My partner, his family and I were lucky to attend the Taste of Cincinnati this afternoon. The…read moreannual downtown food festival runs from May 24-26 with plenty of local foods brought together, along with music and vendors. Menu items ranged from $3-$12. DEFINITELY a must-do for your list of what to do while visiting this city.

What a great way to start summer. Lots of good music drinks and just lots of fun Everything we…read moreate was spot on. It's a great time to try new things for half the price.

Best oldest Fair in town, just has to be. Between the parade Thursday, carnival, 4H and food all…read moreweekend, it's the place to be on the West side Best side all fall!! Still time to come out!!

Who doesn't like the fair? What!? You don't, well stop reading this…read more.. OK, so now that I have all the fair lovers, lets get into it. The Harvest Home Fair is a downright ancient tradition here on the West Side of Cincinnati. Every year on the weekend after Labor Day a little fair pops up to take over Harvest Home Park in Cheviot. It has all the fair essentials; rides, animals, and of course the wonderful fair food. They even manage to fit a little rodeo area in, too. The one downside was the expense. It was $5 just to get in! And then you had to pay for everything else, too. Well, the rodeo was free actually. But the rides and food were not cheap! All in all we spent $31 for my wife and me, and I can imagine a family would seriously spend some dough. But there's no point trying to deny your child the joys of a fair once they know it's there. Hey that rhymed. Awesome.

This review is long past due but I have to echo what Lauren said, the "taste" part was missing…read more I've seen more food options on a weeknight at Washington Park than for this MAJOR festival. Not only was the amount of food a total bummer, but the lines because of the lack of food was atrocious. We are talking hour wait times from line to getting your food. It was an organizational nightmare as lines whipped around into other lines and through the grass and roads surrounding. The lack of local beer was also very apparent. They had miller light, coors, and one "craft beer booth/tent" that had a few local madtree cans and then some bigger craft beer names. Again, a total disappointment for an event of this caliber. I don't know if the sponsors weren't getting a lot out of this and decided not to participate this year or if the people organizing this event just weren't really pitching/selling the event hard enough to get sponsors. Either way with as much going on as Cincinnati has - I would not recommend this festival. The only saving grace was being a 90's babies and hearing blessed union of souls and even that was a disappointment as they played mostly cover songs of other peoples music.

First I will say this review is for the 2017 Taste of Blue Ash only…read more For the first time I was disappointed!. In past years I would rave about the great music, food, and drinks. This year the music was still good and the reason for receiving any stars. The "Taste" piece is where it missed the mark. There were barely any food options, and of the small selection of choices the lines were super long. I guess that was due to the fact there wasn't much to choose from. What happened Blue Ash? It was more of a festival than a "Taste". This is a family tradition we love going to to and this year was just unfortunate....

This was actually the first thing we did when we moved to Cincinnati. Quite literally. We pulled…read moreinto the Queen City, saw a billboard advertising that it was happening that day, and decided to check it out. What was a crazy mass of people grabbing for as many chocolate treats as possible has only gotten crazier. Our first visit saw a fighting chance. Now, talking to vendors to learn about them, and their craft is nearly impossible. The stream of people keeps pushing forward, and one gets swept away from the booths. As the event has grow, this has continued to be the case. (All pre COVID, not sure how this will be safely handled in the future.) While we have tried some amazing treats, thus introducing us to some amazing local businesses, it is hard to truly enjoy the experience. Chocolate should be savored. It is hard to do that here. The only exception is the children's play area. This is consistently a ghost town. My children have enjoyed playing the games, gettibg balloons, or whatever else has been offered. The area is kind of like a section of an elementary school carnival.

I attended this event with my sister in 2014. There is a whole lot of chocolate here. Yum! You…read morestart out with tickets for tastings at the different vendors and there is the opportunity to purchase additional tickets at the event. There were A LOT of different vendors and a lot of chocolaty things to see. I recommend walking through at least once so that you can decide what samples you are most interested in tasting. My only complaint is that the later it gets in the day the more congested the event is. We arrived right when it opened and that was a VERY wise decision. We were kind of crammed together with loads of other pushy people right before we left and that was not ideal. We also upgraded to tickets that included the Bella Luna lounge and wine tasting. This was a great value. Bella Luna provided small bites of (not chocolate) food like pasta and bruchetta. There were 5 wine tastings included in the price and they were very generous pours. I would attend again.

Awesome time for everything goetta! Their menu items are always so creative and involve generous…read moreportions of goetta. This year we also particularly enjoyed their air conditioned tent and live music as well! If you love goetta, creativity, and variety then look no further for your next place to get it and put this on the calendar the next time it come around.

It's all things Goetta! Goetta games, goetta prizes, a goetta world map! How fun! And it's a local…read moreproduct that is run by a guy who seems to be pretty nice so that's a fun product to get behind. I've been wanting to go to this for years and I finally made it. Will I go again? Nope. But that's because I just like goetta and can make everything I want at home and not dilute it with all yhe other stuff. It was worth going to once, for me. The food would have been better if it actually had more than a tablespoon of goetta on it. They also have plenty of alcohol - ever other booth is an alcohol selling booth - so youre covered there as well. It was fun to go and see and meet the founder's son (or grandson?) and learn more about goetta. Beef, pork, oats, and spices - whatever those may be - make a yummy treat!

Yes, this is a well-known multi-state yard sale that involves Hamilton Avenue in Cincinnati, and…read moreyou really need to check it out once, just to say that you've been there. But my experience is that it's over-rated and misnamed. It's really a long string of flea markets. Most of the stops are either higher-priced items, specialty collector items, or picked-over items (you can get all the cheap glassware and worn-out pots you want here). I prefer real yard sales, where you can obtain good quality items, are dealing with the original owner, and are paying original prices, not ones marked up by each hand it's gone through. And the goal of the seller isn't to make a big profit -- it's to get rid of items and have relaxed conversations with their neighbors --- that's the real spirit of yard sales.

In a spur-of-the-moment decision, my husband and I decided to make the drive from Louisville to go…read moreto the Boone County Fair with our kids. We grew up in Boone County, and our family, who still lives there, met up with us. And we had such a lovely night, making new memories while also thinking about past ones. We started by entering the kids rock race with some round rocks we had found while on vacation. I love how wholesome the fair contests are, especially for the kids. And this is pretty much like it sounds; the kids raced rocks down a track, and the rock that rolled the farthest won. This ended up being both of my kids, who won in their age groups. There was lots of food to choose from. The donuts and popcorn were my kids' favorites. We checked out the demolition derby and the 4H competitions with the livestock. Then we took in some rides. The $15 per person admission is a bit steep but seems more doable when you consider it includes all rides. I have a soft spot for local fairs and festivals, which perhaps started my attending this one when I was little.

LIGHT UP THE FAIR: this Christmas display is located at the Boone County Fairgrounds. I was out…read morethat way for a Christmas party and it was recommended to check out this drive-through light display for Christmas. I was debating whether to check out Florence's huge light display just down the road, but this specific drive-through was open an hour later and did not close until 10 PM. This worked so much better with my schedule! I was really impressed with how long the drive through the lights were. I loved how all the lights were synchronized with music that we could access with our car radio. It was pretty cheap compared to how long the display lasted. I'm so glad a local recommended this to me! Perfect holiday activity--especially for families.

While I understand that Braxton Brewery is the one sponsoring this event, and the Mainstrauss…read moresociety association has shut its doors, I feel like this festival fell flat. It was only on one street really and in the park. Growing up I remember there being rides, games, more vendors, and more German Beer. Where was the German Beer??? The whole reason why I come to these events is for the delicious beer like Hefweizen, Weiss Beer, and Dunkels. It was all lame Braxton beers and a handful of overpriced cocktail vendors. They also had country music playing which REALLY didn't make it feel German at all. Cmon Braxton! Get it together, you call this a German Festival?? It felt rushed, and Hodgepodge. Also, why is it only on one street! Mainstrauss is huge and used to have vendors and shops and food all the way down to the fountain. I give it 2 stars. Maybe it'll grow, but this should be a way bigger event with rides and more games and activities for families and kids, like it used to be in the 90s and 2000s. I recommend expanding into more than just a few shops selling the same candle, jewelry, and incense merch as well.

Kicking off the Greater Cincinnati's festival season, Covington's Maifest celebrates the area's…read moreGermanic tradition of heralding the arrival of spring wines. However, I think Maifest is little more about beer and brats, but fun nonetheless. The 2008 event kicks off Friday, May 16th and runs until Sunday, May 18th. If the weather is nice, Maifest will be packed as tightly as Northern German sardines. Good luck trying to navigate with a stroller or wheelchair. Yet, given Cincinnati's unpredictable spring weather, chances are pretty good that there will at least be scattered showers, scaring away half of the crowd to a number that's manageable. Drinkers, your best bet is to purchase a collectors mug, which can be refilled at vendors' booths for a discount over individual beer price. And you're making Mother Nature proud. The beer selection is mostly domestic (unfortunately), but Warsteiner's there to keep things semi-authentic. For families, there are tons of food booths and artisans selling their wares, even "gypsies" reading your palms or tarot cards. Kiddies will love the carnival rides and games set up in the 5th street parking lot. Oompa bands and men in Lederhosen rock the crowd Bavarian style, but if that's not your style you can pop into any of the MainStrasse bars for more contemporary jams. There will invariably be someone who can't hold their liquor and will embarrass themselves terribly in front of a crowd of 150,000. But you'll walk away with a renewed sense of Schadenfreude. Prost!

Gets better each year. Traffic on the weekend is very bad…read more Try to go before the weekend. Some Blinks are hard to find. Some areas do not feel very safe. Music needs to be for all ages it was a little on the young side. The banks were fun...

I went to the Cincinnati Blink Festival last night, and OMG!! It was a giant sensory-rich…read morepedestrian party, with lights, music, and murals!!! I'm so glad I used the park-and-ride at Cincinnati State, rather than trying to park downtown. Cincinnati Metro was efficient, got us to the venue quickly (and with free LED bracelets), and dropped us at the underground Riverfront garage station I hadn't heretofore realized existed. And then the party began. Walnut and Vine Streets -- the North and South streets all the way from the Riverfront to Findlay Market -- were open only to us pedestrians. The goal was to walk your own self-guided path & explore, with a map of all the exhibits in hand, which I didn't refer to as much as just following the noise and the lights. All along the route I admired and savored the art displays, the interplay of light and music, the buskers (there were many!!), the food trucks, and the clusters of parties all along the long stretch, from the riverfront to downtown proper, to Over-the-Rhine, to Findlay Market. My favorites: the spectacular drone show at the river (it was fireworks without the boom), the spinning light display at Smale Park -- you laid on the provided pillows on the ground and watched a large overhead disk where a display of lights was synced to selections of classical music; the Music Hall Display at Washington Park, which was an amazing explosion of different light configurations projected on the iconic bricks of Music Hall, with music -- it looked like spider webs, then breakthroughs of light, then little shattered pieces -- very inspiring and dramatic; all the beautiful murals -- some new pieces, some longstanding that I'd never noticed before; all the night vendors at Findlay Market; the "silent disco" happening at the Findlay Market shed -- without the provided headphones it was just a group of people silently dancing together, with the headphones you could hear the music and were invited into on the party; and even small displays like the small alley park with a tree light display made to appear that it was being repeatedly struck by lightning. Very well-organized -- it was packed with people but since it was more than 30 blocks of the city there was still a lot of room, and man, was it a feast for the entire senses! Unfortunately, I didn't get to the Covington and Newport displays, but I've got two more days of the festival for that. And at times it felt like a long walk in between displays, and I kept worrying that I was missing some good ones. But I loved the ability to do some safe urban hiking in the middle of Cincinnati with a million or so friends -- it was a great opportunity to go out somewhere by myself where I felt safe and comfortable, and see some amazing light shows!

West Fest is back this year, with a city block or two shut down for beer, food, crafts, and of…read morecourse live music. Unfortunately, this year it occurred during the heat wave, so I think that kept the crowd down. But the event still had the makings of a good local street festival. My favorites were Christine's (loved their fried cheese curds), Kona's shaved ice (just what the weather called for), and Kungfusion for spicy pork over rice. There was a good section of tables, activities for children, and lots of good music to be had. Overall, a great comeback that I hope will just get bigger next year.

I used to really enjoy this festival but the crowds and number of booths have shrunk over the…read morerecent years. Beer options are horrible, Bud and Corona booths. Kids hang out in the middle around Wendy's. Someone let off a loud firework and the cops responded with a police dog. I witnessed a redneck Cheviot cop create a situation with someone in a group in front of me putting a middle age man in cuffs and hauled him away. . Totally unprovoked. Maybe these types of festivals need to end.