San Antonio's signature celebration of barbacoa and ice-cold Big Red soda is back this weekend, with the Barbacoa & Big Red Festival set to take over the Freeman Coliseum Grounds and Expo Hall. The two-day event is an all-ages affair, and organizers are once again offering free admission to kids 12 and under, making it one of the more family-friendly food festivals on the city's fall calendar.
The festival's official site lists the dates as October 10 and 11, 2026, at the Freeman Coliseum Grounds and Expo Hall, according to the Barbacoa & Big Red Festival's own event page. The Freeman Coliseum's events listing backs that up, putting hours at noon to midnight on Saturday and noon to 11 p.m. on Sunday. CultureMap reported the festival running October 11-12 in 2025, with a different Saturday schedule; those dates refer to the 2025 festival, not the 2026 event.
Whichever dates end up correct, the festival's bones are the same ones that have drawn crowds in San Antonio for over a decade: barbacoa and other foods, live music and DJs both inside and outside, shopping at the Mini Mercado vendor market, and family activities, per the event's own description. WOAI's San Antonio Living spoke with Tony Villareal and John Villela about the event, and the segment also featured Vanessa Michi showing off what Taco Palenque will be bringing to the festival's food lineup this year.
Tickets, Age Rules and What's Included
General admission and VIP tickets are available through bbrfest.com, the Freeman Coliseum's event page notes, with tickets sold separately for Saturday and Sunday rather than as a weekend bundle. Food and beverages are not included with either ticket type, so attendees should plan to budget extra for barbacoa plates and drinks once inside.
General admission gets festivalgoers access to all music stages and vendors, while VIP ticket holders get into exclusive VIP areas, according to the same Freeman Coliseum listing. Anyone looking to drink should note that guests must be 21 or older to purchase or consume alcohol, and VIP sections are restricted to guests 21 and up.
A Festival That Outgrew Its Original Home
The genre mix on stage at the 2025 festival spanned Tejano and conjunto to country and rock, according to CultureMap. That range reflects how far the event has traveled since its scrappy beginnings: the first Barbacoa & Big Red Festival was held October 7, 2012, at the Park Sports Bar on Babcock Road, and organizers who'd expected about 300 people instead saw roughly 1,500 show up, per the Express-News's history of the event.
The crowds kept growing from there. By 2019 the festival was marking its ninth year and pulling in thousands of San Antonians, according to the Express-News, and by 2022 an estimated 40,000 people were expected over the two-day run. That growth pushed the event to bigger venues and from a single day to two, the outlet reported — a trajectory that eventually landed the festival at the Freeman Coliseum and Expo Hall area in 2024, after organizers moved it from the South Side to meet demand, according to KSAT. That 2024 edition ran October 12-13, with general admission starting at $30 for a single day and VIP tickets starting at $60.
Earlier editions leaned on cooking competitions, live music and the usual mix of vendors, games and food booths, the Express-News noted, elements that have largely carried over even as the footprint has expanded. Online, the festival's Facebook page lists more than 39,000 followers and over 12,000 check-ins from past events, while its Instagram account bills itself as Texas' most talked-about food festival ahead of this year's return.
