Incredibly long lines. Too many people. Ran out of ice cream hours before closing time, vendors were leaving early. This is for charity so I don't feel great about leaving a negative review, but this was a poorly planned and poorly run event. The most expensive two tiny scoops of chocolate ice cream I've ever had. In past years this experience was much better. Typically lines were only a few people and you wouldn't have to wait very long, there were more vendors, and vendors did not run out of supply. The people in charge of the event this year should have limited the crowd size and better controlled the space. The lines were so long they crashed into each other and it was impossible to even determine what line you were in. Very negative experience. Cannot recommend. read more

So glad to finally join in on the Scooper Bowl. I've always seen and walked by the Scooper Bowl in past years and this time around I couldn't pass up the opportunity for Scooper Bowl at Night a 21+ event. I will say the lines were quite long and if they were to do it again I wish they'd expand the perimeter of the 21+ event. The ice cream was delicious and I got to try plenty of flavors. I decided to attend because Bart's one of my favorite ice cream places from western mass was serving the Purple Cow. I can't recommend that highly enough if you're ever in Amherst. I liked the options for drinks as well. While I was originally in line for wine, their portions probably wouldn't be considered generous. So I ended up with with harpoons pale ale which was very good and perfect for the nice weather since it had a hint of citrus. It was a better bang for the buck, my friends got the hard seltzer drinks and said they were very good. read more

Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl - Festivals Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

I have been going for over 10 years. You pay a fee and the donations go to the Jimmy Fund. Various ice cream companies have sample flavored ice cream to try and it's unlimited. Wait time is not too bad and there's other stations with prizes as well! read more

Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl - Festivals Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

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The Scooper Bowl is a Boston summer tradition - all-you-can-eat ice cream for a great cause! It is important to prepare yourself for the fact that, especially on a sunny day, the crowds are going to be intense. The lines will get out-of-control. But, take a deep breath (the lines do move quite fast!), and enjoy the experience. The best advice I can for this event are: 1) Check out the Scooper Bowl website in advance, where they list flavors offered by each company, so that you can be sure you don't miss anything that sounds particularly delicious to you!, 2) As soon as you grab an ice cream sample, hop in another line... no sense waiting in a line without ice cream to keep you occupied! Kids do tend to run amuck here (more so than I remembered), but at least they are having fun. You are also guaranteed to witness approximately 3-5 moments of confusion (slash possible dramatic confrontation...) between parents/adults around where lines begin / end and potential accusations of cutting. To be fair, the lines here are beyond hectic, and it is often hard to tell where one begins and another ends (and multiple lines intersecting each other, kids who have no concept of lines, etc.) - it would be great if they had a clearer way of setting up the lines in future. Or, better yet, extend the event to four days - there is clearly the demand for it! But in the meantime, try to relax and just enjoy the ice cream... And be sure to stack up your cups as you are eating, to offer proof that you are a true Scooper Bowl champ! read more

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The tradition @ Scooperbowl is to keep all your cups and take a photo documenting your ice-cream conquest. This is one of the only times I can think showing off your fat-ass appetite is okay in public. Greater # of cups= awesome. Let's just say your appetite for ice cream starts to decline sharply after cup #15. $10 one time entrance fee for the 2013 Scooper Bowl. Other ticketing options are available- groups, children, and 3 days passes-, all for a great cause. It is strange that such a charity event would be held during the span of 3 weekdays instead of weekends, but apparently nothing including a tired workday can deter Bostonians when it comes to unlimited ice cream. The turn out was great even @5:30 pm. The weather was awesome, 70-ish, and not chilly even with sunset approaching. Couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my evening with my friend, and I'm so proud we both reached my summer goal of 20 cups! :) Pina Colada and Cotton Candy (had a wacky fusion of blue and purple) were the 2 flavors that stuck out the most to me this year. Sponsoring companies change annually as well as the flavors, so Scooper Bowl will never get old. My favorite part was trying out the wacky flavors and sampling ice cream from companies I never even heard of. Room for improvement: 1. Check in. Their system of checking for tickets in labeled envelopes and deferring you to their clipboard of names if you can't be found wastes time. I cannot imagine how slow check in must be in the afternoon. Why not the reliance of ipads, laptop, or technology? 2. Napkins no where to be seen. Mandatory sticky mess to be made. So remember to bring 'yo own. read more

What a sticky mess! But that's inevitable when you have all-you-can-eat ice cream. This year's price apparently increased -- it was $10 for a single entry, but you can get $1 off if you send a text to the number listed on the T advertisements. Either way, you're probably not going to get your money's worth in ice cream, but you get more than enough ice cream as a bonus for some charity. Plan ahead and sample the ones that sound the best... because no matter how good they are, taste starts going downhill after 4-6 scoops. Trust me. Nothing after scoop #8 tasted any good. The wait wasn't bad since it was pretty much just grab-and-go. If you brought kids with you, it's probably a better idea to grab a bunch for them to eat away from the crowds... there aren't any real lines and becomes kind of a clusterf*ck. One dad brought a cupcake pan and loaded up on 12 different flavors for his kid. Plenty of free water and wet-naps available. And they take credit cards! Just go in the "group" line. read more

What an amazing idea for charity?! (err my hungry stomach) Find $8, take a spoon and start eating away ALL THE ICE CREAM/GELATI you want! Baskin Robbins, Breyers, Edy's, Haagen Daaz, etc. As a young adult, this was something fun and different. I can't imagine how much kids and families enjoy this. I would say by the end of my one hour of ice cream eating, I wanted to puke. But I will say being able to try new flavors of ice cream that vendors are trying to bring to market is a pretty cool deal. Just remember, it can get a little crazy. Stickyness, kids running, kids screaming, people dropping ice cream on you, kids running into your glass of water. I would also recommend coming on an empty stomach, so you can eat more! And, the more people you come with, the more flavors you get to try. All in all a day's worth of fun! Better luck next year, if you didn't have the chance to go. read more

Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl - Ben and Jerry's! - Festivals Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

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This is a three day annual event with proceeds going to charity. All the ice cream you can eat, provided by most of the major local and national ice cream restaurants/parlors. Price is very reasonable. It is in a tent by City Hall, so hopefully it is on a warm or hot day. read more

Great charity event! It's always packed and the crowd looks intimidating from the outside, but lines move quickly. I think the only stand that had a legit line was Ben and Jerry's, but even that was only about a 5 min wait. Lots of kids on field trips and such enjoying the day and ice cream -- great event for the family! However, I think it'd be great if they could incorporate some local Boston ice cream shops too! Fomu, JP Licks, Honeycomb, Toscanini. Would be a great addition! read more

There's nothing like ice cream to bring out the moody, self-centered, pushy, sloppy, sugarfied bratty kid inside all of us. It's hard to believe that the Scooper Bowl started in 1983 with just 3 vendors charging only a $1 for an all you can eat ice cream extravaganza. Originally the New England Dairy Festival, students were sent to "learn about dairy products and their nutritional value" whilst getting totally high on sugar. Yeah.. don't think I learned much about dairy except for what 14 cups does to your body. I thought that was an amazing feat until my friend Kathy said she downed 30 cups last year. FAIL. Now with 11 vendors, the Scooper Bowl is the nation's largest all you can eat ice cream festival! Although it was cooler yesterday, the ice cream proved to still be sweet relief. From those just learning to walk to men in 3 piece suits (tie tucked in of course), everyone was having a good time eating and dancing to the cover band in City Hall Plaza. And so... here are a few tips for those going today or for those prepping to go to one, two, or all three days of Scooper Bowl next year (anyone for a Whocaneatmorewithoutspewing Yelp-off next year) : 1) BRING A FRIEND! Better yet.. Bring a couple. With the help of Tarah, I got to try Ben and Jerry's Cheesecake Brownie and Imagine Whirled Peace; Breyers Cookies and Cream; Brigham's Quack Tracks and Coconut Almond Fudge; Cold Stone's Founder's Favorite and Shock-a-Cone; Doriti Gelati's Mango Gelato; Edy's Birthday Cake and Orange Cream Sherbet; Elan Fro Yo's Black Raspberry and Coffee; Garlick Farms/Gifford's World's Best Chocolate and Maine Lobster Tracks; Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Honey Bee and Raspberry Sorbet; and Hood's Light Martha's Vineyard Black Raspberry and Bear Creek Caramel. In addition to consuming massive amounts of ice cream, Boston Duck Tours offers discounts for groups heading to Scooper Bowl! I'm hoping it's beforehand because a boat full of people whose bellies are bursting might test the ship's buoyancy. 2) Read the signs! There's gelati, fro yo, ice cream, and even kosher goods available. The stands also have signs saying which goods had nuts. Yay for allergy friendliness! 3) Try to be strategic with flavors. Eating coffee chocolate chip chunk mint is not to be followed by Orange Mango Sherbet. Just FYI. 4) Don't be afraid to get into the game. Throw in a little trash talk when people start to cut (don't curse at the children.. sometimes their parents are close by. Big David Ortiz-esque parents who could crush you into jimmies and spread you on their chocolate coffee gelati). Also, saying that "every time someone throws out ice cream a puppy dies" is a good deterrent for those with eyes bigger than their stomachs who trash cups full of ice cream. 5) Dress appropriately. If a child covered is running around unattended (oh and they are).. his chocolate covered mouth will seek out your white pants more often than your neighbor's black pants or skirt. 6) Bring a small child. It's like being with that fexy friend of yours when you're trying to get into a club. Front o' the line babyyy. Even better if you can train them to cry so that people will feel sorry for you and let you cut. OR bring a slightly older child who can still maneuver the crowds due to their size but not have people be too annoyed because they're still so cute. You can send them up to the stands to get your ice cream while you sit back and relax. I saw a few employees specially catering to children. Children are either free (under 3) or half price($4 in '08). Score! 7) You might wanna grab an extra spoon on the way in (they give you one to use for the day) if you fail at balancing like me. Almost.. made it to cup 13 and decided the 5 second rule shouldn't apply to areas where red coats may have fought. And bled. Iuncare if it was a long time ago! 8) Enjoy yourself. Sure.. waiting in line is much like trying to get on the train at 4PM on a Friday before a holiday weekend. And sure.. some flavors would be better with some jimmies/sprinkles.. and cones would also be a delicious touch(but they might just slow you down)... but it's ALL YOU CAN EAT ICE CREAM and it's for charity.. so settle down and eat up! read more

What's better than ice cream? Eating ice cream for a very worthy cause. Every year, City Hall Plaza in Government Center gets taken over by the nation's largest all-you-can-eat ice cream festival. It's $8.00 for adults, $4.00 for kids, and raises money for the Jimmy Fund, which supports cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Basically, you have the great opportunity to pay just a few dollars to support cancer AND you get unlimited ice cream from the best brands out there. The math is simple: Ice cream + charity = deliciousness + good karma read more

$8 entrance fee and all you can eat ice cream? FRIGGIN AWESOME! Picture a job fair and instead of bringing your resume, fighting for business cards and complaining about how crappy the economy is INSTEAD you get a spoon, fight for cups of ice cream and talk about happy times! Because ice cream makes everything better! It's pretty much an outdoor ice cream buffet. Even with this year's cool and cloudy weather, it was still pretty fun. I can only imagine it would be 100X better had it been hot and sunny. read more

Reminder to self: - Eat light lunch first - Bring hand-i-wipes - Bring an extra spoon or two - Dress for hot weather - Maybe bring water. --------- Yes kids, the Scooper Bowl is back! They have a live band this year, which isn't bad. Lines move fast so don't be intimidated by them when you see 'em. Be prepared to elbow line-cutting punks out of your way! And avoid the "Firehouse #31" ice cream from Baskin Robbins - yech!! -------- read more

What an awesome idea. All you can eat ice cream! Really a great event for a great cause. The ice cream was delicious, the live music was great. I all, a lot of fun. the only thing that needs a little improvement is crowd control. Yes, this is a fund raiser, all volunteers, and the servers were putting the ice cream out as fast as possible. So why are people so unclear on the concept of 'grab your portion and move out of the way' is beyond me. However, I will definitely attend again next year. read more

Everything is well organized and the event staff are very kind and accommodating. The ice cream selection is wonderful, with 4 different kinds available from each vendor. Having such variety is really nice for people to get to try new types that they maybe would have never purchased for themselves before. The lines can get pretty long at times, but they move really quickly. I'd say spending a couple hours here eating enough ice cream to make you explode is well worth the entry fee! read more

Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl - scooper bowl 2017! - Festivals Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

My husband's company paid for us to go last night and it was worth it! Every vendor had multiple flavor options and nothing was to melty. The lines all moved much quicker then I thought they would which was nice. We could get ice cream from one line and eat it while we waited in the next line, the timing always worked out perfectly. It was a little annoying that they gave you a spoon when you entered but there was no where else to get a new spoon if you dropped it. I saw several kids dropping their spoon and the parents trying to figure out how to get a new one without having to go back through the crowd to get to the entrance. read more

I love the Scooper Bowl. I really do. Ice cream for dinner? Heck yes! However, going on a hot day is INSANE. People were throwing elbows today, which is just absurd because c'mon, guys, it's ice cream. Stop being greedy. But man oh man - the ice cream sure was good. And it's for charity! read more

All you can eat ice cream! As long as you're brave enough to battle the line. However, this year I found it a bit disappointing. The flavours were all repetitive. No Fro-Yo! =( Common fro-yo places, you guys have 4 locations on each block of newbury, couldn't you donate some to the Jimmy Fund. Tips Bring napkins! Avoid the red ice cream, it is not cherry. Grab every flavour at Baskin Robins & Friendlys read more

Happiness for everyone, if you can get there early enough to avoid the obnoxious crowds. Still, it's worth it. Though most of the event is pretty well-organized, the lines are poorly organized and become a frustrating free-for-all. Middle school kids cramming up and cutting lines because they need to pass 20 cups of ice cream to their friends in the back. Mothers trying to ram through their strollers or defend their kids from getting dripped on by passerbys. On a hot day, it can be VERY difficult not to snap and drop some bad words in front of the young folk. Aside from that, if you come on a weekday or early in the day, this could be a pleasant date or a family outing. Sponsors often bring along unique and quirky flavors, some gross and others heavenly, but always interesting. Tip: Bring wet-wipes. Lots of them. read more

So much ice cream! Such a fun event! Prices are $10 online and $15 online. They had so many flavors to from. read more

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Such a great event! All the volunteers were so wonderful despite it being cold and pouring on the day that I went. The ice cream was fantastic and I really couldn't have asked for better entertainment on the stage! read more

Ten bucks for all-you-can-eat ice cream in support of a very important cause, one that is near and dear to my heart? You bet I'm down for that! I just went to the Scooper Bowl for the first time, despite having heard about it every year since I've moved to Boston. Entry is quick and easy - hand over $10, get your hand stamped, grab a spoon. Three simple steps and you're on your way toward ice cream-palooza. Tip - don't throw out your spoon. You'll keep using it from one ice cream station to the next. Treasure it, worship it, don't lose it! It's your key to more ice cream goodness! I didn't eat quite as much ice cream as I had planned, but I definitely still got my money's worth. I stopped by on a dreary Wednesday evening and was pleasantly surprised at just how crowded it still was. But even so, most lines moved fairly quickly (except for the one time that we cut in front of almost everyone standing in a particularly long line - oops). The City Hall Plaza is the perfect space for the event, particularly since it takes place during the day/evening on three consecutive weekdays. Anyone who works in the area can get there pretty easily either during their lunch break (what a good lunch that would be!) or after work. There's plenty of room for milling around and stopping and chatting in between cups of ice cream. And there's live music. The only real negative for me was that most of the ice cream I had was kind of soupy and at least partially melted. But I understand that there's little that can be done to avoid that. I'll be back next year! read more

Great event! I got in for free as Yelp elite. Some lines were much longer than others (Ben & Jerry's being the longest). I would recommend getting at least 2 ice creams at each booth so that way when you are waiting in line you have something to nibble on. Don't throw out your spoon! read more

I went with a coworker yesterday during lunch. It's a really great event that the Jimmy Fund puts on. Eat as little or as MUCH as you like! The admission fee goes to a great cause and you get all the ice cream you can eat. What's better than that!? It's helpful to have some sort of hand wipe with you, eating all that ice cream at once under the hot sun can be sticky business! But well worth it! ;) Definitely check it out! read more

This is one of my favorite times of year!! What could possibly be better than eating as much ice cream as you can?? I brought my son with me this year since he was actually old enough to enjoy himself and we both were so full and tired by the end of it we could barely move lol yaaaaaaayyy ice cream read more

It's charity, so I feel like I should give it 5 stars, but they need line control! It's just pushing. I did it, because there was no other way, and I'm not happy about it. Letting people get more than one is awesome, so they don't have to push through again, but having parents let their kids park there is not. Great location for it because of the space and T convience. read more

All the ice cream you can eat for $8 and all proceeds to charity? YES PLEASE. The only problem? Competing with munchkins for all the ice cream goodness. Tip - there is a finite amount of ice cream you can eat, choose wisely. read more

Pretty crowded as expected but definitely worth the price especially with the text message $1 off. If you're like me and can't eat a ton of one flavor this is great because you can keep trying out different flavors. I found the best way to get what I wanted was to just go in between two stations because there was usually a flavor people all wanted and then the other ones would just be sitting there, this happened especially with the orange sherbet. I went there in the evening and most flavors were still there but all the sorbets were gone, which i really wanted to try. I got a bit tired of the other flavors and wished i could switch it up a bit more. read more

It was a hot, sunny day and there was a huge crowd like it was an all day music fest. Awesome! Late Night with Jimmie Fallon from Ben & Jerrys was the winner. But the Black raspberry sherbet was fantastic as the non-ice cream category. read more

What's not to like? Ice cream galore and all for a worthy charity. My favorite was Vice Cream because they understand the purpose of a treat. I'll eat broccoli when I want to be healthy. Ice cream is what I eat when I want to be happy. read more

Great time, expect that I had to sign up for Yelp to play a game and win a prize, that I could proay buy at store for like 50 cents. Besides the Yelp tent, the music was good, ice cream was endless, and the Revolution soccer team had some fun games/ read more