This last weekend was the second, of what will hopefully become the annual, BRU - Burgers, Wings…read moreand Beer Festival held at the Royal Oak Farmer's Market benefitting the Children's Leukemia Fund. The event was hosted by Bagger Dave's, Buffalo Wild Wings and Bell's Brewery and for $40 you got around 12 beer tokens and 5 food tickets to use sampling all different forms of instant gratification. Beginning at 7 pm and running until 11 on June 16th, I can only imagine what a huge success this was for CLF and the ROFM. Last year, on its first run, the event ran well but not nearly as well as this year. With a more organized 4 sided Bell's beer tent offering several brews unavailable outside of the actual brewery like Deb's Red, a Smoked Ale and a Sparkling Ale, patrons had more choices to sample and more taps to keep the lines ultra ultra short! There was plenty of bell's swag to go around and everyone got a gift bag at the end of the evening including a Bagger's pint glass and some killer Oberon posters. To top it off, our very own Yelp Ambassador, Annette, was there serving up some great Yelp swag too. Food this year was great again and provided by Bagger's and BW3's on a ticket per item basis. The food tables were on the second half of the venue so that you could just walk up and order what you liked from their menus, and hi-top tables were arranged in the center of the room to eat and mingle at. Whereas last year, servers had to carry trays while walking through the crowd, this year was so well organized that it should insure its return next year!! Live music played all night and two sets of Bell's bean bag toss were free for guests who felt like some sporting fun. Raffle tickets were sold throughout the night and the drawing was held at 10 pm to round out the festivities. All in all this was a great evening that benefitted an amazing cause and ran even better than last years event!! My only suggestion would be to add about 24 of those hi-top tables around the venue so more people had a place to stand and eat. Great Job CLF and ROFM!! Looking forward to the 2013 BRU Fest.

This is a really great festival, and the location at the Royal Oak Farmer's Market is great! It is…read morewell-organized. The food was okay - the burgers from Bagger Dave's were not hot. Also - the band was a little annoying - they played some strange (old) music that might have been better for an older crowd. A lot of the people at BRU seemed to be in their mid-20's to late-30's.

Fun festival. Good food and good music. Really enjoyed ourselves…read more Nice for the family.

They make it really easy with the shuttle, the food is better than the other Greek festivals we go…read moretoo. Deserts were not good, besides the loukoumades. The baklava was so dry and way too overpowered by cloves. Other than that it's always well put together and enjoy it every year.

Too pricey for what is being offered. Should cut off the capacity of people being allowed in. Too…read morecrowded.

This was my first time attending and I was impressed by the variety of things to do and eat here!…read moreHeld over Labor Day weekend in downtown Royal Oak, there's a great variety of things to do, eat and experience. The scope of this festival is big and sprawls many, many blocks. The biggest draw would probably be the music, because there's a main stage with some big names like Joan Jett (2023) with other musical acts located throughout as you walk through all the food and art vendors. There's a variety of musical genres in all the musicians from country, pop, rock, and even more eclectic mixes. Food and drink was varied just like the music. Chicken wings, asian stir fry, Middle Eastern, desserts, beer, and so much more. Prices are obviously a bit inflated because it's a festival, but I felt that the quantities of what you can get are fair. There was a section of the festival that had fair rides and foods so I was even able to get elephant ears! Fair food is fun. Lastly the art on display for sale ranges from prints, framed paintings, sculptures, leather handbags, soap, and more. The artists were friendly and on hand to talk with patrons. Overall Arts Beats Eats is a big festival with lots to do. I would say that the parking was the only difficult thing to find, and I ended up paying $15 a few blocks away for a spot. There was an admission fee, but it's worth it to check out the music. You can buy a ticket online ahead of time for your convenience.

Pig and Whiskey is a great time-beers, BBQ, and great music. The festival takes place every year in…read moreFerndale in mid-July. The stage for music is located right next to WAB and beer and whiskey tents are set up in the parking lot behind WAB, The Emory and surrounding restaurants. Admission is free and you can bring your own bottled water with you. It's also a dog friendly event and lots of people walk their dogs around the fest. You purchase tickets at designated tents similar to Arts Bears and Eats. Tickets are $2 a piece. Most beers are about 3 tickets and whiskeys are between 4-7 tickets. I usually start with a sheet of tickets for $20 but you can buy as few or many tickets as you like but they are non-refundable. Food vendors for the BBQ portion were located further down, past the whiskey and beer vendors this year. Surprisingly BBQ/food vendors only accepted cash or credit this year and didn't accept tickets which was kind of annoying because last year they only took tickets and wouldn't take cash and I wish they had posted that somewhere before I had bought extra tickets. The food is good. I had BBQ ribs from Bad Brad's BBQ with a Mexican style watermelon salad with cojita cheese and cilantro which was light and refreshing. Their Pig Candy-candied bacon is delicious! There were lots off BBQ vendors with pulled pork sliders and tacos, ribs, mac and cheese, jalapeño cornbread, and Cheeto covered street corn. Picnic tables were all the way at the other end of the festival this year and it would be nice if there was seating near the food tents. Lots of great beers too from Dogfish Head, Griffin Claw, Shorts, B. Nektar and more. They have whiskey from Jack Daniels, Jameson, Old Forster, Four Roses, Woodsford Reserve, and more. Last year they had some tents that mixed craft cocktails with whiskey and bourbon. I had a Woodsford Reserve mint julep that was amazing and a pineapple upside down cake cocktail with brown sugar bourbon mixed with pineapple juice that was delicious. This year I didn't see many cocktails, just strait whiskey or bourbon or you could add a a mixer but mixers were only limited to lemonade or Faygo soda. The main reason I go every year is for the music. A friend and I love Electric Six and we attend to see them perform every year. Electric Six has closed out the festival on Sunday night for the last six or seven years. They always put on an awesome show. Last year there were torrential downpours and they had to call the festival due to rain, so lots of people got stuck with drink tickets which were non-refundable. However they didn't cancel the music and moved Electric Six's set down to The Loving Touch and it was a really great show. This year we also saw Ann Arbor band Joe Hertler and the Rainbow Seekers who are a lot of fun to see. Verve Pipe also played on Friday night. The festival runs Friday through Sunday. It starts at 6 pm on Friday and around noon on Saturday and Sunday and goes until midnight with music ending at around 9:00 on Sunday. I always have a blast and I'll definitely be back next year.

Super fun event. It was cold but not too busy when we went. I love the location! Great fun stuffs…read moreto do.

Have been to this Festival for the last few years and I just love it. Now I have to say that I…read morecannot afford most of the creations on display and that probably goes along with the words Fine Arts.But it is a great location, running about 5 blocks long on Old Woodward. There is a pretty wide variety of artistry on sale. One of the things I like about this Festival is that you will not find 100 jewelers, 200 potters and dozens of other artists selling the same goods. Yeah sure there are a few of each but let's admit it, it does get tiring looking at the same types of goods over and over again. I say this is a got to event in my book.

We have visited the Birmingham fine arts festival the last 4 years & sadly this fine event is…read moreshowing the effects of the economy. The Event is now held on old Woodward South of Maple. Really nothing innovative remains. Framed pictures of the last Game at tigers stadium are nice & have their place but if this is the offering of a fine Arts festival then you have lost your way. I remember just 4 years ago many many booths full of original & innovative art work by local Craftsmen & Artists. Hopefully this years Ann Arbor fair is still up to scratch . We won't bother next year with Birmingham

This was set up in a large parking lot that is part of the city social district. A DJ and some…read morebeer. The beer was for beer tickets that were cash only. There was a pretzel food truck there that was really good. Unfortunately, more or less a disappointing event. We went to one of the breweries in the social district, they went 100% in Oktoberfest, and had a much better time.