Salón Gourmets 2026: Dates, Tickets & Complete Guide

Four days, five halls, 65,000 square meters and over 110,000 trade professionals expected. Salón Gourmets 2026 runs April 13 to 16 at IFEMA Madrid, and if you work in food, wine, distribution or hospitality, it is the most commercially dense event on the Spanish calendar. This guide covers everything you need to know before you go: how to register, what it costs, how to get there, which zones matter most and how to make the most of your time on the floor.

The official visual identity of the 39th Salón Gourmets, April 13 to 16, 2026 at IFEMA Madrid.

2026 Quick Facts

📅 Dates: April 13 to 16, 2026

⏰ Hours Monday to Wednesday: 10:00 to 19:00

⏰ Hours Thursday (last day): 10:00 to 17:00 — closes two hours early, do not miss this

📍 Venue: IFEMA Madrid, Halls 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, Av. del Partenón 5, 28042 Madrid

📐 Exhibition space: 65,000 m²

🎫 Single-day ticket online: €60

🎫 Single-day ticket at door (IFEMA): €85

🎫 4-day pass online: €100

🎫 4-day pass at door (IFEMA): €130

🔗 Accreditation portal: salon.gourmets.net

🚇 Metro: Line 8 (pink), station "Feria de Madrid" — direct connection to Barajas Airport T4 and city center at Nuevos Ministerios

🚌 Bus lines: 73, 104, 112, 122 (city) and 828 (intercity)

🚗 By car: M11 exits 5 and 7 / M40 exits 5, 6 and 7 / A2 exit 7

✈️ From Barajas Airport: Under 15 minutes on metro Line 8 to the fairground

👤 Who can attend: Trade professionals only. Prior accreditation required. Government-issued ID mandatory at entry.

🔞 Age restriction: No one under 18 admitted under any circumstances, including infants and babies, even accompanied by a guardian

🏛️ Edition: 39th

🌍 Guest region 2026: Galicia (Xunta de Galicia)

🌊 Guest country 2026: Norway

📞 Contact: infosalon@gourmets.net

🌐 Official website: gourmets.net/salon-gourmets

What This Event Actually Is

The 39th edition, organized by Grupo Gourmets, runs across 65,000 square meters in five halls at IFEMA Madrid. The organizers project over 2,000 exhibitors, 55,000 products on display and more than 110,000 professional visitors over four days, including 15,000 international buyers. Estimated business volume for the 2026 edition: over €250 million.

At the 2025 edition those numbers were even higher, €313 million in business, 117,969 visitors, 2,142 new products launched, and over 6,400 formal business meetings registered. The fair grows year on year, and 2026 marks a symbolic milestone: it is both the 39th Salón Gourmets and the 50th anniversary of Grupo Gourmets itself.

How It Started

Grupo Gourmets was founded in 1976 with the launch of Club de Gourmets, the first Spanish magazine dedicated entirely to gastronomy, wine and travel. By the mid-1980s the organization had spent a decade documenting the Spanish food world and saw clearly what was missing: a professional commercial platform where premium food and drink producers could actually meet buyers in one place with real commercial intent.

The first Salón Gourmets opened in 1987. In 1991 it received international fair status, recognized by Spain's State Secretariat for Commerce. It has been a member of UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, ever since, and holds Official Community Fair status from the Autonomous Community of Madrid. The move to IFEMA in 2009 gave it the physical scale to become what it is today.

Accreditation: Do This Before Anything Else

Accreditation is mandatory and must be completed in advance through the official visitor registration portal. You can show up and pay at the door, but it will cost you €25 more for a single day and €30 more for the full four-day pass. More importantly, the accreditation is how the organizers verify your professional status, this is not just a ticket purchase.

All accreditations and invitations are personal and non-transferable. You must bring a government-issued ID (passport, national ID card) to enter. The right of admission is reserved.

Press accreditation follows a separate process through the official press room at gourmets.net/salon-gourmets/sala-de-prensa.

One important practical note: on Thursday the 16th the fair closes at 17:00, two hours earlier than Monday through Wednesday. You can enter up to 30 minutes before closing each day.

Getting There

The organizers specifically recommend arriving by public transport, particularly metro, due to construction works currently taking place at IFEMA. That is worth taking seriously.

By metro is the easiest and fastest option. Take Line 8 (the pink line) to "Feria de Madrid" station. The line runs directly from Barajas Airport Terminal 4 to the fairground and continues into the city center at Nuevos Ministerios, where you can connect to Lines 6, 10 and Cercanías suburban rail. Journey time from the airport is under 15 minutes. From Nuevos Ministerios, roughly 20 minutes.

By bus, city lines 73, 104, 112 and 122 all serve IFEMA Madrid. Intercity line 828 runs from Universidad Autónoma through Alcobendas to IFEMA.

By car, access is via M11 exits 5 and 7, M40 exits 5, 6 and 7, or A2 exit 7. Parking is available at the north, south and east entrances of the fairground. The official travel agency partner, IAG7 Viajes, can also help with flight and accommodation discounts, contact Nani Pelayo at empresasmalaga@iag7viajes.com or +34 951 404 910, referencing "39 Salón Gourmets."

Discounted Iberia and Renfe tickets are also available for attendees through IAG7 Viajes.

The Exhibition Zones

Knowing the layout before you walk in is worth the 10 minutes it takes to study it. Here is what is in each thematic zone:

Innovation Area (32nd edition) is where new product launches are concentrated. Every product here comes with a technical spec sheet and exhibitor stand location. For buyers tracking category trends and sourcing genuinely new products, this is the most efficient starting point. Over 1,500 new products are expected at the 2026 edition.

Wine Tunnel (30th edition) covers 54 Spanish wine-producing regions in a structured tasting circuit spanning single-variety wines, reds, whites, rosés and sparkling wines. Organized in collaboration with MAPA. Designed for trade buyers and sommeliers, not casual tasting.

EVOO Tunnel (8th edition) applies the same format to extra virgin olive oils from Spain's main producing regions, also organized with MAPA.

Cheese Tunnel / Cheese from Spain Awards runs alongside the GourmetQuesos competition and concentrates Spanish and international cheese producers and awards in one space. The competition received close to 900 entries at its last edition.

Organic Exhibition Area (6th edition) brings all EU-certified organic products under one roof. The zone exists specifically to help retail and HORECA buyers verify organic certification status without having to hunt across the full floor.

Pizza Gallery (5th edition) and Gallery of the Fair (13th edition) offer more category-specific spaces for specialty and artisan food producers.

#AlimentosdeEspaña / "El País Más Rico del Mundo" is the Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) pavilion, dedicated to Spanish products carrying Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and Traditional Specialty Guaranteed (TSG) labels. Show cookings and presentations run here across all four days.

Competitions and Championships

The competitions are not side entertainment. They attract serious professional attention, generate significant press coverage and produce real commercial outcomes for winners. The confirmed 2026 competition calendar:

The 32nd Ham Carving Championship (Dehesa de Extremadura), the 31st Spain Sommelier Championship (Tierra de Sabor), the 18th Spain Oyster Opening Championship (Sorlut / Grupo Gourmets), the 16th GourmetQuesos Best Cheeses of Spain 2026, the 12th Beer Pulling Championship (Estrella Galicia), the 9th National Cachopo Competition (Ternera Asturiana IGP), the 7th National Arte de Cisoria Championship (El Encinar de Humienta), the XChef Challenge by Cervezas 1906 National Final, the 5th Spain Gourmet Pizza Championship (categories: classic, pala, taglio, Neapolitan, gluten-free, longest, speed, acrobatics and Argentine), the 4th Master Pinchos Gourmets (La Rioja products), the 2nd Gazpachuelo Gourmet Championship (Sabor a Málaga) and the 15th National Cocktail Competition Panizo.

Three competitions make their first appearance in 2026: the 1st Parrilla Challenge IRUKI (grilling), Burger Academy by La Finca and the Carbonara Challenge by Rummo.

Guest Region and Guest Country

Galicia, represented by the Xunta de Galicia, is the 2026 guest region. This means a dedicated exhibition space and its own programming, with strong focus on Galician seafood, dairy and agri-food production. The Atlantic Cuisine Day, coordinated by Galicia's Ministry of Sea and Rural Affairs, is one of the flagship events of the four days.

Norway is the 2026 guest country.

Awards Taking Place During the Fair

The Salón hosts the main annual awards of Grupo Gourmets: the 41st Guía Vinos Gourmets Awards 2026, the 15th Revista Club de Gourmets Awards, the 14th Salón Gourmets Awards and the 2nd Liga del 100 Awards from the Guía Vinos Gourmets 2026.

The Business Center and Hosted Buyers Program

Now in its 28th edition, the Business Center is a free service for confirmed exhibitors and is the highest-conversion tool available at the fair for companies targeting export markets.

Run in partnership with ICEX (Spain's export promotion body) and MAPA within the Spain Food Nation framework, the program brings 250 pre-selected international buyers from across five continents to the fair. Private meeting rooms and professional translation and interpretation services are provided at no extra cost.

The 2026 edition projects over 6,500 formal meetings through this program. Exhibitors must register for the Hosted Buyers Program separately when confirming their exhibition space, it is not automatically included. Places are limited.

How to Plan Your Days

The four days have different rhythms and it is worth being intentional about how you use them.

Monday and Tuesday carry the highest density of exhibitor presence and formal meetings. If you have a Hosted Buyers Program agenda, the bulk of your most valuable meetings will likely fall here. Wednesday is when the competition calendar reaches its peak and the floor energy is at its highest. Thursday is quieter, more transactional, and closes at 17:00 — best for focused supplier conversations without the midweek volume.

If you are attending with a pre-arranged meeting schedule through the Business Center, request your preferred time slots as early as possible. Availability fills up weeks before the fair opens.

For Exhibitors

Exhibition space applications for 2026 are open. Halls are assigned in order of reservation. The full technical documentation, floor plans and hall assignments are available on the official technical sheet page. The admission request form and space contracting process are at gourmets.net/salon-gourmets/exponer.