Foire aux Vins d'Alsace (FAV Colmar) is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Alsace calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year.
About Wine Festival
Foire aux Vins d'Alsace (FAV Colmar) is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Alsace calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year. It is held at Parc des Expositions de Colmar in Avenue de la Foire aux Vins, in the heart of one of France's most distinctive wine areas. The festival has been running since 1948 and reaches its 77th edition in 2026, giving it one of the longer track records among French wine events of its kind. Third-largest trade fair in France (after Paris and Marseille). ~300,000 visitors including ~75,000 festival-goers. 1,500+ Alsatian wines, 350 exhibitors.
Lineup includes Bigflo & Oli, Mika, Kool & The Gang, UB40. Admission tiered: free before 1pm, €5 1pm–5pm, €8 after 5pm. Wine trade fairs in France are often the most efficient way to taste a broad cross-section of a region's producers in a short time. Attendees can expect organised tasting halls grouped by appellation or sub-region, masterclass programmes, sommelier-led sessions and structured opportunities to meet producers. Most major trade events are reserved for professionals — buyers, sommeliers, importers, journalists — though some open public-facing days during the run of the event.
The event is organised by Colmar Expo, which sets the tone and direction of the programme each year. Alsace is the only French region that routinely labels its wines by grape variety, with Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris and Muscat producing aromatic dry whites along the eastern flank of the Vosges. The region's flower-decked half-timbered villages — Riquewihr, Eguisheim, Ribeauville, Kaysersberg — are connected by the Route des Vins, France's oldest signposted wine road. Wine tourism here runs strongly through summer and into the harvest period, and the appellation also produces around a quarter of France's Cremant under the AOC Cremant d'Alsace, alongside late-harvest Vendanges Tardives and Selection de Grains Nobles. The 2026 edition is scheduled for 31 July - 9 August 2026.
Full programme, ticketing and updated information are published on the official site at foire-colmar.com. Visitors are advised to check directly with the organiser for the latest schedule, as French festival programmes are sometimes updated close to the event date.
How to Reach the Festival
Visitors typically reach Alsace via Strasbourg or the Mulhouse-Basel airport, with Colmar serving as the central base for the Wine Route. The festival sits well alongside cellar visits across the Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin, the storks of Hunawihr, the Unterlinden Museum, and an Alsatian gastronomy of choucroute garnie, baeckeoffe, tarte flambee, munster cheese and kugelhopf.
