This year (2014) was my first time attending this festival. I'm making it yelp official by…read moredeclaring that I'm going to be attending this event annually! Parking: Don't drive! I don't recommend anyone planning to be DD to go or for you to have a DD. It's so much fun since this is an all you can drink, i mean... try.., event to not have to worry about driving. Use Uber, Lyft, or taxi it like us! or get dropped off if you have an awesome friend like that. But... if you did insist on bringing a car, the parking lots nearby ranged from $10 - $13 to park for 8 hours+ I believe. It cost the four of us $25 to get to the festival from La Jolla. Entry: We got there at 2, when it started, and waited in line for about 20 minutes to get in. It was smooth getting in. We were given plastic cups though because the Port Authorities didn't want the festival to hand out glass cups to soon-to-be drunkies. But, to be honest, the "glass" cups given to us after the festival were verrrrrrry disappointing. BEEEEEERS: Oh man. I was expecting the amount of beer options there were here. San Diego has one of the most microbreweries in the nation. I wish they had more small buckets or water station though so you can cleanse your cup and your palette. Food: Please get more food! I know we're here to drink beer but I would've been so down to buy snacks, pretzels, fooood, or something! We only saw 5 - 6 food option, and one taco place sold out an hour before closing :( Atmosphere: So awesome! We met so many nice people. I had no expectations on what kind of crowd this festival will attract. This is definitely not the college, let's get shit-faced type of atmosphere, which is awesomeeeeee! Price: Around $40 for 3 hours of all the beers you can try. GREAT :) Also, there weren't very long lines in any of the tables so don't worry about wasting your time with that! Venue: The weather was perfect which made the venue even MORE perfect. It is right by the water and there's a mixture of indoor and outdoor spaces. It is so spacious that you won't feel like people are constantly bumping it to you so don't worry if you think you'll get cluster-phobic. Come again? YES... obviously! TIP: Make pretzel necklaces! Look it up on google. It is such a GENIUS idea that I am going to be so pumped with my huge tasty pretzel necklace next year.

Bought the Premier access tickets to get in an hour early and had to stand in a line that was…read morealmost a half a mile long. While the general admission line is only a few people. COMPLETE waste of money

I've attended three wine festivals this year alone, and this one barley passed the A-OK mark. Price…read morewas on the higher end, and I had high hopes to match walking in. The good: the location is awesome. I love events in Liberty Station because parking is great, and it's central. It's a beautiful location, and always has the cool ocean breezes. Also, you're at a wine festival... that means lots of wine! I enjoyed trying new wines, and revisiting old favorites. Wilson Creek was my favorite new place to try. They had a chilled "white" Cabernet that was great and they didn't run out near the end. There were plenty of wineries participating, and there were easily accessible dump buckets. The last festival I went to had people dump on the ground. The bad: it seemed unorganized upon entering. Someone gave me a wristband prior to scanning my ticket and got scolded by a manager(?) right in front of me. Suuuuper awkward. There weren't great signs for the wineries, just paper taped to a pole behind the booth. It would have been nice to have better signage so you know who they are.There wasn't great seating options, and there was crowding around the booths to the point where it was hard to tell who was in line vs. just chatting. Many booths (wine and food related) had run out of something or everything between 5:30-6:30. It was a smaller space for the amount of people than I'm used to, and there were long lines at most of the 15ish food stations that kept getting longer as people ran out. We ended up leaving before the event was over, because we wanted to get some food. It's never good to want to leave the festival before it's over, because you're hungry. Overall, it wasn't my favorite and I doubt I'll be back.

"The wine Coachella for adults" said by many in line. I haven't been to Coachella yet so I don't…read moreknow if this is true. 75 wineries all over the US and over 300 wines to taste, and I think about maybe 15+ restaurants, a live band that played great music, lots of water and a free logo glass. What a great day to spend my birthday as my last year in the 20s... Venue: located in Liberty Station, even though it was packed I felt that there were so many options that you never had to wait more than 2 minutes to refill your wine. It was nicely spread out. Food: I got to try Crazee burger- their kobe beef, ceviche, fig tree-chicken and mash potatoes, spicy chili, spread on bread, city tacos-who tuna tacos, fancy carrots, beef sandwich, a banh mi like sandwich, tomato soup, pork something (look at pics) but there were plenty of food options! My favorite was the ceviche and tuna tacos! The Crazee burger was good too. It was a good amount that will keep you drinking at a good buzz. They also had Hawaiian water everywhere and you got bread as you walked in. Wines: I love all their selection of wines! I forgot a lot of my favorites but my most memorable were ZD and Alexandria. The petite Syrah tasted especially good that day. I also had some sparkling wine and there were some wineries from Temecula as well. Plentiful to drink, some booths were more generous then others. Ambiance: definitely not "casual" as a lot of ladies were dressed up like they were actually going wine tasting in Napa. So dress up a bit at this event. The crowd wasn't the "lets get wasted" but more of classy and mature crowd. Lots of beautiful people I must say. This was a birthday gift so I loved it and totally thought it was worth it!! If I had to pay for it myself I would probably try to find deals... But next year it'll be a great event for a small group of friends!

This was my third time at Indie Fest....I look forward to going each year! I was bummed about the…read morechange in location to Liberty Station...as it is less a part of the community, but there were a lot of good points too...such as lots of clean restrooms, restaurants and shops nearby. First, I really love seeing local musicians. It is a small price ($25/$22 students) to see lots of great bands. Some people have complained that they did not care for all the bands on the main stage, but I love how there are several stages to choose from. I think I always find a couple of new bands I enjoy. This year I liked Todo Mundo and Awol Nation the best! I also enjoy walking around and checking out the vendors...and got some great leather earrings this year. I agree with Adriana P. that it would have been cool to know that you could go for free and check out lots of bands and buy stuff from the vendors. The beer garden was better this year, as it took half the main stage so you could check out music while drinking. Further, I don't care for beer, but they had vodka drinks and made them strong...for not much more than the price of a beer! I never really care for the announcers at this event which is unfortunate as you have to sit through them to hear the music on the main stage...they are really obnoxious, but otherwise it was a lot of fun and I can't wait until next year. I do miss the free mp3 with music from the artists that they used to give away every year.

Went this year and had much fun! I saw The Burning of Rome, Citizen Band, Bitter Sober, Adam…read moreJoseph, Si Se, and Saucy Monkey. We were there from around 2:30ish until 7:00ish. I wish we would've stayed longer. We also saw a few films: the Day of the Grackle, and the Story of Stuff. There was a beer garden near the main stage with Green Flash and Karl Strauss. There were plenty of good eats too from BBQ to Thai. One thing that was cool was the women's stage at the Claire de Lune. You could order a nice coffee drink and pastry and then listen to some really good music. That was awesome. Also there was a free stage on Ray Street that had some great bands. All and all I have to say I enjoyed the Burning of Rome the most. They were a very fun band, I even bought their CD. Another thing that is good about this, not so much for me, but that this was an all ages event, except for the beer garden, so if you have teens, this would be a cool event to let them come too. I saw several families with their kids. Also it was a dog friendly event, with many dogs bringing their owners, or vice versa. I think it is cool that they have a film and art portion to this whole thing. I love movies and I saw two cool movies that I would probably have never been aware of or gone too because they did not have a wide release. And it is good to see some art. I hope next year they shut down 30th Avenue and get some of the businesses involved like Bar Pink, that would be awesome. But we have to be thankful for the businesses that did get involved like Claire de Lune and the North Park Theatre building businesses. And all the volunteers too. I think I might volunteer next year too because it would be an inexpensive way to have access to this event and also help out the community.

Very cool & fun day !! Lots of different tacos shops to pick from. Great food and a way to find…read morelocal restaurants.

Ticket: 60$ Parking: 20$…read more This needs to be compared against other similar events in order to understand this review. Other food festival events in San Diego in the past, such as the Craft Brewery Festival, would provide you with a small glass to fill up different beers with. You'd be able to get a taste of a bunch of different things, all included in the up front price. This Taco Fest was more akin to present day Comic Con: you have to pay to have the privilege to pay for stuff. 80$ gets you in the door. That's it. The food was good, but expensive. 10+$ for Taco dishes each. The music was covered songs of stuff on the radio. A fourth of the venue is taken up by San Diego Police Dept, Army/Navy/Marines, etc vendors trying to get you to sign up for stuff. Super disappointing. If you go to the Taco Stand and sit in your car and listen to music, you'll have a better time. As long as it's this cash grabby bullshit, it's not worth your time or money. Avoid going and do your own thing instead. It's a tacky gimmick trying to mascarade itself as stuff that's been done better in the past. As a final note, you can check my profile, I don't leave reviews often. This was so bad, I erased it from my memory until it came up in conversation just now. ​

This festival was a massive disappointment. It wasnt on my radar but a friend had a spare ticket so…read morewhat's the worst that could go wrong? A lot, actually. The $12 tickets seems fair, until you realize all it gets you is in the door (after paying $20 in parking). There was not a significant amount of taco vendors and most were ridiculously overpriced ($20+ for three tacos) and had similar quality to what you might find at a county fair. As for the tequila tastings, its seems they instructed all the vendors to portion out .5oz shots to pour into your tasting glass and you only get six of these pours for the low price of $50! (+fees). Want a margarita? Well it seems like they may have whispered a bit of tequila into the sugary mess they poured into your cup. Well you know what you're getting with beer right? They'll happily sell you a Tecate for $12 and it wont even be on draft. Better value can honestly be found at Petco Park. Even finding a place to sit was harder than it should have been as there were way less tables in the eating are then there were people in attendance. We shared a table with some fellow festival goers, who were also disappointed in the cold, soggy carne asada fries they were served. No one deserves that. I would highly recommend this festival to anyone who hates money. And themselves.

Major rip off- It's a glorified average food truck street fair with overpriced drinks! Skip it!…read more It's $45 for a ticket with a margarita and then you have e to pay another $59 to sample 6 tiny tiny samples of different tequila. It's the music people come for and would save the dollars and spend elsewhere. Margaritas are $17.50!!

2.5 stars We went to…read morethe 2017 event last night at the Del Mar Fairgrounds paddock. We got discount tickets such that it only ran us $67 per person instead of the standard $80. Even at $67 we found ourselves disappointed. As for entree style food, only the scallops and the burgers really excelled, and the line for the scallops was continuously quite long; the Davanti ragu which is a mainstay in my life was also quite good, but IMHO not as good as when I regularly have it at their restaurant. With respect to entrees, there wasn't really any theme; or to put it another way, the flavors didn't really blend very well with one another. I will say that the ice cream (Handel's) and gelato (Gaia) were both excellent. And it didn't seem like any of the vendors would run out of food or drink, and so they did well there. The music was fine, but again there was no theme/consistency. It went from Calypso, to acoustic-ish style music, to disco. Other positives: They were efficient getting people in and out of the festival; scanning your tickets and giving you admission stickers while waiting in line before the 6:30pm opening; the free parking and the quick shuttles were nice. The grounds were clean and inviting, and everyone working their booths was very friendly and professional. But in the end, we left half way through feeling underwhelmed and overpaid. At $30 a ticket we might consider going back, but at $65+ per ticket it is not something we'd personally consider doing again.

I'm a HUGE sports lover, huge. And college hoops is by far my favorite sport to watch. I live for…read moreMarch Madness and barely leave the couch during the tournament. Steve Fisher has done wonders with the Aztecs program, and turned them into an amazing team to watch. The games are an absolute blast and I hit as many home games as my schedule will allow. The crowd is rocking, the college section is amazing, and the team is lean, tall and put on quite the show. I love me some tall, strong men!

I recently attended a concert here and had a fun time. The only reason i wanted to post a review to…read moremake sure others are aware. There is no hard liquor here. Maybe it's because it's in a college campus, but I was not able to get any hard liquor here. Closest thing to mixed drinks are canned beverages(can't remember the name). The seats and stage was inside, but the bars, food, and concessions are all outside, I don't even know what would be happening if it was raining.

This is my second year for sausage fest and it didn't disappoint. I will say last year was much…read morebetter! I bought a great T-shirt at last year's event this year there were no T-shirts so I was disappointed. Not only that the advertisement said they were tapping a Keg of special reserve lost Abbey for $20 which included a commemorative sausage fest Stein and pictured a nice looking glass with etching. I decided to go for a splurge and get that deal. I really wanted to try that lost Abbey. When I got there there was no lost Abbey, they gave me some horrible Pilsner and commemorative Stein that it came with? It was a plastic junky mug with a sticker stuck on it. The sticker was worn off and you couldn't even read sausage fest. However the sausages and the band the tighten ups were the star of this event. that's what made it pretty amazing! There were 12 sausages showcased that were anonymously numbered and color-coded on toothpicks you get one chip to vote for your favorite sausage and you can eat as much sausage you want, however the line was atrocious this year. Last year it wasn't at all. I happen to pick the winner and the second runner-up! The first winner was Coronado brewing Company which I struggled between that one in the second place winner which was cowboy star. I will say I was sad that Carnitas snack shack wasn't a winner. It happens the third Wednesday in July every year. You should check it out at least once if you love sausage like I love sausage and I love me some sausage!! I ate more sausage there than I've ever eaten in my life and I don't regret a minute of it.