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MGM Resorts International is launching a new large-scale culinary and cocktail festival in Las Vegas this fall, positioning its Strip portfolio as the backdrop for a four-day program of chef dinners, mixology showcases and tasting events aimed at visitors and industry professionals.
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New festival concept set for September debut
According to publicly available event information, the inaugural festival, branded Drink Las Vegas, is scheduled to take place from September 24 to 27, 2026. The multiday program is planned as a coordinated series of culinary and beverage events across several MGM Resorts properties on the Las Vegas Strip, rather than a single-venue gathering.
Event descriptions indicate that more than 30 venues are expected to participate, including restaurants, lounges and bars at flagship resorts such as Bellagio, ARIA, Park MGM and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The format is designed to encourage guests to move among properties throughout the weekend, treating the Strip as an extended festival campus.
The launch of Drink Las Vegas comes as MGM continues to emphasize food and beverage as a defining part of its Las Vegas strategy, adding another high-profile entry to a citywide calendar of culinary happenings that has grown in the years since legacy festivals like Las Vegas Uncork’d ended.
Programming blends chef dinners, tastings and education
Published schedules for Drink Las Vegas outline a mix of intimate and large-scale events, from ticketed chef’s table dinners to grand tasting parties and educational sessions. Plans call for multicourse menus paired with cocktails, wines and spirits, as well as walk-around tastings where guests can sample dishes and drinks from multiple concepts in a single setting.
In addition to consumer-facing experiences, the festival is being positioned as a platform for the culinary and beverage trade. Organizers highlight industry panels, brand activations and opportunities for networking between chefs, bartenders, suppliers and hospitality professionals, suggesting the event is intended to appeal to both visitors and those working in the field.
While individual lineups are still being updated, early promotional materials reference participation from high-profile culinary names already associated with MGM properties. The inclusion of established restaurant partners and bar programs is expected to anchor the schedule at each resort, supported by guest talent and collaborating brands.
High-profile venues across MGM’s Strip portfolio
The festival is planned to showcase many of the company’s most recognizable Las Vegas venues. At Bellagio, cocktail and dining spaces are expected to be featured alongside recent additions such as seasonal experiences in the Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, reflecting the resort’s continued focus on immersive food and beverage offerings.
At ARIA and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, the program is set to draw on a concentration of contemporary restaurants and cocktail bars that already serve as key dining draws on the Strip. Published festival materials describe signature dinners and parties using existing venues as backdrops, integrating the event into the properties’ regular nightlife and dining infrastructure.
Park MGM, home to concepts including the Eataly marketplace and a range of chef-driven restaurants, is also listed among participating resorts. The layout of these properties, with multiple adjacent venues, is expected to facilitate progressive experiences where guests move between bars, lounges and dining rooms during a single ticketed event.
Positioning Las Vegas as a global cocktail destination
By centering the festival around mixology and spirits alongside food, MGM’s new event is being framed as part of a broader effort to highlight Las Vegas as a destination for cocktail culture. Promotional language emphasizes collaborations with international bartenders, beverage directors and brands, in addition to the resort group’s in-house bar teams.
The approach builds on a wider trend in the city, where resorts have been investing in signature lounges, speakeasy-style spaces and curated beverage programs to differentiate themselves. Drink Las Vegas is expected to bring these individual efforts together for one weekend, giving visitors a consolidated way to experience the Strip’s bar scene in a short stay.
For MGM, the festival also offers another opportunity to link its loyalty and marketing platforms to experiential travel. Event information highlights the potential for packaged offers that combine room stays with festival access, reinforcing Las Vegas’s appeal to visitors who plan trips around specific culinary or entertainment weekends.
New entry in a competitive festival landscape
The introduction of Drink Las Vegas comes at a time when the city’s festival calendar is expanding across categories, from music and sports to specialty dining events hosted by individual resorts. With large-scale gatherings now common at venues such as the Las Vegas Festival Grounds and other Strip locations, culinary and cocktail programming is increasingly being used as a differentiator.
Observers note that MGM’s move to create a branded, company-wide food and beverage festival reflects the scale of its Las Vegas portfolio and its ability to coordinate multiple properties under a single concept. The model resembles earlier Strip-wide culinary weekends but updates the focus toward cocktails and beverage culture, aligning with shifts in consumer interest and bar programming over the past decade.
If the inaugural edition draws strong attendance, Drink Las Vegas is likely to become a recurring fixture on the city’s annual calendar, further reinforcing the role of large hospitality groups in shaping how visitors experience the Strip’s evolving dining and nightlife scene.