The food festival in Vienna's Stadtpark set a new visitor record last Mother's Day weekend. Around 150.000 guests attended the three-day event, where over 100 farms, manufacturers, and restaurants presented their products.
The tenth edition of the festival focused on the diversity of regional food products from all nine Austrian states. The large-scale event was organized by the Culinary Network in close cooperation with the City of Vienna and AMA Marketing, with the aim of raising the profile of domestic agriculture and artisanal food production in urban areas.
The participating exhibitors adhere to the strict guidelines of the AMA Genuss Region quality seal, which mandates transparent origin labeling and regular external quality controls. Currently, around 4.000 businesses across Austria, including approximately 1.300 restaurants, are certified according to this standard. According to the organizers, the enormous turnout in Vienna's Stadtpark demonstrates that consumer trust in verified food quality and direct communication with producers are crucial factors influencing purchasing decisions in retail and restaurant visits. In addition to classic meat and cheese products, niche products such as Alpine caviar, Weinviertel peanuts, and special edible snails from local farms were also increasingly featured.
The festival was structured into thematic areas such as "Forest and Meadow," "Earth," "Water," and "Specialties" to help visitors navigate the wide range of offerings. In addition to tastings, various stations provided insights into traditional processing techniques, such as grain milling. Industry representatives like Christina Mutenthaler-Sipek and Lorenz Mayr from AMA Marketing emphasized the economic importance of such events for regional value creation. The festival serves not only as a sales platform but also as a networking hub between rural producers, the urban population, and the gastronomy sector.
The voluntary origin labeling by certified businesses guarantees traceability back to the agricultural source. This is particularly relevant given current market trends, as consumers increasingly demand transparency regarding the origin of their food. The culinary festival has thus firmly established itself as the most important culinary event on the Austrian event calendar and underscores Vienna's role as a central marketplace for high-quality agricultural products.