The Richmond Folk Festival is so Richmond and one of our city's best festivals. It's been happening…read morefor about 20 years. I think it's so wonderful that it's a free festival filled with so much culture. I grew up going to festivals in DC almost every weekend and this reminds me of those amazing festivals. There were about five different stages set up across our park system (near the James River). Various acts of music genres from all over the world were playing throughout the weekend. There is something for everyone. One of the highlights for me this year was the Flea Circus at the family tent. It was so wholesome and fun. Another annual highlight for me is the craft tent with beautiful handmade goods. One of my favorites is this Turkish store's booth with stunning tiles and bowls. There are plenty of food options here too. The "food court" can be found on Brown's Island, but this year there were food options scattered in the Belle Isle parking lot and a park on top of the hill too. I'm not sure what the parking situation looks like because I normally walk to the festival. I highly recommend walking or biking to avoid the heavy traffic you will inevitably run into during the festival. The Richmond Folk Festival is fun no matter what age you are. It celebrates music and cultures from around the world. I highly recommend visiting it each year.

An experience that I'm glad I didn't miss! The only drawback is that there was so much good music…read moreand informative workshops that we could not do it all.

Calling all foodies, this is the festival for you. The Richmond Greek Festival for 2025 was held at…read moreSts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral (I imagine it is typically here, this was my first year attending). It ran from May 28-31. I think of it as one huge food festival. I had a friend that attending on a Thursday and if you want to avoid lines, this is the move. I was silly and went on a Saturday. My mom and I attended after lunch. While I wish we tried some of the food, the lines were horrendous. The food smells were incredible though. They even had a drive through for the food. It's a free festival to attend. There are various booths with a variety of Greek (and some beyond Greek) foods to get as well as a fun shopping goods corner. I imagine it's similar each year, but outside had tents of food and plenty of seating. Inside the church there was a market place with things like clothes, jewelry, candles, olive oils, and more. It was hot outside so I got a Lemon Ice from kids running a booth nearby. My mom was most excited to see the shows. There was dancing and live music scheduled for 2:30pm that didn't start until about 2:50pm. We thankfully found shaded seats while we waited and had a lot of fun people watching. I am excited to return next year and try to go on a Thursday or Friday so I can try the actual food.

Thank god this festival is only once a year…read more We only ended up getting a gyro, a chicken souvlaki and Greek fries. But then ended up with more sweets than we needed. Definitely for the crowd who wants something to do in the city, because they have some performers and alcohol. But outings with a toddler are notoriously short.

This is the best festival Richmond has to offer. Everything is down one street. There's TONS of…read morevendors and as much watermelon as you can eat.

I enjoyed myself at this year's watermelon festival. This was the first year I attended; previously…read moreI didn't bother being that I don't like watermelon. It turns out the festival actually is primarily just regular vendors with some random cut watermelon tents. Arrive early, as it's August in the South and thus can get toasty quickly.

I've finally made it to Arts in the Park after living in Richmond for nearly a decade. A friend and…read moreI met at City Stadium to take the shuttle. The line was long but it moved quickly. They had a few shuttles in rotation, and they were nice, luxury buses. The area surrounding the festival in Byrd Park looked pretty gnarly with traffic, so I definitely do not recommend driving. There were over 350 vendors at the 2026 event. A large directory and map greeted us upon arrival, which was a nice touch and helped guide us around the event efficiently. The weather was perfect -- early spring mild temps with plenty of sunshine. I found loads of gorgeous pottery for gifts at reasonable rates. We didn't eat on site, but there were plenty of food vendors. We attended on the second day and the porta pots weren't the best. The event was busy but not claustrophobic. The layout was quite nice for strolling, and the Carillon added extra scenery to the day. I will absolutely be back in future years!

This is one of the best Springtime events in Richmond. All different types of crafters, artists and…read moreartisans come to show their wares. You never know what you will find. There are food and drink vendors. I recommend carrying a bottle of water, you will be doing a lot of walking and lemonade was $8.00 this year. The food prices were okay. I got a well smoked BBQ sandwich with coleslaw for $8.00. The food was tasty. The art is fun and you will see all kinds of things like jewelry, artistic notecards, lotions, soaps, whirligigs, and what nots galore. It is a fun event for all ages. Dogs are welcome too.

It is so hot today and they have no free water stations! Also its much smaller than in prior years…read more They also have less quality venders this years. No gelati celecti, no savory grain, no alchemy coffee. BUT I was excited to get the bacon batter gator bites but they didn't taste like bacon and they only give you 3 bites. Dont get me wrong they were delicious i just thought i should get a 4th piece. Also they open at noon. Why? I want them to open at 11am when its slightly cooler.

If bacon is your preferred meat of choice well this is the festival for you. There was no shortage…read moreof pork embellished dishes at this event. From traditional dishes of bacon cheeseburgers and ribs to unique treats of bacon infused drinks and desserts, there was something for everyone. The set up of the event could have been better. All the popular stands and dishes were all on a narrow hill towards the back of the festival. If you wanted a funnel cake garnished in bacon or a mountain of butterfly fries drenched in cheese and bacon the wait was as long as P. Diddy's child support payments but it was worth the wait and the calories. There was an open field which could have been utilized more. This more than likely avoided though due to the temperature being on fleek, reaching almost 100 degrees that day. Most stands were attempting to be under some sort of shade or trees, which caused the congestion of people in some areas of the event. Despite the heat and crowd the festival was filled with delightful sounds and smells. From the bands jamming and covering recent radio favorites to the decadent bacon creations, the festival was highly enjoyable. A stylish hat and cool spot in the shade is a must to attend this fatty festival. I will definitely attend this event again next year. Let's just pray for cooler temperatures to go alongside our bacon!

This festival is held each year in June in the parking lot of a catholic church. They have a…read morevariety of local Italian-American restaurants that set up booths and sell food, and they have a few games for the kids. They do raffles and other games, from a stage where they have various shows throughout the festival, and they have a few Italian artists set up inside the church selling pictures. They also offer tours of the church and some lectures on Italian history. However, when I went last year I didn't think it was that great- it's small so it took longer to get there than it did to look around, and all the food vendors are not restaurants that make authentic italian food, so it almost seemed like a waste to bother eating there. It's nice to visit once, but I don't think we'll be attending on a yearly basis, as there are other festivals in town that are larger and more engaging.

This is the best family affair in Richmond! Parents and kids dressed up from all over the city come…read moretogether way before sun down and kicked off the festivity. I would say the most crowded is between 6-8pm. I admire the residents very much for making such effort and creativity every year to wow and welcome visitors, while giving away tons and tons of candies. Nothing better than seeing everyone's reactions. It's hard to tell how the event is organized as there isn't official information online. There is a street closure around Meadow on Hanover but only for a few blocks while the crowd started taking over the streets from Robinson. It causes the traffic around the area very congested every year. People start to get impatient and irritated which is not what we want to see in our neighborhood.

Me & my kid had an awesome time ! Reminds me of a big block party ! Hah with tons of Halloween…read moredecorations and every house on the 5+ blocks had candy :)

This is nice little fundraising event for the church and I'm happy to do my part! They went…read morecashless this year so we got beer tickets ($8 each), bought bottled water ($1 each...thanks for not price gouging!) and we shared a wurst platter and an extra side of sauerkraut. The potato salad was the best thing on the plate! We checked out the vendors but the booths were crowded and small. Also when we got food, they had the cashiers so crowded at the table that it was impossible to get to the cashiers to pay, even though they had their hands up to show they were free. You had to wait for space. Spread out the cashiers next time!

I've been living in RVA on a work assignment for about a month and a half, so I only know a handful…read moreof people. Still, I want to do social things in my time off even when no one else is available. So that's how I landed on attending this year's Oktoberfest solo. I'm pretty sure it's the first time I've ever attended any festival on my own, so I referred to it as "taking myself on a date." And I'm glad I pushed myself to attend for a bit! I'm sure if I was with a group I would've stuck around longer, but as it was, I purchased a cute tasting glass and four pours (first pour came with the glass purchase) for $12 and made my way over to the beer tent. It was really relaxing to just sip some local fall beers and listen to the jovial live music. I even joined in some random conversations briefly -- because people are generally quite friendly in this city! After I was done all my tasters, I walked around the vendor area before heading out. I was in Munich last year for Oktoberfest, but this festival was actually much more my speed. For the Sunday session at least, there were ample seats available inside the tent, and it never took more than 30 seconds to get a new beer pour. They even offered wine tastings and plenty of food. I heard great things about the food, but I had eaten in advance. I'll definitely try that next year if I'm still around!

The Burger Blast was...a blast! Great variety of burgers from the India K'raja awesome veggie…read moreburger to the massive Mosaic masterpiece, there was something for every palate. The beer selection was terrific. My personal favorite #sidamo coffee stout by Hardywood. Never made it to the wine tables because of super long lines. Next year the organizer should consider doubling up on the wine offerings. Music was provided by Griff's band and they were really fun. They took standard favorites like Elvis's hound dog and gave it a folk/bluegrass twist. Music was a nice addition to this year's event.

Super thanks to Yelp Richmond for running a FB contest to win tickets to this event beacuse I…read morewon!!! That's right two free tickets to the Virginia Wine Expo!!! I found out I won 24 hours before the event. Babe! !! Road trip! !! I didn't mind driving up from Chesapeake to attend this event in Richmond. This event is world renowned so heck yeah we're game to attend. Parking was a beast!! We arrived about 2pm and the event I believe started about 10am. So yeah we were super late and knew we would have to deal with ridiculous lines for the wine sampling. But no worries... We were blessed to run into a man that was coming out of one of the pay to park lots and he offered to give us his paid for parking voucher. A free voucher for 3 hours...yaWhoooooooo!!! So let's do the math...free tickets valued at $55 each and now free parking...Oh we are in store for an awesome Saturday! ! I didn't do my research on this event, but if we ever return again I'll be ready. They offered private samplings throughout the day and I believe I saw evening tastings too. These tastings included food sampling as well. Bummer...most we sold out too. I believe about 20 openings were available for each private sampling. I'm sure this made an awesome time for a day date or date night. I saw something about a burger blast not sure what that is, but mad we missed that too. I tell yeah it was a lot going on and I'm sorta disappointed we didn't get the full wine expo experience. So definitely do your research before you attend. But we're checked in and wristband ready!! I was able to get a free wine bag that holds up to 6 bottles of wine...ahmazing! !! We picked up our crystal wine glasses...they were beautiful!!! We didn't know where to start. Let's start where the lines are the shortest. As time went on no lines were short so be ready to wait. Patience indeed. All the wine and malt liquor you can stand...this is the event for you! Every 10 minutes it seemed you'd hear a loud roar or cheer even. I thought some kind of contest was going on but nope!! Wine glasses were being dropped left and right, therefore, cheers if you will! ! :) Amongst the wineries different vendors were present and my fav there was Yelp!!! Heyyyy Bevin! !! She was the Yelp ambassador present on Saturday afternoon. She was awesome at greeting guests and telling them more about Yelp. She also had some cool swag to pass out to those that expressed interest. But the highlight at the table, Yelp provided beads and stems to make wine jewelry!! Fun fun fun!! I'd definitely recommend this event. And wear comfy shoes and eat lite before arriving. Have fun :)

The first time I tried to attend the Church Hill Irish Festival, a few years ago, I walked in and…read morewalked out. It was so packed I couldn't breathe. This year I was able to handle the crowds a touch better but not by much. They really need to expand their footprint to make for a nicer festival experience. The festival happenings -- bands, drinks, food, etc. -- are all great fun. It'd just be nice to have perhaps some more seating and shade options. I feel like if they even just expanded two or three blocks, it'd be way better.

A fun annual event in churchill. The last time my husband and I went was about 2 years ago, but…read morethis was the first place I tried a "Mrs. Yoder's Donut". That was when I realized the meaning of a True Love's first bite. haha Unfortunately, Mrs. Yoder's was not at this event this year (or at least on the Saturday I showed up - haha). Beer selection is great as always - I was the DD so I partied hard first and then spent the rest of the time sobering up. As always, my husband and I order a beef Proper Pie "sandwich" to split, and then we finished the rest of the late afternoon with some Alamo BBQ! Both were delicious and the place was very crowded. Def be sure to wash your feet when you get home...mine was filthy and I wore some flip flops. There are a whole lot of other food trucks around the area and lots of local shops to shop if you're walking around. I tend to come for the social gathering with friends and (of course) the food!!! haha P.S. - a VERY helpful tip. Since it's soooo crowded here, I ended up wearing a fedora, because whenever my husband and I would lose each other, I would actually just hop up and down. He would then be able to find me. Just a suggestion - haha.