Our guide to the Agave Heritage Festival

If you're going downtown the weekend of April 27-30, you'll find yourself engaging not with our typical Congress Street festivities, but a colony of agave fanatics that have taken over venues everywhere.

The Agave Heritage Festival is a decentralized celebration of agave spirits across bars, restaurants, stages — even a garden and a hotel pool. There are 47 events across nearly as many venues over the course of three days.

To help you navigate the festival, I've pulled out a few noteworthy events:

Ignite Agave Traditions and Agave Roasting

Mission Garden is hosting a comprehensive workshop on agave agriculture. The event begins at 7 a.m., when interested parties can plant agave. From 9-10:15 a.m. there will be a few lectures about the significance of agave in Hohokam and Mescalero traditions. The grand finale is at 10:30 a.m., when Jesús García demonstrates local agave roasting and offers a tasting of roasted agave.

Location: Mission Garden, 946 W. Mission Lane

Hours: 7-11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 29

Cost: The event is free, with a suggested $5 donation.

For more information, check out the event site.

The Tuxon Pool Party Compa Takeover

This free event is a bartender competition and complimentary tasting of agave spirits like mezcal and pulque. A DJ will provide entertainment.

Location: The Tuxon, 960 S. Freeway

Hours: 1-5 p.m. Sunday, April 30 (the competition runs from 1-3 p.m.)

Cost: The event is free with registration.

For more information, check out the event site.

Mezcrawl

There are a number of fancy, pricey dinner events where chefs pair menus for one night only to a signature agave drink. Bata, Maynards (ft. John Martinez from Tito & Pep) and The Coronet are just a few fine dining venues hosting these dinner parties. Similarly, bars like Crisol and Portal are hosting guided tastings.

While Mezcrawl will not provide such in-depth service (at cost), it does give you the chance to survey the agave spirits and snacks across 11 locations downtown. If you're more interested in an agave tasting deep-dive, check out Bar Crisol's workshop and discussion.

Location: across downtown

Hours: 5-10 p.m. Thursday, April 27

Cost: $65

For more information, check out the event page.

Bar Takeovers

One of the cutest events of the weekend are bar takeovers by bartenders (and bartender collectives) from across the country. I'm most excited to try Cata's "jungle-style" cocktails at Nightjar and Los Tlacuaches' focus on Indigenous Mexican ingredients at LaCo.

For more information about bar takeovers, check out the event pages for Cata and Los Tlacuaches.

The following link will take you to the Agave Heritage Festival website.

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