Find out what's happening at the Hilton Head Island Wine & Food Festival

The Hilton Head Island Wine & Food Festival is right around the corner. The festivities start March 4 with a series of wine dinners at local restaurants. But the main event is March 9 at the Coastal Discovery Museum.

The focus will be on the hundreds of wines that will be available for sipping to go along with the restaurants offering up samples. (Check out the best of the best wines here.)

Don't get too distracted by the wine; there's plenty of other activities going on, too. The festival recently set its schedule for the day. Here it is:

11 a.m. – V.I.P. Patron Ticket Holders Festival Grounds Access to V.I.P. Tent
noon – Festival Grounds Open for General Admission Tickets/Wine Tastings begin
noon – Outdoor Gourmet (Cooking Demonstrations continuously until 3 p.m.)
noon to 3 p.m. – Cranford & Sons on the Big Stage
noon to 3 p.m. – Celebrity Cookbook Author’s Tent Open (with Sheri Castle, Pat Branning, Sallie Ann Robinson and Fred Thompson)
noon – Silent Auction Opens
12:30 p.m. – Grey Goose Bartender’s Challenge (See who can come up with the best concoction.)
1 to 2 p.m. – Educational Wine Seminar: "What’s Hot in Food & Wine!"
2 p.m. – Southern Wine & Spirits Waiter’s Race (Watch HHI's best compete in an obstacle course. Always fun viewing.)
2:45 p.m. – Silent Auction Closes
3 p.m. – Festival Grounds Close

The Outdoor Gourmet brings out some pretty big names locally for cooking demos.

Noon — Chef John Pashak of Hogshead (new restaurant opening in Bluffton)
12:40 p.m. — Chef Orchid Paulmeier of from One Hot Mama’s
1:15 p.m. — Chef Robert Leoci of Leoci’s Trattoria in Savannah
1:50 p.m. — Gullah cook Sallie Ann Robinson
2:30 p.m. — Chef Keith Josefiak of Old Fort Pub

For more details about the main event or any of the wine dinners leading up to it, check out the festival's website here. Also, tickets are $50 day of the event, but you can get a $5 discount if you purchase online beforehand.