It calls Freedom Festival in the mall. I believe is freedom of shopping. Even you have kid; there…read moreis plenty of freedom kid activities. If you are father or husband, this is great way to spent time with your family. Open the freedom wallet for your wife to shop and take your kid to the festival activity. This is a well organized block party. Love every minutes of it. It starts with pageant contest and follows by the freedom bicycle decoration contest, watermelon eating contest, parade, fireworks. The Paseo Drive is filling with people. The kid activities include hokey stick goal shot, balloon sword, acrobat elastic jump, face painting, moon wall, air slice, pirate ship invasion and many more. For adult, you know what to do. I was introduced by a vendor for Wikid Watermelon for the custom watermelon kegs and carving. The carving is beautiful for special event. Overall the party is great. People make up this party. The Shop of Wiregrass is smart to hold this party one day before the July 4 with fireworks. It get the maximum people without compete for the actual July 4 fireworks with many locations.

We went to Festival of Flight last year, and the crowd did not even compare to this years. This…read moreyear apparently there was a lack of planning for parking control as well as emergency services back up. People also were stuck in traffic for up to three hours. We live about 15 minutes from this Festival and seeing that we live in the area, we had an idea of how to get out of the traffic. It looked horrendous. We were able to go through the entrance where the dmv was. They blocked it with cones, but we got in anyway. There was a good number of parking. We enjoyed the balloons and can tell a huge increase in people. It's nice to see them when it's lighter out then turns dark. You have to sit and wait for the hot air flame to come up in the dark to take the picture or else it's too dark. I'm thinking this will be the last Festival of Flight in the area. I love it's so close but yes, there were tons of people and small streets. They do have vendors there like some food selections and some crafts, but nothing that sparked my eye. There was a band too, but too country twangy for me.

This is the third annual of the festival. This year they draw a large crowd to the festival. They…read moreare plenty of parking since there are many warehouses. This year the turnout is in the very large number and the traffic jam from the highway to the aero park. Many have turned away because of the traffic situation. This bad traffic flow happens due the one way in and out situation to the aero park. The Pasco County also did not make it better by putting the direction of traffic flow in single entry point. In order to make this festival success, the county needs to widen this road. If there is star give out to Pasco County Traffic is zero star. Once you are in the festival, it is spectacular to see the balloon light out. They over ten balloons lighted at night in the first night. When you get close, you can see the balloon heat when they fire the touch. There are some balloons with great design. I have not been to lighted balloon and this is my first. I have been to balloon take off in the morning but not at night. There are some food truck and merchandise vendor. Live music and plane display in the ground. It is event for all ages.

The 2020 Wesley Chapel Taco Festival is at the Grove at Wesley Chapel on Saturday & Sunday,…read moreSeptember 19-20. It is set up on the grounds in front of the Cobb Theatre & Cinebistro. I'll start from the beginning to the end of our experience. Ticketing was easy. You can buy tickets on line or at the entrance tent. We got ours online. The tickets are $10 for an individual or $35 for a family of 4. Parking is free or for $5 you can have the VIP Parking near the front gate of the event. We paid for the parking when we ordered the tickets because if there is a VIP parking, you'd expect a significantly longer walk then regular parking but that wasn't the case. Do yourself a favor and save yourself $5. With general admission, your 1st drink is free (a margarita shot). Ummm...It wasn't really a full shot. It was a swallow soooo....but there is a bar to buy alcoholic drinks that are around $10, water was $1, and sodas were $2. As you walk up to the two lines to enter (pre-paid line and pay at the gate line), we noticed that there were no social distancing markers on the ground or signs reminding people to do so. Masks are not required either so be prepared for that. People pretty much kept their distance so social conditioning works at times. The prepaid line took longer for people to get through then the pay at the gate line. There was only 1 guy working the prepaid line and 2 (sometimes 3) people working the other line so that was a bit annoying. So what's the point of prepaying? Once inside, they had a lot of great food vendors and some fun activities for all age groups. Tacos were about $4 but there were a few places like La Pirata that offered tacos 2 for $5. Their caribbean and spicy jerk tacos were so good! I also ordered their smoked flan with blueberry sauce...MMMM. There were some really fun activities including mechanical bull riding, axe throwing with Molly Hatchets, and a Kids Zone w/ bounce houses and carnival games. They really weren't sanitizing the bounce houses so the little one in our party didn't get in it but I love the fact that every child that played the carnival game received a prize. There was this tiny little girl, around 2, playing and she won a prize. Too cute! MOST food items and ALL activities work on a ticket system and I saw one ticket station which is the one we went to buy our tickets. I used my credit card though with the food and product vendors that I bought things from. We enjoyed watching the hot pepper eating contest, listening to the live country music of Angie Rey and her band, all while sitting under a covered tent eating our grub. All and all it was a fun day. As far as festivals go, this can be an expensive day for families with children. With $10 pp for people 3 years and older, I'm not sure I would bring the whole family. If you have a family of 4 then you're paying $40 at the gate before food and activities. There should be a reduced price for children 12 and under because parents will be paying for the kids to do activities and eat goodies. If you're ballin", bring the whole family if not, you might want to wait for a festival with a more affordable entrance fee.

Best best fireworks in the area & a great thing about these fireworks is that they r held on an…read moreearlier date than July 4. They were held on June 30th this year. This is my third time at these fireworks. They do not disappoint. They r not horribly crowded, and there is ample parking. The fireworks from the start to finish are excellent, amazing, & breathtaking. The music that is with the fireworks is perfect. This year there were no food trucks but they were not missed. In the past, the lines for the food trucks were forever. Instead they gave out free water and ice cream to everyone. I'm in love with these fireworks and they make the rest of July 4th even more exciting and one to look forward to. I'm thankful for those involved with this fireworks event. It's a go to every year!

This was a FREE event for Halloween. You stay in your car and drive while folks (sponsors and…read morevolunteers) wearing masks handed out candy or a craft to the kids in the cars. The line to get in was long, but we were happy and willing to wait to get a sense of normalcy for the kids. This very well might be the only Halloween type of experience they get out of the house. This event was well organized and the volunteers did a fantastic job directing traffic. Our favorite parts were the scavenger hunt and the special radio station with spooky music to really drive home (see what I did there?) the theme. This was the first year for this event and I hope it is not the last. I hope other areas in the Tampa Bay Area also do events like this. I would happily even pay a small fee for another event like this in the future.

The art fest is in full swing. It happen in the January. It occupied the entire Paseo Drive. The…read moreorganizers is very organized that the storefront walkway for the entrance is not block and make this art fest spread out. During the art fest, there are several chalk artists put their work in front of the walkway of Dilard's. They will be completed at the second day of the art fest. If you like to try your artistic skills, there is a section on the driveway allow to put your amateur skill to work at kid corner. The booths of the artists were occupied along the street. It is not too crowded. I like the display of each artist. If you get tired of the the art, you always can jump into shopping next or enjoy the restaurant in the mall. Very convenient. There is also a music band playing live music. We are very fortunately this two days do not rain.

The weather was really nice to walk outdoors. Many artists local and afar set up their tents here…read moreand sell their work, That including jewelry, painting, woodwork, photo, handbag, wearable, chairs, sculpture, etc. Live band was playing on the central stage. Couple chalk artists worked their drawing on the ground in front of JC penny. They still have one more day to finish the pieces. Overall, this was a family/ pet friendly festival. It wouldn't be difficult for anyone to find that unique piece of art to decorate the house or yourself.

This food truck festival is sponsored by the Paavo County Recycling and Education. There are more…read morethan twenty vendors for your choices. The festival is located at the back of premier outlet mall parking lots. Festival is free. However the food is kind of expensive for food truck. It almost like a sit down restaurant price. There are a few truck below fifteen dollars. We have the conch salad but very little conch there. We also go an Indian Marsala fried fish. The pieces of the fish also tiny. The best is the kielbasa on the stick. The participants customer also not a lot.

This is the second year that ATO hosted the Lunar New Year Lion Dance at the Krate. It was held on…read moreSunday, Feb 11th at 12 pm. They do this right in front of their Krate and it brings out a huge crowd. They start by beating the drums and then they start with the dragon dance which is a symbol for wealth and luck. Afterwards they do the lion dance which is for luck and to weed away bad spirits. It's a lot of fun. I love when the two lions face off for the Bok Choy and then they spit it out. They say it is for wealth and prosperity that they do this! Afterwards there's lots of picture opportunities. This is very nicely structured and very fun for the whole family. They also held one at at Zukku San across from the outlet mall which is also one of their locations.