SAINT SIMONS ISLAND — Headliners have been announced for the inaugural Saint Simons Food & Spirits Festival, which will be held Sept. 21-23 on Saint Simons Island.

This festival will be headlined by James Beard award-winning television personality and cookbook author Nathalie Dupree and her co-author Cynthia Graubart will headline the event, which will benefit Hospice of the Golden Isles.

Other culinary luminaries scheduled to participate include Ford Fry, chef and restaurateur of Atlanta restaurants No. 246, JCT. Kitchen and The Optimist; Saint Simons beekeeper Ted Dennard, founder of Savannah Bee Company; and more.

Event highlights include:

• First Bite kick-off reception on Thursday, Sept. 20, in the courtyard of Halyards Restaurant.

• Friday Night Festival Feast. Fry and executive chef Jonathan Jerusalmy will present a five-course dinner featuring local foods, specialty cocktails and fine wines.

•Saturday festivities at Gascoigne Bluff include The Market, which features a farm stand, retailers and a juried arts and crafts show, free to the public.

•Southern Specialties Cooking Class, led by Dupree and Graubart in the Harbour Room at Coastal Kitchen.

•Local Flavors Tasting Tent featuring 25 local chefs and restaurants, craft beers, artisan spirits and fine wines.

•VIP Riverside Sporting Club will televise SEC football; guests will have food from Frederica, Little Saint Simons and Sea Island as well as libations from the mixologists at the King & Prince. In this venue, festival goers will have the opportunity to interact one-on-one with festival talent.

•Lowcountry Concert with bluegrass and rock-n-roll from the Mosier Brothers and the eclectic sounds of Mudcat. Local restaurants will sell coastal favorites and during the concert, football viewing will continue and VIPs will have pub grub in the Riverside Sporting Club.

•SPIRITual Sunday Brunch at Halyards. Chef and owner Dave Snyder and his team will serve a multi-course meal featuring recipes from invited culinary talent, who will be seated among the guests.

For more information on the festival, go to www.saintsimonsfoodandspirits.com. For more information on Hospice of the Golden Isles, go to www.hospice.me.