As a result of globalization's impact throughout the past century, rural areas have experienced a change in their social, cultural, and economic landscape. With the change of agricultural production practices, population decline, depletion of natural resources, and threat of new housing constructions, rural communities have undergone deep transformation and under the therat of change of the rural identity. The idea of rural tourism, which was created to stop rural regions from the transformation, has taken center stage in rural development and, by extension, regional and national development. Improved living conditions, a better quality of life and built environment, and increased economic activity are all examples of rural development concepts. In areas with unique gastronomic, environmental and cultural values, rural tourism has emerged as a viable alternative to the tourists. Food festivals are among the most effective motor for growth in areas with distinctive culinary values. Events that promote unique gastronomic values on a national or international level and contain product sales are called as a food festivals. In the context of this study, the Urla Artichoke Festival, which has been hosted since 2015 and celebrates a geographical indicator for gum artichoke, has been successful to promote the rural areas and their branding. The stakeholders of the Urla Artichoke Festival were identified as a first step in the research. To learn more about these stakeholders' contributions to the festival and their opinions on the economic, cultural, and social impacts of the event on rural areas, semi-structured interviews were undertaken. In the research systematic tables were used to present the information which were collected during the interviews. The conclusion section includes a critical discussion of the collected data. The concept of gastronomic tourism has been reviewed in the context of the Urla Artichoke Festival in this study. Issues have been found and solutions have been established to deal with rural development practices in a more planned, sustainable and efficient manner. Keywords: Rural Development, Rural Tourism, Gastronomy Tourism, Food Festival, Urla Artichoke Festival.