2016 is the twelfth year for the Alpharetta Arts Streetfest - this year there were 95 participants,…read moreranging from photography to pottery to jewelry to metalwork and everything in between. The festival is located in the heart of downtown Alpharetta - the city closes a block of Milton Avenue (at the intersection of Main Street) and the participants set up in rows along this block, and along certain sections of Old Roswell Street and Old Canton Street. It's a condensed area but never feels too crowded - the layout makes it easy to stroll through and see everything. There are usually a few food vendors, but in this location you're also surrounded by several restaurants - Hop Alley, South Main Kitchen, Smokejack BBQ, Ceviche, Mugs on Milton. In addition to the artisans, there are a number of booths dedicated to kid activities, so the event is absolutely family friendly. Because it's an outdoor event, many people bring the canine members of their family - while I definitely love this idea, just remember that late May can be very hot and this event is set up on pavement, which can be painful to paws. Double check the temperature before bringing Fido. If the pavement is too hot for you to walk barefoot, it's too hot for your pup's paws! The one improvement I would recommend for the event is based on temperature - when the weather hits the high 80's/low 90's (as it did this year), having a few mister fans at each end of the festival would be a real relief to attendees.

Very packed, lots of food, vendors and good music and shuttles at the Suwanee location.read more

I had heard about this event from the earlier event locations - this is a "pop-up" style market…read morethat moves around Atlanta, typically over a holiday weekend. On this occasion, it was the Memorial Day weekend on 2018.10.5 - 2018.10.07 and the market took place at the North Point Mall at 1000 North Point Cir, Alpharetta, GA 30022, along the side facing the JC Penny's anchor store. This is an outdoor vendor-oriented market featuring imported goods and a huge assortment of food. In Asia markets like these are done at night to escape the heat of the day - typically they go on pretty much all night but of course this US market is a bit more pragmatic. I met a friend after work on the first night (Friday) right when it opened, about 5:00 PM. The market was just getting started so some of the food vendors weren't quite ready and some tents were unoccupied, but this was remedied by the time we left. Admission was $10 but could have been less if we'd bought online prior to the event day - we decided to just pay at the gate. Oh and most of these vendors were cash only so keep that in mind - there are several ATMs but you get to pay those fees. I'd say that the "International" aspect was very well represented by a super diverse assortment of vendors and a crowd to to match. There were the typical saree and handbag sellers plus one booth that had leather jackets. I saw many, many different ethnic groups from all over the world - lots of fun to be had. There's also a stage with music that continued for most of the night with some live local acts and a DJ spinning a broad-time-spanning assortment of well-mixed dance music. But of course the real reason I attended was to sample the food. The food ranged from near-local to far reaching Asian - there were at least two different Lao vendors, Snackboxe Bistro and a Thai/Viet/Lao vendor that served Pad Thai, Papaya Salad and skewers of meat. There were also several Indian vendors including the nearby Dekkan Spice (very good) so a good mix of local restaurants, caterers and food trucks. I saw a couple of Halal places including a whole BBQ goat. We settled on a mix of Thai and Island cuisines, the latter being a veggie and noodle stirfry with teriyaki chicken. I thought both were quite good and less than $10. The Hawaiian rotisserie looked amazing but wasn't quite ready or I def would have gotten the pork ribs or turkey leg. There was also a vegan section with many restaurants within if what I described above scared you. I think there was plenty to sample something unusual and come away full. There were many drink vendors selling lassies and other cold drinks including many fruity drinks. I only saw one beer vendor but it was large and well placed sith several local craft brews - I ended up with a Creature Comforts Tropicalia IPA but also say a Three Taverns sour and a Steady Hand Farmhouse Ale (Saisson) as options. Overall I liked the event but coudn't stay much more than the hour or so (commitments elsewhere) but did have fun while there. The people serving were really nice and accommodating and good about answering questions. It was starting to get crowded so that was my queue to get out anyway - I don't deal with the jostle of the crowds - when my beer gets bumped it's time to leave!

As last year, the fall festival was a blast! This year I went on the same day and time and it was…read moremore crowded than last year. No parking available unless you kept driving around to catch someone leaving. I arrived at 10:30 and driving for 20 minutes. More people on a Sunday. The word definitely got out about this festival. They had more vendors and more food. The food prices were higher than I expected. I really wanted the footlong corn dog. One vendor had it as a combo with fries for $20. Another vendor had the regular corn dog for $8 and no side. So when you come expect to pay. The food looked and smelled great! Many vendors with jewelry, leather bags, beaded bags, doggie treats and goodies and etc. there was a lot to look at and discover, plus they had entertainment.

I used to go to this festival every year as a kid and absolutely loved all the activities,…read moredifferent foods & stalls! I got to go back this year after a longgg time and was kind of surprised in how it turned more into a food festival, there was literally a whole strip just dedicated to food vendors. There was such a wide variety of foods from all sorts of different authentic cuisines to snacks and homemade treats for on the go! We ended up getting a frozen pink lemonade, elotes and the impossible gyoza. One of the stalls did sell fresh apple cider donuts and I would definitely recommend getting them if you go! Overall such a good time and experience with your friends and family! You can easily spend a couple hours here and they have a mini pumpkin patch, face painting, live music you name it! It's only one weekend though so be sure you're free!

This is your go-to cutie patootie Fall/Pumpkin pickin', hay ridin', have a cup o'hot apple cider…read moresippin, a hot dog eatin and delectable locally made fresh apple fritter lovin' family-run kinda place. It is geared towards younger kids, but my 12 year old had a blast, too. It is fairly new, opening in 2009 the family matriarch told me. Near the parking lot is a home-made mini- rodeo corral of home-made bulls made out of wood and old plastic barrels that the kids can mess around on, a little wooden pavilion for face-painting, a wooden/log cabin with an inviting front-porch made by the family with woods/trees from the farm where you can buy locally made candles, gifts and baked goods. There was hot chocolate and super delicious locally made hot apple cider that warmed us up long after it was gone. There is a beautiful, rustic , charming but new large wooden pavilion filled with pumpkins of all shapes and sizes with chalkboard signs telling you what was what (never heard of a fairytale pumpkin). There were vignettes of pumpkins hither and yon and plenty of backdrops to take awesome fall pictures. The family members were super nice and offered to take our picture on some hay bales with pumpkins around us. There had been a wedding the weekend before so left up the muslin curtains around the wooden pavilion and it only added to the lovely charm of the place. The prices were decent for pumpkins, not cheap, but not expensive and they grow their own pumpkins! The hayride was perfect! It was 15 minutes over a newly-constructed made-to-look old charming covered bridge, with a few little vignettes set along the way. I hope they make more vignettes as the years go on, but it was perfectly delightful. There are a few animals: 2 goats, 2 donkeys, 2 pigs, and some colorful hens. There are cardboard cut-outs for photo opps. There was a bouncy house on the weekend we went, but it didn't seem like a permanent structure. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit. In our party, there were two adults and three kids: 12, 9 and 7 and we all had a great time and have been talking about going again this weekend. It's one of those lovely places that can only get better!

We had such a great time here! The best part is that it's dog friendly so you can bring the pups!…read moreWe saw the farm animals, did the corn mazy, the hay ride and enjoyed taking lots of pictures. I would definitely come here again with friends and I totally recommend it. Great place for a family day or if you want to have a little photo shoot. We came here on a Sunday and it was great! The lake when you go on the hay ride is beautiful! Staff was very friendly and helpful! We bought lots of pumpkins.

The food was super expensive. The sample tickets were $1 and esch sample would range from 1-5…read moretickets. All the samples were cold. They claimed there was free activities for the kids not true $15 for bounce houses. The only good thing was a dessert stand they had fair prices and excellent desserts. other than that very dissapointed.

I really loved the home town feel of it. Loved the music and…read moreshow. Food was fairly priced. About 50¢ each. Our favorite was the she crab soup (2 tickets) and the Irish car bomb ice cream (5 tickets). Tasty samples all over the place for 2 to 3 tickets. The free shuttle parking was not well marked. We abandoned that and wound up parking at the library, which was free as well.

Atlanta Eats Live! is a new annual food tasting festival that takes place at the Verizon Wireless…read moreAmphitheatre at Encore Park in Alpharetta. I attended this year's event on Sunday evening, October 5, 2014. I believe this was only the event's second year in existence. It's organized and produced by the folks behind the Atlanta Eats TV show, hosted by Steak Shapiro and Mara Davis. Both Steak and Mara made appearances at the event. Atlanta Eats Live! is the best non-Yelp-related food tasting event I've been to locally. I think it's marginally better than Taste of Atlanta for the following reasons: 1. Your ticket includes unlimited tastes from every vendor. At Taste of Atlanta, you must buy additional tastes. 2. Free parking. 3. Vendors are mostly high quality restaurants. There aren't nearly as many non-food vendors or sponsors, like Xfinity or American Family Insurance, trying to advertise or sell you their stuff. It's very food focused. 4. The event is nicely laid out in a contained space and the lines - even the long ones - flow well. 5. Related to #4 above, the Atlanta Eats event is smaller, so it feels more "intimate" and less crowded and chaotic. In 2014, tickets started at $45 per person, not including ticket fees which bumped the cost up to about $56-57 per ticket. Like Taste of Atlanta and other food tasting events, VIP tickets were available for $100+ each. VIP tickets allowed access to a roped off club section with a few additional tents such as one belonging to Woodfire Grill. VIP tickets also included complimentary drinks and a special parking section. At a minimum of nearly $60 per person, not including extra beverage costs, plus the drive up to Alpharetta for the non-North Fulton folks, I'm just not sure Atlanta Eats Live! is completely worth the price of admission. Though I do have to admit, there was plenty of good food and I stuffed myself silly. Beverage costs were $9 for draft beer, $7 for single wine, $13 for double wine, and $4 for bottled water. The event ran from 5pm to 10pm. Food was served from 5pm to 8pm. Some vendors ran out of food as early as about 6:15pm, but the majority of vendors were well stocked. Advice: Go early. Live music was performed on-stage from 8pm to 10pm. Yacht Rock Schooner was the band for the night and they performed some great covers of 80s songs such as "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" by Hall & Oates. Along with food and live music, there were supposedly cooking demonstrations by local Atlanta chefs, but I didn't see any. Over 40 restaurants were "hand-picked" for the event. Most of the restaurants have already been featured on the Atlanta Eats TV show or web site. I was impressed by the restaurant lineup. They got some good ones from all over town. It's nearly impossible to try food from every restaurant unless you just take one bite from each restaurant and throw the rest of the dish away (#firstworldproblems - I did not do this). You really have to pace yourself. I tapped out maybe two-thirds of the way through all the tents. I physically couldn't put more food or drink into my body. It also didn't help that I'd indulged in a brunch buffet just hours earlier. Here's a list of most of the vendors I visited and the foods I tried: 4th & Swift - Fall Vegetable Minestrone with Crispy Pork Shank Takorea - Gogi Nachos (pork and beef) Crawfish Shack Seafood: Cajun Infused Poached Scallops and Andouille Sausage Sugo - Meatball al Sugo Double Zero Napoletana - Butternut Squash Fritelle Cooks & Soldiers - Bikini - truffled, Iberico grilled Mahon cheese sandwich Muss & Turner's, Local Three, Common Quarter - Meat Butter - chicken liver, foie gras, cherry, cola St. Cecilia - Smoked Trout Roe & Harissa Seed Kitchen & Bar - Fall Mushroom Crostini and Tres Leches Cake Alma Cocina - Butternut Squash and Pork Cheek Posole Canoe - Slow Braised Southern Family Farms Pork Belly and Flavored Pops Kimball House - Pate a Choux - chicken liver mousse, jam Gu's Bistro - Chengdu Cold Noodles Heirloom Market BBQ and Sobban - BBQ pulled pork, scallion potato salad Villains Wicked Heroes - Nick the Pig Cuban Sandwich Lottafrutta - Miniature Cuban Coffee Ovations Food Services - Avocado Mac & Cheese Bite, Espresso Pumpkin Cheesecake, Ginger Apple Lime Soda The Ice Cream Bar - various spiked ice cream samples (e.g. bourbon, mojito) In general, the food was pretty good. My favorites included the Butternut Squash Fritelle from Double Zero, the "Meat Butter" chicken liver and foie gras spread from Muss & Turner's, Local Three, Common Quarter, the Tres Leches Cake from Seed, the Chengdu Cold Noodles from Gu's, and BBQ and sides from Heirloom and Sobban, the plate of which was big enough to almost be an entree all its own. I like how the restaurants didn't hold back in terms of the dishes and ingredients they served. An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people attended. Overall, I had a good time.

This is my first food festival/event. We got there a little after 5 and it wasn't too crowded yet…read more There was still PLENTY of food and almost no lines. I tried one of each thing and my friend had probably 3 servings of the pork belly. The selection of beers was actually surprising big, and bottled waters and small bottles of coke and diet coke also came with the ticket. As the night went on, it got more and more crowded and lines took 10-15 min for the highly sought after restaurants. I quit caring because my tummy was so bloated (I really can't eat as much as I used to haha). I went back to get some water, and the line took upwards of 15 min. (and they ran out of water). By that time though (7ish), the sky had darkened and it started to rain pretty hard. We hadn't even gotten to the last section yet. Rathbun's and a few others had run out of food and I was bummed. Towards the end, I could only pick and choose and take bites of some dishes since I was so incredibly full and wet. So I guess the purpose of this event--getting my belly full to the brim with yumminess--was served. Overall, they have to know the attendance of the event and they shouldn't have run out of food only halfway through the event. I found a coupon code and paid $65 or so for the GA ticket, so I'd say it was alright for the price. I would not have paid full price though.

I love festivals and I am glad that they are becoming trendy across the US. This one can't really…read morebeat the Duluth Fall Festival in September but it's not bad! This one is in June 11-12. Careful, it gets VERY hot on a June day in Atlanta. I recommend coming in the morning if you're afraid of it getting super hot. My friends and I had tents selling crafts here and it can get miserable so make sure you bring lots of water. This festival had crafts on the far right end of the street with soaps, art, carvings, and all kinds of things. THere are some local businesses of course handing out info and free giveaways such as chiropractic, roof cleaning, and other services. I thought the free food giveaways were a bomb. There was a local peach stand which was awesome, free bags of local organic quinoa chips, and other fun give aways. The local P'tree corners stand will hand out tote bags, I love P'tree corner banners,and free hand paddle fans which you definitely need. There is a giant guy about 7'2 walking around in a peach costume and another guy on stilts as a tree so make sure you see those two. There is live music and I honestly thought for a small festival, the entertainment was VERY good. GOod voices and very good talent. Definitely worth listening to and crucial to keeping everyone happy in such a warm day. Check out the stands that have hot dogs and funnel cakes! There are portable bathrooms at the end and there are cars at the end with some fancy car show going on for car enthusiasts!

FESTIVAL TIME, (Peachtree Corners)…read more I attended this festival a couple of years ago with my family and we all had a very nice time. The parking is great and there are shuttle carts that take you from your car to the venue or you can easily walk. It was a hot day and we were lucky enough to have the mayor as our driver. The festival is great for families because they have activities for everyone. The little ones will love the bounce house, face painting and other activities, everyone will enjoy wandering from table to table checking out the arts and crafts and who doesn't LOVE classic cars! It is just the perfect opportunity to get out, listen to live music, get some fresh air and just meet people. This year the festival will be marked by a pre-festival concert on Friday night, (June 12th) and the actual festival begins on Sat at 10am and continues until Sunday evening. Clear your calendar and save the date!

This was our first year to the Dunwoody Art Festival. The good thing is they do offer free parking…read moreat a near by church (Calvary Church of Atlanta) and then guests can hop on the shuttle (our driver was Chris, he was awesome!). They seem to run about every 15 minutes, so it is easy to be picked up and dropped off. Like the majority of all festivals in Atlanta, this one sells the typical candles, wood work, paintings, clothing, etc. We discovered a few vendors selling unique metal work that we have not seen at the other festivals. This is a smaller festival, but still fun for the family. They have about 100 or so vendors. [Review #378] (24th Review of 2016)

Since 2010. It's a Mother's Day tradition in Dunwoody! The Dunwoody Village area transforms into a…read morewhimsical artist market with fun for the entire family, and Dunwoody Village Parkway will become a shoppers' paradise. Bestowed the trophy for the "Best New Event of 2010" by the Southeast Festivals and Events Association, Dunwoody Art Festival continues to attract the top artisans from across the country. Along with the partnership of the Dunwoody Crier, incredible community volunteers and the Dunwoody Rotary Club, Dunwoody Art Festival is a must-see! A fun-filled Kidz Zone will await youngsters with great rides, sand art, imaginative crafts and games. A relaxing stage with continuous live music will be located in the new food court and will join Village Burger and other great eats from neighborhood restaurants. Sit down and relax before setting out again in search for that "gotta have it" piece of art. There truly is something for everyone at Dunwoody Art Festival!

This was a return, after not attending the past several years. The food was great! I had the Lamb…read moreBowl and my wife had the Greek Lemon Chicken Bowl. We had a Coke and a bottle of water to drink. Later, we had Almond Crescents and Baklava, which we shared after a dance program. The chicken dish was so very enjoyable that my wife used the internet to find a similar dish that she could prepare at home, it was both healthy and tasty - a rare combination. All that we had to eat was quite tasty. We chose well.

We had a great time Saturday. It was very organized with several stations from food to live music…read moreto face painting to an artisan shop. We enjoyed the food thoroughly. I recommend it. It has been going on for over 30 years.

Going to the fair makes you feel like the season is changing and the weather is getting cooler!…read more Plenty of rides to choose from with bright lights that will not disappoint! I like the paved pathways through the park. Oh, parking is a bit tough as it was full lots all around with a $10 fee. We chose like many others, to park on a curb about 3 blocks away. It was a walk but a better option than waiting in a big line of traffic for a full lot with no spaces. Show up early! There are some shows included in your ticket price. A man shot out of a cannon and PIG Racing! LOL kinda funny to watch! The Fair in Cumming GA is one of the cleanest, most safe fairgrounds in GA. They have a Cotton Gin display that is pretty neat and can teach your children a thing or two, if they aren't too overdosed on sugar from cotton candy! Huge corn dogs for $10, was a bit pricey and surprising!

A Sunday well spent with my family on the last day of the Cumming Country Fair & Festival! This was…read moremy first time attending, and was actually their 30th year, but certainly will not be the last time I visit. It's an annual event, and one of the largest events held at the Cumming Fairgrounds. Family friendly with tons of attractions including games, rides, a petting zoo, and lots of yummy food and drink vendors. Admission was $10, and they do offer deals for unlimited rides and such depending on your plan for your visit. Kiddos 10 and under get in for free which is nice. I enjoyed a delicious cheeseburger and fries, and of course, had to get a frozen lemonade. The funnel cake was calling my name but I ended up deciding to skip it as line was long and I knew I didn't need the extra sugar. I am regretting not enjoying a caramel apple, however! We played a few staple carnival games, and just enjoyed walking around the grounds and taking in all there was to offer. Next year (if I'm not pregnant again), I will definitely try out a few rides!