We went yesterday and can't believe this is the same festival we went to years ago! A few years back the festival was great! Lots of vendors inside and outside the festival which made walking around Old Town Spring amazing and you could walk back inside to enjoy live music. Last year you could tell the festival changed dramatically. No vendors outside with the exception of the typical shops. Inside the festival the vendors were still decent and was worth walking around to check them out.
Now seeing how it was this year.... I'm embarrassed we paid money to get in. Tickets were $12 per adult and we hand to argue with the ticket lady that our kids were under 6 years old so should be free. She kept telling us that children 2 and 3 years old still had to pay $5 per child. The sign outside her booth window said in HUGE bold letters that children 5 and under are free. After we pointed this out, she finally said okay. It just makes me wonder if she was trying to steal money because when she initially told us the price would be $34, she only handed us two tickets. Upon entering, it was immediately obvious the festival was nothing like it was before. It was about a third of the size it had been in previous years.... if not.... less. You could literally walk from one end of the festival to the other in 30 seconds. 75% of the booths were solicitors trying to get your name and phone numbers by entering raffles. As for the rest, well there were mostly vendors trying to sell essential oils and CBD oil. The crawfish booth was ridiculously priced considering how much you spent on tickets getting in. 1 lb crawfish for $10, 2 lbs for $15, and 5 lbs was $35 with one potato and corn. We ordered the 5 lb bucket, but noticed they put the corn and potato at the bottom of the bucket. This took up about a fifth of the bucket space and it took up a considerable amount of room that should be filled with crawfish. On the plus side, the crawfish were properly purged, soaked, and juicy! However, there were no napkins or any buckets to place the shells. They did have on one hand a washing station, but it was no where near the crawfish booth.
Overall, I don't think we'll be returning next year.... but then again.... at the rate this event is shrinking and falling apart.... I'm not sure they will even have one next year. read more