Grupo Xcaret announces the official dates of Apapaxoa Festival GastroCultural Xcaret 2026, which will take place from September 18 to 23, 2026, across its properties: Hotel Xcaret Arte, Hotel Xcaret México, and La Casa de la Playa, positioning itself as the epicenter of gastronomy in Mexico.
Conceived as a meeting point between gastronomy, culture, and territory, the project will bring together the 23 chefs of the Xcaret Gastronomic Collective, along with national and international guests, to articulate experiences and creative processes that engage with the country’s contemporary identity. All to show why Mexico embraces the world with its culture, flavors, and tradition.
In this third edition, Apapaxoa Festival GastroCultural reaffirms its role as a cultural platform aimed at positioning Xcaret as an epicenter where gastronomy articulates other contemporary disciplines. In addition to the culinary focus, the event will integrate beverages—from mixology to wine culture—artistic expressions, fashion, literature, music, photography, and craftsmanship, as well as community dialogue encounters that foster creative exchange.
To these axes are added sustainability, well-being, and technology, expanding the understanding of cooking as a living cultural expression, anchored in origin, technique, and its relationship with the environment.
The Colors of Mexico: 2026 Conceptual Narrative
The 2026 edition will be guided by the concept The Colors of Mexico, a symbolic and sensory exploration in which color is presented as a cultural language connecting territory, flavor, and identity.
Each tone evokes ingredients, landscapes, rituals, and collective memories that have shaped the country’s gastronomic culture. From the yellow of corn as a symbol of sustenance and fertility, to red, which evokes chili, offering, and transformation; through green, linked to the milpa and biodiversity; and black, reflecting time, smoke, and the depth of traditional preparations, the festival builds a journey where color engages with history and emotion.
From natural pigments present in ancestral ingredients to the visual aesthetics of art, fashion, photography, and music, Apapaxoa FestivalGastroCultural proposes a multisensory experience that invites audiences to explore the country through its cultural tonalities and creative richness.
A Gastronomic Perspective Rooted in Origin
For Xcaret, Apapaxoa is embracing with the soul: a way of understanding hospitality and culinary expression as an act of closeness, identity, and respect for the territory. More than a celebration of flavors, the project is conceived as a space for reflection where origin, memory, and creative processes engage with a contemporary perspective.
From this vision, the gathering recognizes Mexican cuisine as a living manifestation of identity, capable of engaging with the present without losing its connection to its roots, while expanding toward new contemporary languages. In this way, it integrates beverages, art, community, sustainability, wellness, and technology as natural extensions of a culture expressed through flavor, ritual, and shared creation.
A Meeting Point
Over six days, Apapaxoa Festival GastroCultural Xcaret 2026 will bring together chefs, sommeliers, and creators from Xcaret’s Gastronomic Collective, alongside guests from different countries. The gathering will foster an exchange of ideas, techniques, and narratives in which Mexican cuisine is presented to the world through its culture and flavors.
The programming will include stories with flavor, workshops, and interdisciplinary encounters among creators, writers, artists, and industry specialists. As a prominent cultural axis, a Book Fair will be held, bringing together contemporary voices and editorial leaders, expanding the conversation beyond the table toward the word, memory, and imagination. These activities will coexist with special dinners, cultural exhibitions, sensory tastings, and artistic proposals that reflect the evolution of contemporary gastronomic discourse.
Without revealing specific program details yet, this year’s edition is shaping up to be a space where proposals converse with one another, creative exchange takes center stage, and each participation responds to a clear authorial vision connected to the territory.
Xcaret Hotels as Festival Venues
The 2026 edition of Apapaxoa will take place at Hotel Xcaret Arte, as well as Hotel Xcaret México and La Casa de la Playa—destinations that articulate hospitality, nature, art, and gastronomy under a shared narrative. Each property will contribute its unique identity and atmosphere to create a gastro-cultural journey that transcends the table.
The festival will expand the conversation into different creative languages —architecture, landscape, ritual, color, and experience— consolidating itself as a living platform within the Xcaret universe.
Toward a New Edition
Apapaxoa Festival GastroCultural Xcaret 2026 marks a new chapter in its evolution, reaffirming Grupo Xcaret’s vision of promoting initiatives that transcend the traditional event format to become long-term cultural platforms.
An invitation to observe, listen, and experience a contemporary interpretation of culture, where gastronomy, art, and community converge through a shared consciousness.
