We happened to be visiting friends in Orlando during Milk Mart, and it was such a cute event! There…read morewere so many local artists and unique goods to browse. The food from the local shops and food trucks was also fantastic. If it's happening during your visit, I highly recommend stopping by--you'll definitely find some treasures!

This was our first time at the milk mart which happened to be much larger than I anticipated. Our…read moreafternoon goal was to go shopping for a few things to close up our Christmas shopping. As we got close to the district we realized that this wasn't just a small event considering many streets were shut down and policed. We had to park a couple blocks away and walk. We originally made a plan to make a quick stop, check out the local goods, and maybe go to a mall after, but after arriving we realized that it wasn't going to be short. We started at sideward brewing, grabbed some drinks and made our way across the mart. This massive mart had 300 local vendors, water at every quadrant with live music, food tents/trucks, and beer tents. We found a few custom items to buy which were incredible. Only took us three hours and 3 beers to get through the whole thing. Overall, this was so much more than I anticipated, in a good way. This little community has such a good vibe, with good food, and good people. It's so great to see an event of this magnitude come together every quarter to share its hospitality. Can't wait till the next one to see what they have to offer.

SWEET! Something…read morefor everyone for sure. Beer tent, food trucks, fresh produce, live music, live demos, beautiful weather, kids corner, you really couldn't ask for a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon in the park. Chipotle really does go ALL out when they bring a setup to an event, it's impressive. Big Wheel, Fantastic Hummus, Over Rice, John & Shirley's Catering, so many awesome munchie options to choose from. SO many vendors to check out including: Back to the Roots Bamboo Leaf Tea Blodgett Gardens Chews Naturally Cindy's Quilting Crispy Farms Eat More Produce Emma's Sweets Ensemble Pieces FABU Pottery Farmworker Association of Florida Fat Cat Foods Field to Feast Fork to Spade Glazed N Infused Heavenly Flan Homegrown Co-op Iced Bakery Jillian Says! Lafleur Nursery Living Towers Local Roots Midtown Eco-Village Natural Goodness Pasargadae Farm Peak Season Pops Perfect Pickler Pure Sweet Life R&B Organics Random Acts of Pottery St. Johns River Honey Sunchowder's Emporia The Butcher's Pantry Urban Herbs Wild Ocean Seafood Market Out of the new spots I have tried, Peak Season Pops was my fav! So fresh and delicious. I had a great time walking around and chatting with everyone, learning about so many new things and tasting delicious goodies. I can't wait for next year and until then, I am totally going to look into growing my own herbs!

This is a relaxed event focused on local food.read more

It was another fun night at Harbor Nights. I haven't been to one in about two years as it was…read moretrending downward per my last review. I had gone numerous times over the past 10 years. This time, I noticed a significant change in how the food was served. In the past, you went to individual stands to sample a taste from various restaurants. Now, there are several buffet style setups where you can get a complete meal at one time. There was an antipasto station with meats, cheeses, fruits, etc. A carving station included carved New York strips of beef, Yukon gold mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley. It was very good! At the end of this station was a soup consisting of chicken, baby kale and artichokes. That was my favorite of the night. I also sampled the Pasta station which had fresh-made pasta that could be combined with beef short rib bolognese. Quite tasty! This station also included Florida Gulf Snapper and a Shrimp cannelloni. Along with a dessert table, there were several wine stations to try (the Cherry Pie Pinot Noir was quite good). Bottled water, soft drinks and a beer selection were also available. The band was fantastic and got the majority of people dancing and having a great time. Line dances were even encouraged! One complaint I still have is the lack of available cocktail tables for those of us who do not purchase the VIP packages. They are few and far between and more than three or four people in your party make it difficult to keep all the plates, wine glasses and water bottles on this small space. Of course, chairs are not provided for these cocktail tables. Finally, once you finish with your plates, service people are few and far between to clear the cocktail tables. Luckily, there was a dirty dishes table about 20 feet away. I was required to take the dishes there to allow my party to have comfortable room at our table. I probably will not be back for a while given the price for regular admission (with taxes and service charges) is well over $100. However, it can be fun for an occasional night out.

Attended Harbor Nights Romantico and it was absolutely amazing! The ambiance is incredible and the…read morestaff is awesome, I really enjoy this event and try to attend every year, the food was a 10/10 the braised short ribs were indescribably good, the Florida Grouper 10/10 and the Fresh Made Pasta Chef's Kiss. The Antipasto Display was perfectly crafted. The wine selection was great also. Always enjoy Harbor Nights, this is definitely an event that everyone should attend, it is especially great for a romantic couples evening.

The Uptown Art Expo in Altamonte Springs is one of my favorite art festivals in the area, and…read morehere's why: (1) many of the artists featured are the same incredible talent you'll see at the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival, and (2) the festival consistently showcases some of the best local bands around. This event is free to attend, which is a huge plus. While parking is limited in the immediate Cranes Roost area, there's plenty of parking at the Altamonte Springs Mall lot. If you arrive early enough, it's just a short walk to the festival location. The expo offers a wide range of art, including blown glass, sculptures, jewelry, oil paintings, watercolors, wood carvings, photography, drawings, pastels, leather work, 3D printing, and more. Some of the standout artists this year included Jeff & Dayana, who showcased their stunning butterfly art--these butterflies from Papua New Guinea are truly unique and difficult to acquire. I also loved Fauna Toys--the wooden toys and puzzles reminded me of the ones my dad used to make for me. Lily Links' custom chainmail work was mind-blowing. She had a gelatin square encased in chainmail, which took her 90 hours to make. It was so cool, and her silver and aluminum necklace for $60 was an amazing deal. There was even a moonshine and rum tasting area, which definitely made me consider a future purchase. The food vendors were plentiful, offering a variety of diverse and delicious options--something for everyone! One downside, though, were the drink prices. At $8 for a beer and $9+ for mixed drinks, it felt a bit steep. However, the VIP concert tickets were very reasonably priced. General VIP tickets were only $16.50, which gave you access to seating anywhere in the coliseum area. For just $4 more, you could sit closer to the stage in a fold-up chair. Either way, it was a great deal to see some amazing local bands up close. Just make sure to buy your tickets in advance because prices go up on the day of the show. If you don't want to buy VIP tickets, you can still enjoy the concert from the general seating area on the left side of the stage, though the view can be a bit obstructed. The bands this year were incredible: Skin Deep (one of the best bands in Orlando), Night Snake (a fantastic Whitesnake tribute), Absolute Queen (playing all the greatest Queen hits), and Slippery When Wet (a Bon Jovi tribute band that never disappoints). All in all, the Uptown Art Expo is a perfect way to spend the day with family and friends. You can enjoy exceptional art, great food, drinks, and some of the best live music in the area. If you haven't experienced the Art Expo yet, I highly recommend marking it on your calendar for next year!

March 2025. This event goes on Friday Saturday and Sunday…read more But they only have the art show on Saturday and Sunday. They have 3 days of music that's what we come for. Friday night was u Ultimate Queen tribute band and they were pretty good. You can sit on the left for free or you can pay $15 to sit in the bleachers in the front of the band Saturday was the art show so we came early and looked at all the art and crafts very unique stuff. We bought a few small items and some warm caramel pecans that were delicious. The second night was a Whitesnake and Bon Jovi tribute band both were awesome! We lucked out this year with having good weather and a breeze not too hot. Sunday is going to bring rain so if you go get out there early. Plenty of parking in the mall parking lot over by Dillard's. Also make sure you check out the chalk art and the Butterfly Man! These people are so talented.

This festival turned out to be a lot better than I expected. My biggest worry was that after 2…read morehours I'd want to leave but I'm happy to say that that was not the case. My friend and I bought the online tickets for beer tasting which with a service fee came out to $28.50 or something in that area. This was for the orange wristband so our time for beer sampling was from 4 to 7pm. We arrived at 3 p.m. and already the entrance was out of the Kevin Bacon shirts, so we had to make our way to the the actual Kevin Bacon booth to get one from the pile there; but that was not a big deal, and the people there were very nice so we didn't mind the booth visit. Pros: In my opinion; there was a good variety of bacon snacks ranging from $2 - 5, but there were other things to choose from as well including burgers, an incredible grilled cheese with bacon jam served up by the restaurant: "hammered lamb". That was my absolute most favorite thing there. It was nice that the majority of the booths there were offering some kind of free tid bit, be it a magnet, key chain, and there was even one offering a smores kit if you threw marshmallows into the hole; so even if you don't buy the drinking ticket, nor actually buy any beer, you'd still walk away with free goodies. Sonny's set up a tent to give seminars on how to BBQ different types of meats. They put out several seats and then gave samples after each lecture. Cons: I still think that $28.50 is steep for a beer sampling ticket. I just keep thinking that I could've gone to total wine, and gotten 2 six packs of different types of beers and done my own home sampling and it still would've been cheaper. If I go again, I wont buy the beer sampling ticket, I'll just buy an individual beer, those started at $4 a piece. The map given to you at the entrance said that the Sonny's tent was supposed to have an offering of smoked wings but we didn't see that at all which is a shame because beer and wings go hand in hand; just couldn't get over that. While the Sonny's "How to BBQ" seminar was a great idea, especially when it was followed by a tasting; I think they left out a lot of key points that I thought were common sense when making any kind of smoked meat. The one in particular that bothered me was the fact that they neglected to remove the membrane attached to the bones on the ribs, but this was nothing compared to it being one of the toughest ribs I've ever tried to eat. I had always understood that a decent rack of ribs had proper smoke time, and the meat should fall off the bone. It had good flavor, but that was about it. So I'm still trying to figure out how they were trying to teach others to BBQ, if they themselves flunked out on basic things? Overall I'd go again for sure because I did have a really good time, and the beer sampling was cool, if not expensive in my view. I personally would buy an individual beer next time, and hopefully the seminar will give tips and advice that lead to a good BBQ end product.

I've rounded this up to 4 stars, but in my mind the 2017 event is more like a 3.5, mainly because…read morethe Bacon part of the festival wasn't as extensively showcased as in previous years! Case in point - where were the stalls for 4 Rivers Smokehouse or Miller's Ale House, Omaha Steakhouse, Ruth's Chris Steak House or The Hammered Lamb or even Whole Foods Market? Yeah, there were some good food trucks, but I wanted more local variety rather than just Sonny's BBQ dominating the food experience! The cooking demos were great, but I really missed the variety of local food this year. The beer on the other hand - the selection there was excellent, the pours were generous and it was a lovely way to while away a sunny Central FL October day by the beautiful Cranes Roost Park lake. Parking at Altamonte was a breeze, and my friends reported the same near the Uptown Altamonte area too. Vendors were giving out great freebies - the sunglasses and the beer cozies came in super handy as did the recyclables bags. Also cost was really good - the Be. er sampling tickets was $25 advance and $35 day of event I'll be back again next year, but fingers crossed there will be more local food choices! Yelp 164/2017

Good food, family friendly atmosphere. Lots of beer... lol…read moreSuper nice crowd. Great deserts... Parking is a little high for this kind of event but the cometary lot is a low income cometary and the money helps them so whatever... They run out of the good stuff so get there early...

Zombietoberfest was a nice evening out in the cool weather that Saturday brought us. There was a…read morebounce house and a big open field for the kids to run around and play, Ghostbusters was playing on a big screen in an open grassy area, there was a zombie walk, people doing zombie makeup-which was fun, vendors, and food trucks. It was all nice but I personally would have liked to see more vendors and more activities. I was surprised to find there was plenty of free parking in area businesses and along the streets; it made that part of the fest all the better. We purchased a few cupcakes from Bluebird and unfortunately they were rather dry; you could tell they had been sitting out quite a while. I've heard rave reviews about Bluebird so I won't fault them entirely since they did have to bake ahead of time and store them at their outside booth. I love this time of year and Zombietoberfest was an enjoyable time out, doing something different. If you are big into Halloween and/or zombies, I would definitely recommend a visit next year.

I had a great time at the Folk Festival last year, and so when it was on again this year, headed…read moreout to Loch Haven park area to check it out again. One thing that was easier than last year was parking! They had great signage and a volunteer so made it easy! This festival has a cool laid-back vibe and it's a really mellow atmosphere. The crowd doesn't feel massive - it's more like a big neighborhood party feel. The music feels intimate and it's a good variety. The space is well laid out. To one side are the vendors, then the stage with tons of space to spread out for the music-goers and then the food & drinks are all on the other side. I like the selection of vendors too - it's all local and handmade artists and then some plant stalls. This year FAVO had a tent and it was an amazing array of artists that had their work on display in that tent. Food wise, this year had better veggie options too and the following choices were available: -Kona Dog food truck -Maxine's on Shine (got a delicious potato salad from them for $3) -Femme du Fronage -Tapa Toro (got their veggie paella- it was okay, needed more seasoning) -3 beer & drinks tents -Dessert tent -Dog food tent It was an easy, breezy way to spend a couple of hours by the lake, listening to folk music and I'll probably return back for next years Festival too! Yelp 30/2018

Such a fun afternoon listening to local live music. This is held right beside the Mennello Museum…read moreof Art in Loch Haven Park. This such a picturesque park with the view of Lake Formosa. They had food trucks that included pizza, ice cream and other things to eat. Also, don't forget to bring a chair or you will have to sit on the ground. This was my fifth year going and look forward to next year.

We attended this event to market a mortgage company here. We were able to spend time to enjoy the…read morelocal artwork and I did really like 3 artists. We plan to look them up in the near future to purchase. This event featured not only local art but beer and German food. Many vendors were there to raise money, earn money or just for networking purposes. We tried a few food items, grilled bratwurst with brotchen and sauerkraut. The bratwurst was grilled nice but all was far from authentic. There were other wine vendors there, if only I drank wine, I'd probably enjoy it. The event was descent and it was a great way to bring people together to advertise and network.

We love this event and have been going every since since at least 2015!…read more The event keeps getting better and better each year! There are a ton of GREAT artists showcasing their artwork (everything from paintings to photos to jewelry, sculptures, carvings and more) and a lot more! Some local businesses have booths there, too, which allows for the best of both worlds! The food is pretty good, too, although we don't really go for the food. They DO have some German food trucks, which fit the theme, and other options that are pretty good. Alcohol is also available. But it's a great event with a lot to do. They also seem to have this event on pleasant weekends (weather-wise) which is nice! It's a great family event, or if you're single and ready to mingle, it's good for that, too! I've seen all crowds at this event, which makes it even more fun! If you're looking for something fun and relaxing to do, I'd recommend this event!