Virginia Highland Summer Festival is pretty cool, though honestly if you are like me, if you been…read moreto this festival, you have been to them all. The majority of the festivals in Atlanta have the same vendors and the same food trucks. The food here was very limited and located at the very end of the street. We did see some cool things for sale at the festival that were unique, but most of it was the same. We purchased a very cool Hammock Chair called the Oakweave by a company called Twin Oaks. I have never seen anything like this, so it is super cool. The festival is completely free to attend, just make sure you park down the street near the homes, from as there is nowhere to park off Virginia Ave. [Review #383] (29th Review of 2016)

A very well attended event (read: crowded) that features maybe a little more art vendors than do…read moremost other street festivals. Fewer food trucks. Still, plenty of stuff to buy and eat. Island Noodles rocks.

Amazingly not many reviews for this great event! Basically they close down one of the main roads…read morein Atlanta 3 times a year, and only pedestrian and bicycle traffic is allowed. Today (9/30/2018) was the MAJOR event/festival of the season when Peachtree Street was closed to motor traffic between 17th Street and Mitchell Street, which is over 3 miles of this main artery in the city. This covers part of midtown and downtown. Vendors had booths set up along the way with music and arts along the road. The main attraction is people watching as many folks come out. The crowd is very friendly. The area gets a little sketchy beyond North Ave, but there were no problems as there is a good police presence. The cops were very friendly and happily answered several questions for us. The crowd is very friendly. The cops main job is to make sure no motorized traffic gets on the road. Personally Atlanta should do this more often, like the cities of Europe. This makes the downtown much more friendly to pedestrians. Today we biked the route, which turned out to be a real winner. Early in the year we walked the route when they had Dekalb road open to pedestrians. Am not sure when this event will be in 2019, but definitely keep your eyes open for "Atlanta Streets Alive" then. You will not be disappointed!

I hate to pull the insufferable hipster card, but I remember Atlanta Streets Alive back in the day…read more OK, "back in the day" is only like 3 years ago but still. That first one was held on Edgewood Avenue, and, though it was sparsely attended, it was pretty dope. I missed last year's version, but this year had me curiously excited. (I think I've been spending too much time indoors and subconsciously needed some vitamin D.) Oh, how you've grown Atlanta Streets Alive. From the down and dirty Edgewood (whut, whut) to the heart of the Highlands and future darling, the Eastside (Beltline) Trail. Seriously, my wife and baby walked all five miles of it. For those of you are familiar with either a baby's level of patience and/or my proclivity for walking (Spoiler Alert: neither exists) then you'd know how unusual this is. But unlike, say, the countless summer Arts Festivals, there's room to breath, calming everyone and bringing out grins that remind you why you live in town. Doing this in October helps; it's hard to be pissy when the air is cool and leaves are just on the al dente side of crunchy. So food (yay for Pura Vida's grilled Peruvian chicken hearts) and beer and margaritas and belly dancers and martial arts demonstrations and people in costumes on bikes and live music and cool, Autumn days and introducing people to the Beltline. Sounds like 5 stars to me.

Technically, this is more of an event than a place you go to, but hey, you'll forgive me, right?…read moreThe parade itself goes from West Peachtree to Jesse Hill Jr. Drive. It normally takes place during Memorial Day Weekend. When I went to my first one in Atlanta is 2008, I was extremely disappointed. Why? I've been spoiled, I'm accustomed to going to the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn. In comparison, this one was pathetic. However, this year the parade took a step in the right direction. There was more spectators and participants in the Parade. If you've never been to a West Indian Parade, expect to hear loud music, people dressed in elaborate costumes, dancing, great food, and an all around good time. While many of the participants are of West Indian, African, and Latino descendant, all are welcome. After the parade you can go to Festival Village for a small fee. It's basically a section of the city that's blocked off. There's food vendors, live music from Caribbean artists, and plenty of knick knacks being sold. For a full out experience, go to one of the many parties that will be occurring during the weekend.

My name is K Brown and I was apart of the Atlanta Caribbean Carnival about (10) years ago. I was…read moreapart of a lady named, Rose, group in the Carnival. Ms. Rose didn't have the girls that was apart of her Carnival wear a costume. K Brown and about (5) other girls wore a tee-shirt and whatever else they wanted to wear with the tee-shirt. K Brown marched around downtown, Atlanta with the other girls behind a truck that was playing music. K Brown doesn't participate in the Atlanta Caribbean Carnival anymore because K Brown is working now. Ms. Rose was in an accident in Belize, whereas her jaw broke. K Brown was going to wear the army colors and be apart of a different group, but a couple of her items got stolen from her house in Lilburn, Georgia, therefore K Brown doesn't participate in the Atlanta Caribbean Carnival anymore. K Brown would love to attend the Atlanta Caribbean Carnival for the fun and food. Thank you.

The Decatur Lantern Parade is a sight to see! A good wholesome, smaller town America parade where…read moreit seems like the whole county turns out to celebrate. It starts on W. Howard Ave and ends in the center of Decatur square! It starts later to wait for the night to set in but it's well worth the wait. The creativity of the lanterns made by people of absolutely all ages! Since this is yelp, all of the square restaurants had their doors open and patios kicking. King of pops for sale at one of their carts, and the aroma of sushi, steak, burgers, coffee along with an awesome night of a parade and live music! Go have an amazing dinner somewhere in Decatur and make a night of it with the lantern parade! For those of you who know Decatur well, it's truly a Decatur experience! If you don't check the website frequently to go and make a lantern and walk in next year's parade. The only reason for four stars is that they don't publish this even well enough! Get the word out on the event and the route!

This festival was very interesting! They had lots of booths of all types of activities, art and…read morefood. They had King of Pops, a popular local popsicle cart with new fall flavors. They had lots of free activities for kids like graffiti name plates, sand art, and bubbles. I bought a nice abstract painting here. Parking and the festival are completely free! Overall, I recommend this art festival.

One of the smaller festivals, but perhaps the most MARTA accessible, I really enjoy getting to walk…read moreover to this one. The vendors aren't the same ones you see at Inman, Va-Hi, and Dogwood, which is a very welcome change for me! There's so much to look at here along with music and food, and I loved that the area was easily transformed to include plenty of seating for people to stop and have a bite. You don't see that at many of the other festivals. If you have kids, there's even an area set up by Binders (you know, quality art supplies) for kids to play in and get creative. There's a wide variety of things for kids to work with and participate in, so don't hesitate to let your little ones dabble in some paint. So while it's not as huge as the other festivals, it's got a real community vibe to it that I absolutely love. A real gem in a sea of festivals this city hosts... oh yeah, this one also picks October as it's home (usually over my birthday). If you've ever been drenched in sweat wandering the other festivals, come out and enjoy the cool, crisp air and smells of autumn while checking out all the art!

Piedmont art festival comes year and this time it was on 18th and 19th aug. festival had more than…read more250 art vendors. Festival had food carts, live music and games for children. There were so many unique creations and I think this is the best place to pick the art pieces including jewelry which is otherwise hard to find.

2015 was the 6th annual Piedmont Park Summer Arts Festival. I actually did not come to shop, but…read morethought it was a good way to get in some exercise. In hindsight, I should have brought some money lol. This a large arts & crafts festival. I was pleasantly surprised by all of the booths! Alot of festivals have many booths for businesses (like window installation, etc), but there didn't seem to be too much of that. Works out for me since I rarely stop at those. The items tend to be on the higher end for an arts & crafts festival, but there were a number of things in my price range. I likely would have bought a few things if I had money. C'est la vie. I did walk away with a few cards so I could follow up with vendors later. And, hopefully, some of them will be back for other festivals. There is a children's area so that is great for those who have kids. I didn't notice a whole lot of food trucks, but maybe I missed them.

I am festival girl here in South FLorida, I love food festivals and have plenty of experience…read moreattending them. First off the price was not worth it. $135 for 2.5 hours is not worth it. By the time you stuff food down your throat to be able to try all the vendors and chug drinks, the time is up. Compared to other festivals that are 4 hours long, this was too short. Some of the food was really good, lots of southern food of course, my favorite was the spicy gumbo from The Toast. They had a lot of repeat food like burgers and not enough wine and dessert. The Salty donut was there but they are from FLorida and I've tried them plenty of times. I was expecting more southern baking and desserts. The music was great but needed more entertainment and a longer festival time in order for this to be great. The venue was gorgeous outside of the Mercedes arena but getting dropped off by Uber was a nightmare with all the cops yelling at people not to stop but how do you get dropped off if you don't have a designated area. It was okay, a good experience but will only return if they make the festival 4 hours instead.

I attended the 2025 Atlanta Food & Wine Festival sponsored by Goya at the Home Depot Backyard. My…read moregeneral admission ticket was for 5:30-8:00, and I arrived around 6:10. By then, seven of the tasting booths had already run out of food. The crowd was large but not overwhelming--there was room to move around, which I appreciated. Still, for an event called the Food & Wine Festival, there was only one booth serving wine, and the line was 35 minutes long. They did have other alcoholic options, but it felt misleading. On top of that, there were tons of burger booths, but almost everything else had run out. I tried four burgers, but that was about it. For $160, I expected a lot more from a 2.5-hour food and wine tasting. Honestly, I won't be back and wouldn't recommend it--it's not worth the cost. If they need inspiration, they should look at the Night Market Sip & Soul event in August. That experience was on a whole other level: generous tasting portions, great drinks, and nothing ran out. In fact, they were even giving us extras to take home. Now that was worth every penny.

After a full morning of moving all my furniture from one apartment to the new place, and having…read moreonly 3 hours of sleep, I gotta say I wasn't exactly in the mood for Taste of the Highlands. We (somehow!) arrived only about an hour into the festivities and quickly made the rounds. The best food I had was from Pura Vida, but I also go to try lots of other tasty treats including olive oil ice cream from Ecco (which is um...not in the Highlands). I also thought the shrimp & grits from Goin' Coastal were mighty good! Oh- and the specialty blend iced coffee from San Francisco Coffee hit the spot! But, quite a few of the vendors ran out quickly. Many places also only offered one option so if I wasn't interested in what they had, I didn't get anything. Our vegetarian friend came later on and was extremely disappointed that, by that point, almost everyone was out of food and there was almost nothing that didn't have meat. She had a croissant from Bakeshop. Alcohol was flowing, and I got to try a few margaritas, some beer from Terrapin, some vodka drink, wine, etc. I got my buzz on for sure! Overall I was a little disappointed in the restaurants running out of food. Okay, I wasn't on time, but really? You should know how many portions to bring and be smart (like Pura Vida) and keep some foods for later on, or keep fresh batches for each half hour instead of giving people fourths in the first 45 minutes. Luckily I didn't pay for this ticket (my bf covered this one)... but good thing proceeds were going to charity. Don't forget your camping chair or blanket to relax on while you listen to local bands!

Taste of the Highlands is a smallish tasting event, at least compared to such giants as Taste of…read moreAtlanta. I like it despite some flaws. It's somewhat crowded, has the usual inefficient check-in process and there were long lines at either of only two beer stands (they could have used a third stand). And not enough places to sit. I really think events like this should include fold-up chairs. Lots of them. Wow, great food. I really liked Alma Cocina's gazpacho, and Cypress St's BBQ pork thing. Plus several others. Most of the food tables didn't have long lines - the vendors were pretty good at setting the samples out so everything moved quickly. Long line for Flip's slider, so I passed on that. In the end, I left satisfied, which doesn't happen at some of these shindigs. Parking is not as bad as you might imagine provided you're willing to walk a few blocks. Virginia Highland has quite a bit of street parking in the neighborhood. For events here (not just this one), I like to park a couple of blocks in from Ponce and walk the five or six blocks to the event but there were spots as close as two blocks away when I arrived at 2:30.