Parking was easy. You can tell how much live and work went into this festival-everyone very…read morefriendly and wishing to share details of the their heritage. The food was authentic and tasty!! Will be going again next year!!

We had a great time at the Hungarian Festival in Sarasota state Fairgrounds! The Hungarian festival…read morefeatures Tons of big named musicians flown in from Hungary! My favorite was Animal Canibals, the Hungarian rap group! The festival featured about 4 rows of venders under tents offering a wide range of Hungarian foods and various other Hungarian products. The festival had a huge tent where all the musicians performed with plenty of seating in the shade with fans. The lines were not bad at all to get food, drinks, or go to the bathroom. They had a ton of cool games including this hamster ball through a maze, bubble boy on water, ride the shark, tree house slide, trampoline super jump, an inflatable maze, archery, and some lego games for the kids. I was To drink, I was A little disappointed there was no Hungarian beer but there was plenty of German and Czechoslovakian beer. I really liked the shirts the festival workers had on featuring a large Hungarian crest but I was disappointed they didn't sell it in black. To eat, We had chicken paprikas, beef stew, mashed potatoes, szekey kaposzta, Langos, cremes torta, raspberry tekercs. All of them tasted great, authentic, and just like grandma makes! This festival is the closest I've gotten to Hungary since 2009 so it was nice ! I look forward to visiting next year!

As the Seafood and music festival has grown, so has the venue location. The '26 rendition was…read moreheld at the Sarasota Fairgrounds on Ringling off Fruitville. Now known as Sarasota Seafood and Music festival. Lots of food- seafood, hamburgers and carnival fried food plus bands and many merchants. I got a plate of jambalaya (a bit too salty) but loaded with sausage and shrimp (good deal for $20). Lots of beer options to wash it down(beer vendors took credit cards). Free parking and admission although you need to buy tickets for food.

This Seafood Festival is much better than the Tampa one we went to…read more There is a new parking garage in town for .50 an hour and your dog is welcome. I think the walkways are too hot for their paws right now, however people have pets here. We ordered a 3 item platter to share with Grouper, Coconut Shrimp and Jambalaya. We were happy with the $24.00 price and the food was very good. The Grouper needed another minute of cook time, it was still fresh and mild. The Jambalaya had Mahi in it and Sausage which was flavorful. There is a stage with live music that adds to the events fun factor and admission is free!

Fantastic experience for my Husband's Birthday outing! The team was fabulous, location was clean,…read moreand babies were so fun! We highly recommend!

The Sarasota Jungle Gardens is a hidden gem. There's so much to do and it's one of the places in…read morethe world that you can feed flamingos. They have so many animals from turtles, parrots to baby alligators. This place is family friendly for all ages. Don't forget to see the bird show! There's free on site parking available.

This place is a hidden somewhat run down but still super awesome old school gem that we loved…read more Florida's "Colonial Williamsburg" type living history museum with several buildings o exhibts as wrll as: Some livestock animals. A small garden inckuding sugar cane. Lots of vintage old stuff to explore. We woukd have loved a docent but self discovery was neat too. We really enjoyed our visit. Hoepfully some big money or loving volunteers step up to help support this super cool place. A trip back in time.. I love this place.

Wonderful place to take children. Old Florida at its best. Adjacent to Myakka State Park and easy…read moreto get to.

Came back this year to celebrate the holidays at UTC. We…read moredecided to watch and Holiday movie under the stars which was how the Grinch stole Christmas. Parking was a bit tricky we had to park on the opposite side and walk over. And then, of course it took some time to find a spot on the grass to sit and watch the movie. We got there a little before the movie started so if you plan to go just get there early for better seating. The quality of the movie was good and so was the audio. We decided to get pizza from blaze for dinner to enjoy while we watched the movie. It was a really good time. After the movie was over, we brought all our stuff back to the car and walked around a bit to check out the Christmas trees and also view the Christmas lights. They do such a fantastic job every year it gets better and better.

UTC in Sarasota festival of lights is really an awesome light show synchronized with music. It runs…read morethroughout the Christmas season. We were only there for the light show today. On some Friday's they have a firework display at 9:00 pm. I highly recommend you checking out all the events UTC has for the Christmas season.

3rd Annual Festa Italia in Sarasota…read more Live Entertainment Carnival Rides Specialty Foods Games Fun ....fun... It was certainly a beautiful warm sunny day to celebrate my heritage! I had my typical sausage and onions sandwich. Italian Ices, Peroni beer, linguine with clam sauce, and for desert zeppole and cappuccino.. and much more other food items I had to try, but then walked away bloating by eve.. (joke) Food was good and the entertainment was fun. The famous Flying Wellendas were doing their awesome acrobats on the high wire throughout the day! My son enjoyed the carni rides and fun houses... I enjoyed all the Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and more of that genre type of parody singers! Nice to have a taste of Italy near your home!

What a nice festival. What a great park for a festival…read more The food was excellent. The arancini (rice balls) were yum and baked ziti was delicious as well as Italian Ice. They had a lot of good looking food not just carnival junk. The Italian music was excellent. The Wallendas were amazing. The fireworks were awesome. I sure hope they have this festival next year!

I was very excited when I found out about this event and was looking forward to attend. This review…read moreis only about the Balloon Festival Grounds event as this Festival is part of a four day event filled with different options. As we arrived we noticed that it was very empty and with such a large location it's hard to go unnoticed. A few food trucks and jazz music were the main attractions. We decided to do the wine tasting and so glad we since there was not much to do otherwise. The wine tasting (sip & soar) was composed of 6 wines that you select from several options. Some of the options widely available at your grocery store. If you decide to ride a Balloon you must by a ticket and arrive early and perhaps that would have been the best of the Festival. I would like to try one of the other events like the Glow dinner in the future.

I didn't attend the festival, but I walked from the Botanical Gardens to the restaurants along Main…read moreSt and the route clearly took us past Chalk Festival locations. For three blocks or so, every square of sidewalk was painted with unique, inspiring, humorous art. Sometimes there were quotes, sometimes sea life, sometimes--well, clearly anything the artist felt inspired to paint! This was a wonderful detail of Sarasota to stumble across, and I'd certainly recommend a short walking detour to check it out.