned home to Dallas-Fort Worth; the city of Grapevine threw a parade for her history-making experience.

“Wally Funk never stopped believing that one day she would reach space. Her passion for flight, perseverance, and love of exploration will continue to inspire generations of Americans. Godspeed, Wally,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman posted Thursday on X.

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This story contains material from CultureMap story archives.

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