April 23--Get your aprons, shot glasses and wine slings ready. The Austin Food & Wine Festival returns for its second year this weekend, and of all the new pieces to the festival puzzle, perhaps none will be as noticeable as the venue for the daytime events.

The inaugural event was mostly at a dusty Auditorium Shores, which as one of the city's most heavily used parks hasn't recovered enough in the past year to host a festival of eating and drinking.

Two weeks ago, festival organizers C3 Presents and Food & Wine magazine announced that the daytime portion of the festival would move across Riverside Drive to Butler Park, a smaller but more verdant space next to the Long and Palmer Events centers. The evening events -- Friday night's Taste of Texas and Saturday's Rock Your Taco -- will take place as planned at Republic Square Park downtown.

After the unofficial kickoff Thursday night from the Austin Food & Wine Alliance (see Live Fire details on page XX), the three-day festival starts Friday night with a tasting event featuring top Texas chefs. Those include Austinites Paul Qui, Philip Speer, Aaron Franklin and Ned and Jodi Elliott, as well as Houston chefs Terrence Gallivan and Seth Siegel-Gardner of Pass and Provisions, Underbelly's Chris Shepherd and Jamie Zelko of Zelko Bistro. Jason Dady and John Russ of San Antonio and Fort Worth chefs Tre Wilcox and Blaine Staniford will represent their respective cities.

During the day Saturday and Sunday, chefs from around the country including Brian Malarkey, the San Diego chef who is opening his first Austin restaurant later this year, Fort Worth's Tim Love, Marcus Samuelsson of New York City and Los Angeles hotshots Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo will host cooking demos and classes at Butler Park, with smaller wine tastings and grilling demos throughout both days.

Dozens of food, wine and spirit vendors will showcase their products during daytime grand tasting events on both Saturday and Sunday, but the star-studded Rock Your Taco event on Saturday night will likely be the highlight of the weekend. Star chefs will go head-to-head to create the best taco, a title that Austin's Tyson Cole won last year.

Like last year, tickets will be available in the form of two badges. The first is a $250 Taste pass that gives access to the daytime events Saturday and Sunday. The second is an $850 Savor pass that includes admission and VIP access to the daytime events as well the evening events, which also feature live music from Delta Spirit, Whiskey Shivers and Allen Stone.

Organizers this year added the option for Taste badgeholders to buy individual tickets to the evening events, with Taste of Texas tickets costing an additional $150 and Rock Your Taco an extra $200. You can buy badges and find the full schedule at austinfoodandwinefestival.com.

To find live coverage of this week's food events, go to austin360.com/relishuastin.

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