Gastronomy is an essential attractiveness factor of a territory for tourists. The present research is aimed at identification and typologization of gastronomic festivals based on cultural heritage. The authors put forward the hypothesis that cultural heritage today is an actively used basis for creation and promotion of European gastronomic festivals, but very weakly developed in the Russian practice, particularly in St Petersburg.206 European food and drink festivals and 10 St Petersburg gastronomic festivals going on in 2014-2015 made up empirical base of the research.