Nilla Steps Up as Presenting Sponsor of the 2026 National Banana Pudding Festival
A longtime friend of the festival deepens a partnership that started in grandmother's kitchen The post Nilla Steps Up
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A longtime friend of the festival deepens a partnership that started in grandmother’s kitchen
Centerville, TN (PRUnderground) September 24th, 2026
Mondelēz International and its iconic NILLA® Wafers brand have officially signed on as the presenting sponsor for the 17th Annual National Banana Pudding Festival, taking place October 3-4, 2026. Held at the Hickman County Ag Pavilion in Centerville, Tennessee, this premier culinary celebration brings thousands of dessert lovers together to honor America’s favorite comfort dessert. This year the festival will be known as The National Banana Pudding Festival, presented by Nilla Wafers.
For generations of families, banana pudding and Nilla have gone together like Sunday dinner and a second helping. Nabisco began baking its vanilla wafers in 1898, and by the 1940s the company was printing a banana pudding recipe right on the box. That little recipe traveled into kitchens all across the South. It was copied onto index cards, tucked into church cookbooks and handed down from mothers to daughters and grandsons. Today, when someone lifts a spoonful of banana pudding and remembers a grandmother’s kitchen, there is a good chance a box of Nilla wafers was sitting on her counter.
“Nilla has been part of this festival’s family for 17 years, and part of banana pudding’s family for a lot longer than that,” said Robert Warden, Chairman, National Banana Pudding Festival. “Every cook who comes to Centerville brings a little of that history with them. We are grateful Nilla believes in what our volunteers do, and we are proud to have them standing with us in a bigger way this year.”
Nilla has supported the festival since 2010. Its move to Presenting Sponsor, the festival’s highest level of partnership, grows a relationship built over many Octobers in Hickman County. NBPF plans to include more on-site activation with Nilla, including naming the Main stage after Nilla.
The festival itself began with twelve community volunteers in Centerville who wanted a way to raise money for neighbors hit by disasters, fires, tornadoes and floods. They incorporated the National Banana Pudding Festival as a nonprofit in September 2009, and banana pudding has been doing good in Hickman County ever since. On the Puddin’ Path, eleven local nonprofits serve their own banana pudding to raise money for their work. At the National Cook-Off, cooks from across the country compete for the title of Best Banana Pudding in America.
The 17th annual National Banana Pudding Festival, presented by Nilla Wafers, takes place Saturday, October 3 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, October 4 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Hickman County Ag Pavilion in Centerville, Tennessee. Tickets and directions are at BananaPuddingFest.org.
About the National Banana Pudding Festival
About the National Banana Pudding Festival Held the first weekend of October in Centerville, Tennessee, the National Banana Pudding Festival is a volunteer-run nonprofit that turns a Southern favorite into support for its neighbors. Beyond the pudding, the two-day festival offers live entertainment on multiple stages, children’s activities, and food and craft vendors, in historic Grinder’s Switch. BananaPuddingFest.org
About Nilla
First introduced in 1898, NILLA Wafers are a beloved, instantly recognizable wafer-style cookie known for their crispy texture and sweet, golden touch of vanilla flavor. Marketed by Nabisco, a subsidiary of Mondelēz International, NILLA Wafers have spent generations creating joyful, shareable snack moments. While celebrated as a deliciously nostalgic, standalone sweet snack, they are also famous for being an essential base and inclusion for classic dessert favorites, most notably the Southern cuisine staple banana pudding. For more information, recipes, and product details, visit the official brand page at snackworks.com/brands/Nilla.
Media contact
Robert Warden, Chair
National Banana Pudding Festival
931-994-NBPF · marketing@bananapuddingfest.org
PO Box 214, Centerville, TN 37033
