Valence en Gastronomie Festival returns for 11th edition

The Valence en Gastronomie Festival returns for an 11th edition from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September 2026, taking over the Champ de Mars in Valence, in the Drôme department. Organisers expect around 50,000 visitors across the four days.

Entry to the site is free. Individual dinners, brunches and workshops require a paid reservation, a structure that keeps general access open while charging for specific dishes and seats.

Valence gastronomy festival programme takes shape

Free entry draws the crowds; the ticketed dinners are where Valence tests its reputation.

The centrepiece is La Nuit des Étoilés (Night of the Starred), held on two evenings, Thursday 10 and Friday 11 September. Each night brings together 10 gastronomic houses from the Drôme and Ardèche departments, a mix of Michelin-starred chefs and emerging talents. Each house presents one dish, paired with wines from the Côtes du Rhône appellation.

Also on the schedule: Le Brunch des Chefs (chef-prepared brunch), served three times, on Friday 11, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September, at €36 per person. Le Labo des Chefs (cooking demonstrations) runs 16 sessions over the four days, while La Scène des Talents (talks and workshops) hosts 17 sessions of its own.

At Les Pagodes aux Goûtatou (tasting stalls), more than 90 exhibitors set up stands. Small tasting portions, called Les Goûtatou, cost around €13 for six items, a lower-cost way to sample several producers without booking a full meal.

Valence trades on its food reputation

The Drôme department supplies much of what lands on festival plates: apricots, walnuts and olive oil are among its established products. Valence also sits close to the northern Côtes du Rhône vineyards, including Cornas, Saint-Péray and Crozes-Hermitage, the appellations poured at the Nuit des Étoilés.

The pairing arrives as the French wine harvest heads for its lowest level since 1957, a backdrop that adds weight to regional pours like these.

Valence also carries weight nationally in French cuisine, largely because of chef Anne-Sophie Pic's flagship restaurant in the city; the festival programme does not list her among this year's participants. The city's food identity predates the event by decades.

The 2026 edition runs on a fixed four-day window, with no extension announced. Organisers have not released attendance figures from the 2025 edition for comparison, leaving the 50,000 estimate as the only public benchmark so far.