I've attended the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival in previous years and always enjoyed…read morethe experience--but this year was a total letdown and felt deceptive. The event was advertised from 3:00-10:00 PM, but beer service ended abruptly at 6:00 PM, something only mentioned in small print on their website. I had two tasting tickets left and no way to use them. Even vendors we know personally were unaware of the early cutoff and were forced to stop serving. Instead of the usual token system (which could be reused), they switched to dated paper tickets to prevent carryover--making leftover tickets worthless. After 6 PM, there was a massive line at a single tent charging 5-7 tickets for a can of beer, and the rest of the event was just a concert most people weren't there for. The crowd quickly left, including us. To top it off, the event organizer was hiding behind a fence in a trailer rather than being available at the main entrance/exit to address concerns--where guests and even volunteers were openly expressing their disappointment. When I raised my concerns afterward, I received an incredibly unprofessional and personal response from someone on staff who actually insulted me in writing rather than take feedback seriously. Bottom line: If you're expecting a beer festival experience like years past, you may be disappointed. What used to feel like a fun, community-focused event now feels like a cash grab concert series with poor communication and little concern for the guest experience.

Summer Beer Fest is my favorite of all the Michigan Brewer's Guild Festivals and has become a…read moresummer tradition. The weather is great, and the delicious craft beer is plentiful. All of your favorite Michigan craft breweries in one place bringing their A-game! What's not to love?! The atmosphere is great in Ypsilanti's large Riverside Park which is perfect for the event. You are allowed to bring in lawn chairs and people set up "camp" along the Riverfront. Tickets bought in advance online are $45 with $5 service fee for Friday night and $50 with $5 service fee for Saturday. Ticket prices go up the day of the event by $5 but are only sold until around 3 pm online. You can also buy your ticket at the gate, the day of the event for $50, fee free. Tickets often sell out but more likely will sell out for Saturday. Friday night runs from 5-9 pm and Saturday runs from 1 -6 pm giving you an extra hour to taste beers. A large line runs around the park as gates open. You can bring in bottled water and snacks and trust me you will want to stay hydrated so definitely bring water. Every year someone makes everyone in our group pretzel necklaces which are not only a great snack but also a palate cleanser, lol. This year we added Payday candy bars to our pretzel necklaces. There is plenty of parking in lots nearby and parking usually cost $5-$10 With admission to the fest, you receive 15 tokens, a cup, and program listing all the breweries, beers, and map. The program is also posted early online so you can map out which beers you want to try and believe me, as a pro beer snob, I always scope out the program early to strategize which beers I'll try. I even downloaded a beer fest app. All the breweries bring their best, highly sought after and often hard to find beers, to the fest. Founder's CBS, KBS, and almost every variety of New Holland's Dragon's Milk is there. There are also experimental beers just for the festival. There are over 145 breweries and over 1,140 varieties of beer on tap ranging from your tried and true faves to interesting unusual flavors. Over the years I have tried a taco flavored beer, key lime pie, Thai peanut, blueberry pie, maple pancake, French toast, peanut butter bacon, s'mores, and a lot more interesting flavors. Batch usually has beer slushies which I would highly recommend. Their raspberry lemonade gose beer slushie is super refreshing. They had two varieties of beer slushies last year and only tap them at certain times and run out quickly. Another brewery made a porter ice cream beer float. Bell's always has lots of free swag-stickers and buttons and in past year breweries have given out lots of free swag like frisbees and sunglasses and koozies but it seemed like most breweries were only selling merch this year. In past years each brewery had a box where you placed your coin for your beer but this year each brewery had us hand a coin directly to them. Usually the breweries never even ask for a coin but they were very adamant about collecting coins this year. Most beers are one coin, while some beers are two coins and the program specifies which ones. If you need a break from the beer, there is live music. Stone Clover and other bands have played there, and there are bleachers near the music stage. They also have great food there. There are a bunch of tents with food vendors and lots of seating. I love their tacos and the street corn is amazing! I get it every year. Food vendors vary, some are cash only and some will take cash or credit. We also saw contortionists, stilt walkers, and of course the infamous Hop Man who we definitely had to take a picture with. The MBG Summer Beer Fest is a blast! Don't be fooled by other beer fest imitators, the MBG fests are the real deal, and a definite must if you are a beer connoisseur.

First time at the Plymouth Art in the Park. We usually come here for the ice festival in the…read morewinter, so we can have a yummy hot chocolate from Alpine Haus. It's made from real chocolate. There's a lot of vendors. Food trucks were mostly by the center park area, some random ones are down the side streets from the park. Bring a hat or umbrella. Doesn't appear the earlier rain had much impact as far as the crowds much.

We came on a Saturday and parked in the shuttle lot. The…read moreshuttle is $8/a person and was nicely air conditioned (badly needed for a hot hot day)!! The ride is about 15 min but the shuttle is comfy (it is a huge bus)! You pay at a tent and don't need a ticket. The shuttle dropped us off right at the end so we could start from the side (there are many vendors). It was right by the fire station. It was very hot walking through but we did find a market that was perfectly air conditioned to cool down in! We bought a refreshing Acai bowl at Wander Bowls Acai, a cookie from Chocolate Chipped Bakery (SO good and they give you a coupon for a free cookie at their farmington location), and a birthday card from the store Vitrine (also nicely air conditioned and has the cutest things)!! We saw the blue fountain, chalk art, music performer, the jurassic park dinosaur, etc. Overall, the vendors are great but it was a crazy hot day and so we didn't have enough energy to walk the whole thing. Loved what we did get to see and I think it is worth attending!

This weekend we enjoyed exploring Second Annual Dexter Ice Festival. Featured over 50 ice carvings…read moresponsored by local businesses within the Dexter community. It's free event that took place in the Monument Park between 11am - 5 pm on Saturday. We went around 4.30 pm and it was little crowded. We enjoyed watching the ice carvings and it's fine details. Kids including my 5 year old enjoyed playing with the broken ice carvings. Parking was easier near the park.

Great community activity for mid-jan. Nice day, good weather and thousands of spectators enjoyed…read more50+ ice sculptures.

Doing tourist things after hearing that this was a must visit for people with small kids. This…read morewas on the list of to-do's as we had a short weekend visit to the Canton area. .....Great place to see all of the exhibts.. Not a bad time at all. We got to see play and do so MANY things all active and the girls loved the play areas ...all of them. The bathrooms were clean and strategically placed...I was pleasantly surprised. The parking is somewhat close....& I liked the exercise...our girls napped so hard after the visit. I am in firm belief that the overall planning and logistics of this place are professionally done & handled well! This venue is a must visit if in the area and you like hands on action. The girls had a blast and that is what matters most!! 10/10 times I will return.. for the price I paid... I could see myself doing this again with a longer stay in the area! Sidenote the people in guest service station were super awesome... All workers that interacted with our family had smiles on their faces and were so helpful. ***Especially since we had Museum Pass in another state (Oklahoma City) and they participate in the reciprocating membership deal. I still paid for 2 full price even though I figured it should have be the cheaper ... But it was interpreted wrong I guess by me within 90 mile... I feel for the price I paid...it eas kinda worth it. We will return! *Questions reach out* Respectfully, Bryan and Family Oklahoma City

This is such an innovative way of having a museum. My husband and I wanted to bring the kids here…read morefor the first time. The bad news is there was an art fair and no parking only $20 parking. That did not kill our vibe. Tickets are $16 a person and under 2 is free. We purchased the tickets and we parked our stroller. The kids walked up the stairs and went into this water room. My son loved it so much. He was squealing and running around. My daughter loved played with the balls and throwing them in the water. Once we were done with this floor, we decided to go up the stairs. We were shocked to see a massive preschool room suitable for ages 4 and under. They have tons of toys for the kids. They had another water station. My kids were dry at first. However, a little boy sprayed water at my son and soaked him as his mom watched and said nothing. This didnt make our experience bad because luckily we had a change of clothes. I only say this to warn you to bring a change of clothes just in case they get wet. We didn't really go to the third floor. My husband said it was more for older kids when he went to check. The kids were having too much fun inside the playroom. We will definitely be back and hopefully not on a day where an event is taking place.

I enjoyed Taste of Ann Arbor but there are legitimate criticisms of it having really long lines. I…read moreavoided the crowds by getting there early. I bought tickets when the festival started at 11:00 AM and hardly anyone was there. I walked through the entire festival and ordered what I wanted between 11:00 AM and 11:45 AM. It starts to get very crowded by noon. By that time it looked like you'd have to wait an hour in each line to get anything to eat. I left soon after it got busy. At $1.00 per ticket, the festival is an excellent deal to get a sampling of all the restaurants along Main Street. I spent $40 on tickets and was able to order quite a lot including main dishes, dessert, an alcoholic beverage, and pastries to go. Despite its flaws Taste of Ann Arbor is worth attending. Just get there in the morning and your experience will be better than those having to wait in long lines in the afternoon.

My friend and I had a wonderful evening here! The live music added a great vibe to the event,…read morethough it was a little loud if you had to stand by the speakers when waiting for food. There is a huge variety of food, from ice cream to pretzels to Mediterranean food to tacos to Indian food to Jamaican food to fried chicken and waffles. There was something for literally everyone. The crowd was in great spirits, and the lines were fairly evenly-dispersed, so there was never too long of a wait. There isn't a ton of seating, but it was just enough and no one had to wait to sit and eat. It was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go back next year!

So much entertainment this is a must go every year! We loved the Dragons blood shaved Ice and the…read moreApple Dumpling! New Boston is a Jem!

The Apple Fest has grown over the last few years to become a festival powerhouse equal to any other…read morecity festival or street fair. It takes up the whole downtown of the town of New Boston. Of course the them is apples and nearby Apple Charlie's Cider mill is nearby and a big supporter. Typical food choices are like most fairs, pizza slice, bratwurst, and a whole lot of apple edibles. You can get apple bread, apple strudels, carmel apples and any number of apple pie choices to take home. A number of performers play throughout the day, mostly rock and/or country and there is a old time fiddle competition! Great way to spend a day,

Even though I am giving the fair two stars I want to preface the review with the fact that we had a…read moreblast here and stayed for hours having the best time. But my review is not only based on the good times we had but the fact that the State Fair used to be something very different than it is now, and compared to other states' fairs, this is not the best of the best out there. It is conveniently located in Novi for those who live in the area at a hotel. So I basically parked for free in the hotel parking lot. That was great, very convenient, but it did not give epic State Fair feels. This is also at the same place at Comic Con. For Comic Con, this is a great spot but as a pavillion for the entire state, it is pretty sad. You walk into the conference area of the hotel and get tickets. We only spent $10 a person plus free parking, not bad at all. But then you walk through the doors at you are at the fair where the comic booths usually are. It is so small, like the tiniest art fair ever. Mostly local vendors selling stuff, but not enough and not enough variety. Kind of like Comic Con, my child did find some cool anime stuff to buy but it was so sparse. They had a "Cool Zoo" trying to sell exotic animals cooped up in tiny cages looking sad or selling $10 and up hugs, but were a bit deceitful, as they asked my child to touch and hold the animals but did not indicate it was for pay. Meanwhile, the livestock are thrust in the same space as the vendors in the teeniest of spaces. We enjoyed seeing the animals and giving them free pats and pets with permission from their keepers, but when this was once in Detroit, they had their own separate area. Then tucked in the same space were the kiddie rides and a few food areas. The best was the all you can drink chocolate milk for a buck, worth it! Outside were a handful or rides, a few food trucks, the midway games, the concerts, and the circus. It was a tiny backyard behind the hotel, like a teensy parking lot of things to do. It was a lot of fun. We tried a couple stuffed pepperoni pizza rolls, a tiny taco, a mini mango lassi, listening to some good music under a tent, played some games, saw some clowns and tiny dogs driving a car. You can come here for hours and have fun. The downside, most of the food trucks charge about two dollars to use a credit card (not even a percent a flat fee) so I went through most of my cash here. The main problem is when I was a child the State Fair in Detroit was huge, an epic yearly event I looked forward to. They had multiple buildings for selling art, seeing animals, a very large variety of rides and games and even more interesting food. The food trucks were the same ones from all of the summer art fairs, nothing special. Just hot dogs, pizza, and funnel cakes. I even confirmed with my parents that the fair was really large on a nice size property. While it was more convenient for me to drive 20 minutes to the fair, I miss the Detroit location and do not understand what happened. It is a shame. But, as I mentioned, we did have so much fun. We did spent hours on end doing all of the activities, eating, shopping, seeing animals. When we went there were really small crowds, so we could do things multiple times. We had no problem with too many people. My kid really enjoyed it because this is the only state fair here. I would probably go again next year if they price is the same. But many of the other reviewers are correct and perhaps there is a better fair in Michigan to go to, or maybe just visit Michigan Adventure if you want some good food and rides. It costs a bit cheaper to go there for a Cedar Point type experience instead.

No Shrine Circus?? What happend? It cost $15.00 to see the Moto Cross. Not good, should be free…read morewith cost to the fair.

This is the second year we've been here. It's a Halloween must if you like to get scared. I'd say…read morekids over 8-10 yrs old. This place is pretty Erie. It's well done. The actors don't touch you and role play pretty well. Warning it is pretty scary and your heart will pound. You also have to do a pretty substantial walk. It's prob .5 to .75mi long. Some of the trail can be difficult and some of the buildings get tight. Prepare to get scared and be uncomfortable. Pro tip let the group in front of you get 3-4min ahead of your group. Don't be in a rush to get thru it if you really want to get scared.

There is no organization when purchasing tickets online and showing up at your establishment. Had…read moremultiple people with us in our party and after four hours of still waiting, there was no end in sight leaving at 11:30 at night paying for tickets and not having the opportunity to walk through is unconscionable. There are many other opportunities for a haunted house that are ran more efficiently. We witnessed multiple people leaving in anger.