Every fall, thousands of cinephiles and foodies descend on the town of Wolfville, NS to attend the Devour! The Food Film Fest.

Similar to Park City, UT when Sundance rolls into town, Wolfville’s population of 4,500 more than doubles for the six days of the festival. Nearly 11,000 people attended the fest last year, and at this year’s festival, which hosts its opening night screening of Hiro Dreams of Sushi tonight (Oct. 24), more than 13,000 are expected.

The food-and-beverage-focused film festival has increased in scope and stature since it became an annual event in 2013, with this year’s event drawing in such big-name attendees as Sam Kass, the former White House Chef for the Obama family, and The Roots founding member Questlove.

Actor-turned-chef Michael Howell launched the festival in 2009 as a way to put bums in the seats of his restaurant in November, a typically slow month. He launched what was then called the Slow Motion Food Film Festival with Robert Kenner’s documentary Food, Inc., Gabriel Axel’s Oscar-winner Babette’s Feast, and “two or three” other films.

“We brought 1,000 people in and we were really quite surprised that as many people were interested in food films – and of course my restaurant was full for a couple of days,” Howell told Playback Daily.

After the success of the first edition, Howell reached out to the Atlantic Film Festival and was introduced to its executive director Lia Rinaldo, who came on board for its second edition in 2011, which saw 2,000 people come out.

In 2013, Rinaldo and Howell decided to dedicate themselves full-time to the festival. After 22 years with the Atlantic Film Festival, Rinaldo resigned and Howell closed his restaurant to relaunch the now-annual festival, which they renamed Devour!

But the real “game-changer” for the fest, says Howell, happened the following year, when celebrated chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain participated as guest curator.

“It helped put us on the map when we brought him here. It was the only non-CNN gig he did [that year],” says Howell.

More than 6,000 people attended that year. While the majority of its audience hails from Halifax and other parts of Atlantic Canada, the fest has seen growth in visitors from outside the reason. “Now fully 10% of our visitors are from across Canada, with 4% from outside of the country,” he says.

Part of what’s set Devour apart in a country full of film festivals, is the experiential element it offers attendees. The festival programs in-theatre tastings – when they showcased The Great Chicken Wing Hunt last year, for example, patrons were given chicken wings to eat – as well as culinary workshops and tasting tours.

“Food and film are a wonderful happy marriage – a collision of sense and smell and taste,” says Howell. “You can see a dish on the screen but you can’t taste it, this way you get to bring that thing you see on the screen to life.”

The fest’s signature event is its Celebrity Chef Dinner, where five chefs each create a dish inspired by a certain film. “Five years ago it took us so much energy and time to sell the dinners and to convince people to go,” says Rinaldo. This year, the 150-person event sold out without any details as to who was participating. “It just shows you how the brand and the signature event has taken off for us.”

In addition to a profile boost, the dinner also provides an extra source of revenue for the fest, which charges $200 per ticket to the special event. That additional revenue is important to a fest that flies in and pays chef talent from around the world. They now host similar satellite events around the world, hosting 14 last year from Berlin to Los Angeles.

While the food and celebrity chefs are certainly a draw, Rinaldo says the film programming is getting better every year. This year 74 films from 21 countries will screen at the fest, including the world premiere of True Faux Films’ documentary Six Primrose, and special gala screenings of Mark Tchelistchef’s André – The Voice of Wine and Phillip Baribeau’s Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story.

“We probably looked at 300 titles to pick our program this year of about 70-plus films,” says Rinaldo. “There’s a lot of great stuff, it’s just how to make it all fit.”

As Devour continues to grow, Howell and Rinaldo promise one thing will remain the same: there will never be any “velvet ropes.”

“There are no VIP or super VIP lines. You could be walking down the street and bump into Jason Priestley or [chef] Jacques Pepin,” says Howell. “We don’t separate the visitors and the guests from each other. They rub shoulders, they see each other in our hospitality lounge, they have dinner together.”

Part of hosting a festival in a town like Wolfville demands it remain this way, says Rinaldo. “Because of the size of the town and the venues and the spaces we’re using, you’re always in an intimate session.”

Photo: Jacques Pépin debones a chicken onstage; credit: Julé Malet-Veale