I saw a flyer on the window of Bloom's awesome candy shop on the square in old downtown Carrollton…read morefor this festival.
Apparently, this is the second annual festival here in downtown Carrollton. It was November 5, 2011 from 11am-11pm. I imagine that next year it'll be around the same time.
The name "Festival at the Switchyard" comes from switchyard/railway tribute as there are 3-4 rail lines (including the shiny new DART rail) in the immediate area.
It was actually a really cool festival! There were some vendor booths set up for various things (apparel, knick-nacks, etc) including FOOD. The real Fletcher's Corny Dogs had a booth there. Yes, the famous corny dogs from the State Fair were available here. They also had funnel cakes.
Another booth had fresh spun cotton candy (with no crazy colorings added, just sugar), the one next to that had fresh squeezed lemonade. Agave Azul (best Mexican place ever) had a booth, right outside their restaurant, selling beef fajitas. There was beer/wine available from a couple of booths...
PLUS all of the shops on the square were open. Many of these places being restaurants, which serve booze. I don't know if Agave let people take margaritas outside, but you could always ask!
In addition to all of this, they had tons of bands/acts going on all day. Some were in the small gazebo in the square and some were on a big ass stage right next to Agave. The headliner was Third Eye Blind (Hello, 90's flashback!) and they stuck right to their schedule and went on stage at 930pm. They put on a really good show, and it was nice to see them back in town so soon following Taste Addison. If you get the chance to see these guys live and dig the 90's nostalgia of jamming to their hits, then I recommend it.
We got there late, because we mostly wanted to see 3eB. But it was still a lot of fun. And most importantly, FREE. Parking is free (though incredibly limited) at the DART station nearby, at various spots surrounding the square, and some people even parked under the 35 overpass.
No tickets to buy (like the State Fair) for food, but make sure you've got cash. They did have ATMs available right on Broadway st, but the transaction fee was almost $4 (plus, whatever your bank is going to charge you).. I learned my lesson and will next time just bring cash with me.
The biggest problem we encountered was that by the time the headlining band went on, a lot of booths were already completely shut/packing up (out of product), and other booths were out of popular items (out of funnel cakes at 9pm??) and certain kinds of beer.
Overall, this was really fun. I'm super glad it was free, but if there were a small entry fee next year (and I mean small- not the way the Wildflower Festival has started gouging people the past 10 years), I'd be happy to support the city where I live by buying a ticket.
I highly recommend that people carpool, check the schedule for bands/events/kids things, and plan accordingly. The square is really quite small and I can imagine that it was quite crowded for a lot of the day.
Looking at the website, I see that Yelp had a booth there, but I sure missed it! :( Maybe they were shut down by the time I got there (or, quite possibly, I'm blind).
I hope this comes back for another year next year!