TAMPA, Fla. — Saturday marks the start of the Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Food & Wine Festival, featuring more than 110 items of cuisine from all over the world to sample.

The event continues every weekend through April 25 with limited capacity and a number of health and safety measures in place, including face coverings, temperature checks, and social distancing.

To manage park capacity and ensure that physical distancing can be maintained, reservations are required, even for pass members and Fun Card holders.

For visitors who missed out on Mardi Gras celebrations Tuesday, four “culinary cabins” feature cuisine from New Orleans. New items in Nola Eats for this year’s festival include a shrimp po boy slider and a spicy chicken po boy slider. The New Orleans-inspired dessert zone is Nola Sweets, which this year features beignets — including a Woodford bourbon caramel pastry.  

In total, 24 culinary cabins offer 22 new items among the 110-plus samples, which includes more than 50 wines, beers, and seltzers and more than 20 cocktails.

Bourbon and tequila tastings also are available just outside the Xcursions area.

Starting in March, live musical entertainment will perform on the festival stage, but the lineup has not been announced yet.

Food and beverage is not included with park admission and is available for an extra fee.

Visitors can buy a sampler lanyard to use during the festival. The lanyard comes in three options — a five-, 10- or 12-item sampler. Prices start at $34.99 for the five-item sampler. Pass members can get an exclusive 15-item sampler for the price of a 12-item sampler.

More information on the festival is available on the Busch Gardens Tampa Bay website.