Headed South For The Atlanta Food & Wine Festival 2013

This weekend, I'm headed across the Mason-Dixon Line for one of the Southeast region's most celebrated and star-studded culinary events.

This year's Atlanta Food & Wine Festival in the city's Midtown district promises several days full of the best food and beverages from the "South's" — meaning the Southeast U.S., countries "south-of-the-border" including Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean, as well as Southern Europe, South Africa, South America, Australia, and New Zealand — award-winning and up-and-coming chefs, beverage experts, and sommeliers.

The weekend features several special dinners, and is also broken down into learning experiences (more than 90 cooking and cocktail demonstrations, technique labs, food and beverage tasting seminars, and panel discussions), tasting experiences, and a special Sothern-style soirées.

I'll be sharing my festival highlights over the next few days, but a couple of things I am already looking forward to are a dinner from Blackberry Farm, a technique lab with Bayou Bakery's David Guas, as well as catching up with North Carolina's Andrea Reusing, Scott Crawford, and Ashley Christensen.

You can follow the weekend's events on The Daily Meal, as well as on Twitter at @ariellauren and @ATLFoodAndWine.