Please never apply for becoming part. They collect only your $40 for the jury fee. See what they…read moresent to my ZAPP - "Thank you for applying to the 27th Annual Frederick Festival of the Arts. We regret to inform you that your work has not been juried into this year's event. We had a large pool of applicants and appreciate you taking the time to apply. On behalf of the Frederick Arts Council, best of luck with the rest of the festival season! ~Jasmine & the Festival Committee." Cheaters!

This is a fun outdoor event, we visit every year. There is tons of art for sale at various price…read morepoints (something for everyone) along with food, entertainment, and activities for the kids. You can't go wrong with an event that runs along beautiful Carroll Creek Linear Park.

MD Craft Beer Festival 2026: We have attended this event for probably 15 years now and it is still…read morea fun event. That being said the one major disappointment this year, comparing to years past, is the crazy plan to go with DJs instead of live bands. This is such a major once per year festival and you go with a DJ in the main area playing poor song selection vinyl. The DJ in the other area was playing much better music appropriate for the festival. Great food selections this year but overall number of breweries was down. Still, with all available the bands looking to make a name for themselves, the powers that be go with a DJ, crazy!

This was a very crowded experience and you have to wait in line for a good 20 to 30 mins for each…read more"sip" of beer. That is my main complaint. For $50 you would think that each brewery would give more than just a sip but believe me that is all you get. I maybe had a total of 3 beers total between all of the sips. And that was from 1:30 til 5 pm. My one friend chose to do the option with no beer for $20 but there was absolutely nothing for her. Yes there were food trucks which were very good thankfully. But there were few vendors and hardly any music. One DJ and one band walking around. This was such a terrible experience for the money!!

It's seems to be an issue with special needs children. They want to charge the caregiver as well…read morewhen in kiddie rides. I have a 8 year old with special needs and the people scanning tickets would scan twice. I don't thinks it's fair because an adult is not enjoying the ride as much as the child does. They need to be more in tune with special needs or give a pass for caregivers.

The GREAT Frederick fair is an event not to miss!…read more Celebrating over 150 years, this fair is the epitome of the past and the present. Where else can you see blue ribbon tomatoes from local gardens, taste wines from the vineyards all around Maryland, see a concert with a relevant country artist, ride the rides, and eat the latest deep-fried desert deliciousness? For eight bucks? We were seriously blown away. Daughter and I found parking for five dollars within 100 feet of the main entrance. There were acres and acres of rides and games and all the usual carnival stuff! There was a fun house that looked like the one in "Grease", and of course the old standbys like the giant Ferris wheel, the zipper, the tilt a whirl, and the octopus. There were many many more. You could spend the whole day and go on all the rides. And of course there are arcades of all sorts that you can win anything from a live fish to a giant low-quality stuffed animal. And they had all the deep-fried stuff. We had a funnel cake with ice cream and sprinkles that was the size of an apple pie. But we could've tried the deep-fried Twinkies, or the deep-fried Snickers bar had we had it in us. Perusing the agricultural barns was really fun to see the winning zinnias, tomatoes, and senior art projects. For a moment I felt like I was in 1917 not 2017! At night the fair lit up with all the moving parts of all the rides in with huge crowds and the country singer in the background and it really was a feel good old fashion way to spend the evening, dazzling the senses on a warm Indian summer eve.

This was an alright event. It worked out way better if you were VIP. For that status it had some…read moreperks to it and it allowed you to arrive 1 hour before the General admission. So VIP arrived by 11am. There was a line but it moved pretty fast. Part of the VIP status for twenty dollars more included A beer bacon glass. A lanyard. The lanyard was pretty cool. We also got to go to Roy Rogers stand and they were giving away bacon cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches to the VIP only. We opted for the Bacon cheeseburger. It was good l might add. They had a line inside for the variety of bacon. You know it's true about the early bird catches the worm. In this case it was the Bacon. They had a variety of selections and l know l went back at least four times. I tried the jalapeno Bacon and the old Bay bacon. Regular bacon. The peppered bacon, pork belly, & bacon jam. They also had a nice selections of beer. I was so excited to have the Two things that l enjoy together. I thought the General admission cup they gave you was a joke. It's no way l would do this at GA price. Just add twenty dollars more and you will be much happier. Do we plan on returning next year. Oh most definitely but as VIP only.

It's time for another episode of... Pros and Cons!…read more Pro: Great potential. People who love beer, bacon, and music should be able to find something they like at this event and enjoy their passions. The website is clean and informative, and the festival includes alot of great ideas. An all-you-can-eat bacon bar? Over 100 beers to try? Bands spanning multiple music genres playing every hour of the day? Sounds awesome Con: In order to enjoy these things, you had to enter the fairgrounds through one of three entrances, where festival-goers had to show IDs and receive bracelets, a map, and a tasting glass. Sounds simple, but the event coordinators failed to account for the fact that everyone would show up around noon to get in. Well, if you showed up late, you had to wait an hour in a line around the block. We arrived around 12:30 and didn't enter until 1:43. And at a festival that is only 6 hours long, that is approximately 1/6th of the 1-day pass wasted. There are multiple ways to avoid this (staggered entrance, better venue, open gates earlier, more staff, more entrances), but no one thought of this and people were VERY upset. Pro: Once we were in, the BEER was flowing. Many choice local, regional, and national beers. You would wait in line for a brewery for maybe 2-3 minutes, and then get to the front and choose which variety you wanted, tossing a coin into a bucket for donation to a charity. You would get maybe 3-4oz of beer in your tasting glass (larger glass for VIPs) and then wait in another line while you sampled one variety. Many breweries handed out coasters, and it was a festive, fun time. Con: The BACON bar was very poorly planned. What was advertised? An all-you-can-eat bacon bar with 2 tons of different varieties of bacon to satisfy bacon lovers. Now, a pound of bacon is about 15 pieces of thin-cut bacon, so assuming 1-ton per day, that is 30,000 pieces of bacon for the day. The problem? They couldn't cook it fast enough. There was a 15-minute wait in a long line to get to the bacon bar, and when you got there, there were 4 empty buffet trays and one tray of applewood-smoked bacon being shoveled carelessly into paper trays, along with some pork rinds and a sauce bar. I got 3 pieces of 1 variety of bacon and two pork rinds. There was your 'all-you-can-eat' bacon bar. Pro: The MUSIC portion was decent. After missing the first two bands waiting in line outside the festival, we did enjoy the Rockaway Beach Boys (a Ramones cover band) and local garage-folk band Skribe. I can't speak to the Sunday bands, but we liked both the bands we heard. I even looked up Skribe on ReverbNation later. Cons: A few other bummers. The cigar patio ran out of cigars when we were 10 places back in line, but we didn't even know that was an option until we saw the map. The bacon a la carte options for sale (candies, jams, desserts, and entrees) were lacking, a very poor overall selection, though we did enjoy our chili dog from Volt. The ticket price did NOT cover parking, and the beer tents were so packed together it was difficult to navigate the grounds; they could have spread the tents out. Overall, I don't think I would come back. Great vision, but they need to hire someone who has run an event before to think of problems before they happen. Better venue, more execution for the bacon bar, better system for screening IDs, and a better experience for the $45 price.