Very nice fair! Good candy and food selection but somewhat smaller than other state fairs I've…read morevisited. Plentiful bathrooms too! There are lots of rides and games but I mainly go for the art displays and the animals. Definitely worth a try if you're in the area.

We typically visit the state fair every year either on one of the discount days or during lunch…read morebunch. This year I was lucky enough to win tickets from Live 93.5! There was definitely a noticeable increase in prices this year that left us questioning if we will go back next year or just spend the extra money to visit another state's fair like NC. The official parking is $20 so we opted to park in a nearby private lot for $10 and walk a little further. Kiosks have been added this year to purchase tickets if you don't already have them which I thought was nice. We typically stick to trying the new food items and this year there were several that we didn't get due to the price ($20 food sundae, $15 funnel cake, etc), but we did enjoy the cotton candy lemonade and cheesecake trio! My favorite item at the fair is the jalapeño corndog from Daley's and they gave me a cold one that wasn't worth the $10 and extra $1 for using a card. Entertainment seems to be generally the same each year and could definitely use refreshing. I'm not sure if it was advertised (I never saw anything beforehand), but Sandra Lee was one of the judges for the food competitions this year. I would have loved to have known in advance because I would have planned to visit when I could meet her.

I recently attended the 2nd Annual Columbia Shrimp and Grits Festival. We had fun tasting the…read moresamplings and the band was great! There were many samples from a variety of restaurants. Many were from downtown, one was from Lexington, one was from the Harbison area. I would have liked to see more restaurants from different parts of town to be more inclusive of the area. Also, while the ladies from the Chickadee's restaurant were very friendly, they confessed that shrimp and grits were not their specialty and suggested we come to the restaurant for something else. They said they weren't even sure why they were there and that someone had invited them to participate. I also saw two of the cooks they had there pop a balloon and it startled some of the guests and they laughed. I would not recommend including them next year. All that said, there were plenty of excellent samples from restaurants and we left extremely full. There were door prizes which we registered to win but you had to be present at the end of the event to win. The event began at 6pm and ended at 10pm. It maybe took an hour to visit all the booths. This also allowed us to enjoy the band, vote for our favorite restaurants and chat with friends we ran into at the event. We arrived around 7 and were ready to leave by 8:15. We didn't want to wait at least another hour to find out if we won prizes. I think it would be better if you didn't have to be present to win or if the organizers decreased the time frame of the event to 2 hours. There were also some other vendors in the hallway. Some of them seemed relevant and were a nice addition (I'm looking at you cupcake company!) but there was someone there testing nerve responses and he was trying to convince people to participate as they were making their way in and out of the festival. It didn't seem to fit in with the event at all and I can't imagine it was beneficial to his business or the event. Tickets were $40 each for adults. I do believe this was a bit steep for what we received. Plenty of people obviously paid for tickets though as there was a good turnout for the event. We only had to wait in line a couple of times for samples though. Most of the restaurants were well prepared to handle the crowd. My favorite restaurant was Midlands (located in the Marriott downtown on Main and Hampton). They won best Shrimp and Grits from the judges and the people's choice award as well. I highly recommend you check them out! Or you can come to the festival next year and judge for yourself. With a little tightening up on the event it would be a phenomenal festival!

The 16th Annual Columbia Blues Festival: Oct. 1-2…read more FREE ADMISSION!! Went out for the Friday night shows- The music was great! The Damon Fowler Group was particularly good! They have a multitude of vendors set up- food, beer etc.. You can get a 24 0z PBR for 3 bucks- don't think they're trying to gouge the heck out of everybody with high prices :) They just want to put on a good show - let the people enjoy the music! The weather was perfect! The music was good! Held at Martin Luther King Memorial Park in Five Points. The event begins at noon each day. http://www.wordofmouthproductions.org/index.html

A few yrs back I visited the Crawfish Festival, which was a nice family day out! Paid parking was…read morepretty easy, and I believe they had buses to bring fest goers closer to the event. Pretty much they had all the food and drinks that all fest normally have, nothing remarkable different. I bought our tickets on Groupon to save a little. The lines were not long, some seating for people who bought crawfish plates. Lots of local bands and things for the kids to do. Being that I lived in Louisiana in the past I wasnt really impressed, but it was good to see everyone enjoyin and mingling around. Im used to driving up to a crawfish stand and grab 1lb bag for $5.00 witt corn & potatoes! When I went in 2015 the cost was $15.00 a plate, I see from other reviews the price has gone up. I gave it a 4* because Im all about any kinda fest with food and dranks...

This year's Crawfish Festival, was really great! The Crawfish was cooked to perfection, with a…read moreCajun burn just the way hubby and I liked them. The box of (mud bugs) crawfish you purchased was $18.00 dollars per box and you got two pounds per box of (mud bugs). The box also came with potatoes & corn on the cob. The beer was $5.00 a can. Other vendors sold blooming onion, chicken & lamb, gyros, hot dogs, elephant ears, and other various food items. The wait in line wasn't very long. The bands were all local ones. This years Crawfish Festival was ok, maybe other events were in place at the same time around the city? But it wasn't very crowded when we got here, the bands were ok!!! I don't know what happened, but again the Crawfish was amazing!!!

Great turn out today. The weather was nice and the food was even better. I stopped by a got a…read morefunnel cake and grabbed a bite to eat at the crawfish truck. There were about 17 food trucks/stands out today at this event. DJ Prince Ice was out today playing music to set the mood. Entry was $10.00 at the gate and $5.00 in advance. Parking was also $5.00. It was well worth it. We bought our folding chairs and canopy tent. There was plenty of tables and chairs but no shade. There were games for the kids to play and also free face painting. I will be looking out for this event next year.

Ive tried the past two years to get here and was shut out both years so I was super excited this…read moreyear. Excited and disappointed at the same time. We got there around three (it ended at five) so I was really surprised we were turned away the years prior when this was supposed to be a sold out event and there was so much room for people. There were no coverings, no shade so we sat in the sun and is why we went so late. Sorry to those who roasted in the sun for high priced beer and food. There was an odd assortment of food trucks, I expected more considering this was the second year at the fairgrounds which, again, made me question why last year we were turned away unable to even buy an entry ticket. There was a Mac and cheese truck, Jamaican, Korean, typical hotdogs, bbq and nothing else worth mentioning. I was excited to see so many craft beer places however, $7 for a lemon shandy which is $1.98 by my house is absolutely absurd!!!!!!!!! The gentleman understood but what can he do except give us a two for one...nice! It's still 3.5 for the price of one! Never again! There was no vegan options, vegetable spring rolls which I ordered and was equally disappointed. They were grease soaked and not even hot. The Jamaican truck had plantains but the line didn't move for the 25 minutes we stood in line. There wasn't any food coming out...HARD PASS! I, we, vegans, don't want fries that taste like fried fish or meat that's for sure. We enjoyed ourselves thanks to the two for one special and DJ Prince Ice played some great throw back jams but other than that, it was a waste. I won't be coming back unless there's a vegan truck out there. Who ever is in charge of marketing and recruitment should ensure to have something for everyone.

Excellent Bourbon and American Whiskey tasting event. And the food was fabulous. Bourbon (the…read morerestaurant) never fails! 701 Whaley is a wonderful venue and it is always good to support the Historic Columbia Foundation. We had a great time and look forward to next year!