Day1: Flavours, Stories, and Crowds: Inside the GTCO Food and Drink Festival 2026

By Adeleke Olubanwo

Walk into GTCentre, Oniru this weekend and you’re hit with it all at once: the smell of suya mingling with Thai curry, the sound of a DJ set blending into a pastry masterclass, kids running from the play area with ice cream, and queues snaking around stalls that look too good for Instagram.

That’s the 9th GTCO Food and Drink Festival in full swing. Running May 1–3, 2026, with the theme “Everything Food and Drink,” the festival has turned Victoria Island into a three-day celebration of taste, culture, and community. And yes entry is still free.

This year, 204 stalls line the venue, each telling a different food story. You’ll find time-honoured Nigerian dishes preserved across generations right next to bold, modern takes on global cuisine. Jollof wars? Sorted. Vegan small chops? They’ve got it. Artisan coffee, craft cocktails, agege bread reimagined as gourmet toast it’s all here.

But GTCO isn’t just feeding stomachs. The festival’s “everything” approach means masterclasses and tastings sit beside the market stalls. On Day 1 alone, visitors watched Dera Oluyede and Kemi Anazodo bake cinnamon rolls, Dylan Eitharong break down Thai techniques, Begoña Rodrigo showcase Mediterranean flavours, and Italy’s Paolo Griffa dive into Italian cooking.

What makes it different from your regular food event is the energy. Families spread out on picnic mats while chefs plate up live. Food content creators are everywhere, but so are grandmothers comparing pepper soup recipes. There’s a dedicated play area for kids, live demos every hour, and enough seating that you can actually sit and enjoy what you bought.

For Lagosians, it’s become a May ritual. For tourists, it’s a crash course in Nigeria’s culinary creativity. And for the 204 vendors 90% of them first-timers it’s a shot at putting their food in front of thousands of new customers in one weekend.

The GTCO Food and Drink Festival works because it doesn’t feel corporate. It feels like Lagos: loud, diverse, ambitious, and deeply social. As one attendee put it while juggling puff-puff and a palm wine cocktail, “This is the only place where I can try food from five countries before noon, then end up arguing about whose mother makes the best egusi.”

The festival runs through Sunday, May 3, from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily at GTCentre, Plot 1 Water Corporation Drive, Oniru. Come hungry.

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