I look forward to this annual festival every year. It is usually held the second to last weekend in…read moreAugust on Saturday on the Clinton Green. It is free to attend and there is plenty of parking at the school or arena. This festival is home to many craft vendors, food vendors, and live music all day. Many of the adjacent shops have sidewalk sales and specials during the festival, so make sure to venture out around the rest of the village to see what everyone has to offer. There is usually an Adirondack chair auction of some sort and this year they added a cornhole tournament! This event is not just for the adults, as they have some fun activities for the kids as well! This is the perfect way to spend a late summer Saturday afternoon!

This was the second year the Chinese lantern festival has been in Syracuse. This was my first time…read more Tickets are $16 at the door or $15.50 online. There are discounts for groups over 20 people. There are also senior discounts and children's prices. The event is best at night when the lights look prettiest. Inside the international building there's a show that takes place thrice a day. Come early to get seats. I loved the show. It included jugglers, hoop jumping, foot juggler, face changing act and a bowl balanced. I thoroughly thought the acrobats and entertainers were extremely talented and the show was entertaining from beginning to end. I had a wine slushee here that was $7 and was more like a wine snow cone. The ice wasn't blended with the liquid. They sold beer for $5, ice cream for $5 and flurries for $6 (like a McFlurry). Other food included gyros, baklava, Cajun fries and a few other options. My favorite lights display were the zodiac arches. Each arch was shaped like a zodiac animal and under the arch was a description of each sign as well as the years that correlated with it. Parking is free for this event. Overall the event was very fun but a little on the small side considering the price. I would still recommend that everyone check it out (and do not miss the show).

For 2018 the Cheese Festival was held on Saturday, July 14. You might want to put a reminder on…read moreyour calendar in early July of any future year to get the date for that year's festival. The festival was 5 blocks long with over 60 tents set up by vendors. In addition to various craft cheeses there were condiments, baked goods, dairy products, wines, and some talented musical performers spread out over the blocks. Little Falls was once known as the Cheese Capital of the entire USA. The Little Falls Historical Society has outlined in the festival brochure a 3 stage Cheese History Trail that you can walk as you learn all about Little Falls' contribution to cheese making and its influence on the cost of cheese even as far away as Europe. I suggest you bring along a cooler with an ice pack or two to transport your purchases. The purchase opportunities here are delicious. Tip: Keep your brochure so you can remember to always look up these vendors to visit again as you travel throughout the Hudson/Mohawk valley, the Catskills, the Adirondacks, the Finger Lakes and the Southern Tier.

I try to make it back for the festival every year. Great music, food, crowds over 3 1/2 days. I…read morelike the events on the commons most, but the parade (Thurs night) and the party at Stewart park (Sunday) are pretty sweet too.

The best of Ithaca! Usually held during the first weekend of June, the Ithaca Festival celebrates…read morethe vital role of the arts in the community. Local food, arts and crafts fair featuring over 80 crafters and artists (jewelry, pottery, paintings, furniture, photography, wooden creations, handmade toys), healing arts fair (massage, reiki, acupuncture, herbal medicine), Gorges Green Expo (learn about environmental awareness, energy conservation, and other green initiatives. Also features a Taste of Tompkins, where you can taste locally grown vegetables, local cheeses, locally made desserts, and wine), family fun (face-painting, storytelling, performances, etc), an Ithaca Festival Parade, and a Paint Off (local artists are asked to produce a piece of art on site in just one hour and the best piece is auctioned off). There's a lot of other stuff going on, too, that I'm probably missing. It's a great place to take your family, date, friends, anyone!

Absolutely a great time good food nice music places for the kids to go prices were reasonable…read morebecause you got to sample everything for 20 bucks you could eat like a king. The only thing is you do pay entrance so be aware but there are so many options that you couldn't even if you stayed all day eat them all and if you did Power to you, the battle of trucks was pretty tough to choose from but it was a delicious day had

What a fun way to sample the wares of the many food trucks in CNY, 34 of them! So many great…read morechoices it was not easy to decide. Turnout was phenomenal so lines were fairly long but went rather quickly. Our first choice was SILO Food Truck's Telekinetic Fried Chicken, perfectly crunchy chicken leg juicy tender center topped with a slightly spicy sauce and served with pickled carrots and white onions, tantalized the taste buds with the complimentary spice, sweet, and light pickle flavors. This truck will see me again! Followed that up with a grilled apple cider donut topped with apple pie topping and homemade cinnamon whipped cream from Glazed and Confused, (Bees wanted to share but I scarfed and swatted and ate the whole thing- smack smack slurp)the people's voted number one for sweet, and lastly real Italian ice from Muzzi's Italian Ice, perfect lemon and as authentic as it gets! And to think it all started with a dream a real dream that this is what they should do. Glad that dream happened! And these great people were the judges choice for sweet!! A few things we would have tried were out. They likely were very good also and I will seek them out to find out. Great event and thanks to the President of the Food Truck Association, Nick Sanford(Toss 'n Fire Owner), for organizing it all!

Great day at a fun fair. Fun to taste apples from a variety of local farmers. I also loved the free…read moresamples of cider. It was crowded, but not too crowded and other vendors if you got tired of the apples, but who gets tired of apples. Fun memorable date or outing for kids. Free to get in and very reasonably priced items. Parking close can be challenging if you get there later in day.

Awesome! Usually held the first weekend in October. Living up to its motto, "Tempting to the Core,"…read morethis festival attracts over 30,000 people and features performers, entertainment, farmers, wineries, bakeries, crafters, food vendors, an apple pie eating competition, music, dancing, eating, food from local restaurants, education, a Ferris wheel, giant slide, Iron Chef event, crafts, and APPLES. The Festival also tries to be environmentally friendly, as it uses compostable utensils and paper plate. A local favorite is the kettle corn. I'm a fan of the candied apples. Om nom! Lots of fun, definitely come enjoy the celebration if you're in Ithaca around this time!

We took the train out of Utica, for what was basically the fall gateway leaf peeping tour. I had…read morenever actually been on a train ride so I'll give it five stars all day because it was a pretty relaxing time. There were different price points as far as tickets and the main difference was the amount of seating and legroom you would have. We did walk around the entire train when it reached our destination because they kept it stopped for long enough as they had to move the engine to the other end to drag it back down the track toward Utica, and some of the cars you could tell were a little more cramped but all of them had tables in front of the seating so you could enjoy beverages and random food items. We ended up booking the diamond class lower level. I originally wanted the upper level because the ceilings were glassed in however it was sold out and as it worked out I'm glad I didn't get that level cuz the amount of legroom on the upper level was not anywhere near as spacious as the lower level diamond class. We had these comfy chairs that were almost better the one I have in my living room at the house. The train ride we booked came with an hors d'oeuvre kind of a thing. We had a small meat and cheese platter and some shrimp, and it also came with one alcoholic beverage per adult. While we were walking around the train checking out the rest of the cars, one of the cars had a separate little bar/food area and that particular train car had chocolate cake . So yes absolutely we bought some chocolate cake and took it back to our own seats in the diamond class where a few other people got a little jealous because.. I mean hey where did you get the cake? The whole ride took about 4 and 1/2 hours, there were a couple of cool features on the train like this old style Barber chair which was probably left over from when the train was originally in use, and this one gentleman came into the car on the way back and gave us a brief history of the entire railroad and why it existed and that was also rather interesting. The only downside to this particular trip was the scenic splendor. I had expected a train ride into the Adirondacks for the sole purpose of checking out the foliage to include maybe some spots where you'd be going over a bridge and you'd be able to see rolling hills of multicolored leaves and stuff like that. Yeah not so much . Aside from a few bodies of water, creeks and small ponds, there weren't really any open areas to see the leaves. The tracks basically go through people's backyards and both sides of the tracks have trees growing on them but a lot of the branches are missing and the leaves are already gone. I mean I can't need Dr star for this because the railroad themselves can't really control where the track is. That was up to the person that originally built it and it wasn't for the scene expender it was more than likely for the usefulness of what they needed it for. So anyway I'd give the whole thing a five-star deal and as an added bonus there was a whole lot of the area that didn't have any cell service, which I consider a bonus because if nobody can call me for a couple hours it's that much more peaceful.

This ride and stop at Old Forge was a blast... My friend [the railroad buff] told a few of us…read moreabout this trip and the opportunity to ride an older RR to the beautiful old town of "Old Forge." For me it was going to be one big photo opportunity. It was fun from the moment we boarded until we arrived. We were guided through some of the stops with short history lessons. The dome car was amazing and really gave us a great view of the area we were traveling. At one point we went down to the old baggage car where we could stand by the open doors and look out. Not bad for taking pictures either. When we got to Thendara we boarded a bus for a five minute ride to Old Forge. While everyone in my group elected to go to lunch, I walked down to the lake then back to the train station taking pictures all the way. (I've posted all of them). It was about a mile and a half journey. There is some cool stuff by the station including an old speakeasy in the store across from the station house. I also walked over to the area (a temporary tent) where they are repainting an old locomotive. Throughout the whole trip up they gave us muffins, coffee, tea and other soft drinks in the morning and snacks and coffee, tea, water, etc.. On the way back they gave us a shrimp cocktail and a cheese plate. This was just so nice and the folks taking care of us were terrific. All in all, this was a really fun trip and I definately reccomed this as an overnighter. There are some really nice restaurnts in Utica. KUDOs to the team at Adirondack Scenic Railroad

The fireworks were great but I wish they brought bck the laser We enjoyed the laser show last year…read moreand was looking forward to see it again this year plus we were happy to see the shuttle this yr but Very Upset that we had to wait over an hr to get on a shuttle bck to the race track that has discouraged us for coming bck next year

Always amazing fireworks! Lots of great music all across the festivities. The trolley (D bus) is…read morewell worth the 3 bucks for all you can ride. It especially came in handy this past weekend with the downpour. Wine court has lots of free samples. Don't forget to pick up a bottle and enjoy it with live music and fireworks show! I would like to see more food trucks to better support local businesses. Also, there were no recycling bins available and hope to see that improved for next year!

Probably the BEST music festival! There seems to be a festival someplace event week these days but…read morethe Taste Of Country is GREAT. A wonderful list of artists. Helpful staff to take care of all our needs. Then you have the location. Everything was well planned and made sure everyone had a great time. Thank You to all who worked to make this a friendly fun filled event.

If you love country music, you are doing yourself a serious disservice if you don't go to this…read morefestival. Although this year (2015) was only its third, the nascent festival surpassed all expectations. I am a huge country music fan (Tennessee born and bred) and went this year for the first time, along with my husband and 24 yo niece. We rented an RV (another first) and drove from Maryland to Hunter Mountain, NY. From the word go, the entire experience was amazing. We purchased Outlaw VIP tix with Premium RV camping, which allowed us to stay on site in our RV. The Outlaw tix gave us front row access to the stage for all shows, access to the VIP tents, etc. My husband and I made some amazing friends while hanging out in the VIP tents and will be meeting up with them again at the festival next year. Our niece loved the front row access to the concerts, but also liked that she could escape the sun, grab some food and drinks in the tents, and watch the show with us every so often. The food vendors were great, especially those from local businesses. Festival staff were amazing. HUGE kudos to those that produce this festival. Specifically, I would like to thank Steve, Paul, Kaitie, Pam, Jess and all the others such as the VIP tent servers (tent 2) that made this experience absolutely fabulous. We even purchased our tickets for next year before we left. In talking with my husband, we agree that this festival/trip rates as one of our all-time top vacations, which says it all considering we have traveled the globe extensively. The relaxed atmosphere, great music, good food, and super service resulted in a truly stress-free escape that we really needed. I have only one suggestion for next year: availability of water bottles and soda bottles in the VIP tents all three days would be super. They were available on the third day, which was great, and would love that availability throughout the festival.

This year marked the 64th annual Polish Festival! I've gone to the Polish Festival twice so far. It…read moreis a 3-day festival that takes place in the summer in Clinton Square. They have live music, performances, awards (or scholarships that were given to high school students who also performed), Polish beer, pierogis, kielbasa, ice cream, face painting, hot dogs, shopping and much more. The first year I was here, I got pierogis. The 2nd year I came, I got a bunch of different desserts from Eva's European Sweets, ice cream, and pierogi. The ice cream didn't taste that great but but the other foods were good. It is a great outdoor event for families, kids and dogs. There are only ~6 food stands. I would love for there to be more. The festival itself is pretty small but I am guessing the Polish community here is also small. The crowd this year was smaller than last year's. I've never been to any other Polish festival before in any other town, so as far as I know, this one is great.

So I have decided to go through and review some of the festivals that we have here and Polish Fest…read moreis definitely on the list. So I am going to come right out and say that I was extremely disappointed this year when I went. I could almost rate it a 1 or 2 star. So here is the skinny on why I was so bummed. The food was just not what I expected. Now don't get me wrong, I love Eva's with a passion. They pretty much made this review a 3. What I was upset about was the utter lack of variety there. I remember there being Eva's, a pastry place that was meh, the fair style Philly cheesteak place, and maybe one more place. I honestly came here because I thought I would find a variety of delicious Polish food. I dragged my wife down there with the promise of a yummy cultural adventure. What we got was just Eva's. Again...love it there, but I don't need Polish fest to have them. We go there all the time. I wanted to see multiple restaurants/vendors/people selling delicious food and try new things. Instead we ate Eva's on a picnic table and watched dancing. I hope they improve this next year.