Bacon and beer?!?! Oh heck yeah! I signed up for Yelp's VIP ticket giveaway and I was the chosen one!!! Woo hoo! Four hours of food, beer, music, and games. Thank you, Yelp!!! I'm really not a big fan of beer; I prefer wine or mixed drinks, but it was fun trying hundreds of craft brew samples! OK, maybe not hundreds... In fact, I found a few things I enjoyed, like the Vanilla Cream Ale from the Mother Earth Brew Co., the Pear Cider from Sierra Nevada, and Crisp Apple Cider from T.W. Pitchers. My favorite one was the Grapefruit Shandy with a hint of blood orange from T.W. Pitchers, I needed a few refills. It was also cool that Uber had a breathalyzer, good to know it was OK for me to drive after the event! Their breathalyzer test only went up to 0.16% BAC, so my plus one guessed correctly and won some nice sunglasses. Don't worry, he did not drive. Just like the other reviewers said, there was a ton of food! My favorites were: Lechon Asado from Habana Cuba; Pork Belly on Crostini from East Coast Alice; Bacon-wrapped Scallops from The Village; and Hushpuppies from 7 Bar and Grill. The bacon cheesecake from Sweet Tooth Confections was really good, I should've taken more. My hubby and I were fans of the bacon croquette (it was a very good sweet potato tater tot, with a nice piece of bacon splashed on top) but it was hard to remember who it was from, I wish each vendor had a big sign with their name on it, advertise a little! This was a fun event, however it didn't live up to its name. It was like 75% beer vendors, 15% bacon foods, and 10% other tastes and stuff and things. There were only a few vendors who actually had interesting dishes with bacon, the rest lacked creativity. Many were giving out strips of bacon dipped in whiskey or sugar or candy. It was good, but after 5 strips....it wasn't fun! I wish I brought rice and scrambled eggs to eat with the bacon. Some vendors were passing out potato chips, yogurt, churros... I thought, where's the bacon?!?! How were they inspired by bacon??? This is a BACON and beer festival, right? They did put the bacon first in the name of the festival so I thought it would be something like 60% bacon foods, 40% beer. I can't really complain about a festival with so much good food and beer. This was a one-of-a-kind event! What a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon!!! read more

See all

So how does one make a great event even better? The way I see it the team at Cannonball Productions, based in New York City, did just that this past weekend by moving the venue of their biannual Bacon and Beer Classic from the minor league venue at San Jose's Municipal Stadium to a big time venue at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. I've volunteered at and attended all three South Bay Bacon and Beer Classics held to date, and this one was by far the most spectacular. Although I had a good time at the March 2015 event, and I had a blast at the November 2015 event both at Municipal this past Saturday's event at Levi's was simply amazing. Gone was the elbow-to-elbow madness that comes from cramming too many individuals into one small space. In addition the larger venue meant there were more vendors offering more beer and more bacon to the masses. The Bacon and Beer Classic offered an afternoon session and an evening session two hours after the first session ended. General admission ran paying customers around $80 for unlimited beer and bacon samples for 3 hours. VIP admission for $125 per person gave paying guests 4 hours to do the same in addition to enjoying a lineup of special brews available to VIP's only on the Levi's Stadium grass. In my opinion the way to go about it is to volunteer. Volunteers are essential to the success of this event staffing stations at registration, merchandising and vendor assistance. In fact the official charity for the past three South Bay Bacon and Beer Classics has been One Brick, a San Francisco-based volunteer-run non-profit that provides volunteers for other non-profits. Friends who know me well know I volunteer through One Brick a lot. For a mere 4 to 5 hour volunteer shift you are rewarded with a very cool Bacon and Beer Classic t-shirt, a ceramic tasting cup and VIP admission to the shift you are not volunteering for. I tend to choose to do shifts prior to event day or for the first session since volunteers that choose to work the evening session and attend the first session aren't allowed to sample the beer. Instead they are given a case of beer to take home after their shift. Some people are fine with that but for me it's not the same. I like to sample as many brews as possible up to my personal limit. For this weekend's event they utilized the exclusive United Club and sections along the main concourse. On most event days at Levi's Stadium access to the United Club is usually restricted to Club ticket holders only so this definitely stirred the wow factor. On the bacon side of things I loved the melt-in-my-mouth Apple Glazed Bacon Belly from Bourbon Steak & Pub as well as several dishes from Levi's concessionaire Centerplate offering a Seared Diver Scallop with Bourbon Bacon Lardons and a tart Cherry and Cocoa Pork Belly skewer. They even offered a mocha cake featuring bacon. Food truck Kokio Republic knocked one out of the stadium with there Bacon Wrapped Oreos, and in their baconless Soy Garlic Fried Chicken. On the beer side of things I was surprised there were not too many stouts or porters to choose from so I went the cider route and the offerings were immense. I particularly liked the Hard Black Cherry Cider from Sunnyvale's Red Branch Cider Co. Bacon and Beer Classic, you've got a volunteer for life and I'm already looking forward to the next one. I've included photos because what would be a 5 star event without photos? Enjoy! read more

See all

Beer and Bacon with my boyfriend? Uh, yes please! This was my second time attending the Beer and Bacon festival this year - my first time was back in March 2015 if I recall correctly. Favorite beers: - Highwater Brewery Campfire Stout. - T.W. Pitchers SnakeBite Crisp Apple Cider. - T.W. Pitchers Grapefruit Shandy with a hint of blood orange. - Heretic Brewery Chocolate Hazelnut Porter. - Half Moon Bay Brewery Calf-eine Coffee Milk Stout - Scotch Ale... I forgot what brewery it was but omfg so delicious. Food: - Lechon Asado from Habana Cuba - Pork Belly on Crostini from East Coast Alice - Bacon-wrapped Scallops from The Village - Kalua Pork and Bacon Croquette from Grub Shack - Bacon cheesecake from Sweet Tooth Confections was really good - Sweet Dragon was also there with their Brittle products. I wished they had the Stout caramels that I've tasted from the Elite event. Oh, if you drooled over Ben Zorn from the Bachelorette then you would've gotten your panties wet because he was one of the judges for the Beer and Bacon Festival. He was right in front of me for the Highwater Campfire Stout line. I didn't really care but I see a few women just looking at him, having a fangirl moment but didn't try to take a photo with him. He seemed like a nice person. Overall, it was a great event. I can't wait until they come back again! read more

Bacon and Beer Classic - :) - Festivals Near Me - San Jose, California

This was my first time going to this event. I was invited here by a couple of friends and glad I went. At first, I thought there wasn't gonna be much to see but was really surprised by how much different food you can make with bacon! The beer was also tasty as well. There was plenty of food to taste but my favorites for the day were definitely the candy bacon and the cheesecake with bacon. The candy bacon had a nice balance of sweet & salty but also had a crispness that made it addicting to eat. I would definitely order it if I had a chance. As for the cheesecake with bacon, the bacon bits add a salty & crunchiness that complement the creamy cheesecake. I thought it wouldn't work but it's something I would love to eat again in the future. As for the beers, my favorite was called "Not Your Father's Rootbeer". It tastes just like rootbeer but had a hint of alcoholic beer making it even better. I liked it so much, my friends and I went out to buy a six-pack of them after we left the event! Definitely one of he highlights of the day. I like this event and would love to go again. The food & drinks are great and you'll be surprised by how much you can do with bacon. Not only that, you get a souvenir cup with you to remember the memories of how much you ate that day! read more

Bacon and Beer Classic - Souvenir Beer Cup - Festivals Near Me - San Jose, California

I just wanted to start off by saying I received 2 complimentary VIP tickets to the event thanks to Yelp! Overall, I thought the event was pretty fun. I'm not the biggest bacon lover in the world, but some of it was pork & not bacon so it was cool. The dishes that stood out to me were the pork belly crostini, bacon wrapped scallop & the candied bacon, so yummy! Plenty of food & with the VIP tickets, you get in an hour early before the general crowd. Definitely a plus since my sister & I finished before the regular crowd showed up (aka long lines). My favorite drinks were from Hard Frescos, the Snake Bite & Heretic. You can drink plenty of the frescos as it tasted so good, very dangerous! Photobooth was a fun addition. I loved getting my bacon tattoo & the pretzel necklaces as well :P I did take away 1 star as not all the vendors were ready during VIP hour & the parking was bumped up to $10 (looked like it was $5 last year). Overall, I enjoyed this event & I am stuffed with bacon/pork! Thanks to all the vendors & to Yelp for allowing me to attend this event :) read more

See all

This event was pretty fun! We bought the deal on living social- $50 instead of $59. PROS +SO MUCH BEER +SO MUCH FOOD.. my favorite was the pork belly with grits, or the bacon wrapped meatball +ALL YOU CAN DRINK +ALL YOU CAN EAT +Cute souvenir cup (at first we thought it was too small, but little did we know how many beers there were... and how that little cup adds up!) Don't really know how you can get better than that... there were some lines, but the most I had to wait was probably 10 minutes. And that was at that corn dog booth! It was good though. Everywhere else, there was hardly a line, or it moved rather quickly. CONS -Wish there was a map or a list of the vendors present. That would've been really helpful in remembering what you tried, because not all booths had cards or swag to hand out. -$5 parking, but that's expected right? If you didn't want to pay, there is limited street parking if you don't mind walking. -It would've been nice if there was a sitting area (not sure if there was, at any rate we didn't find any so maybe a centralized sitting area) because you have to stand most of the time read more

A bunch of us decided to attend this event after some friends said the last one in March was fun. We went to the VIP night session and I do have to say the extra money was worth it. We arrived around 530 and there was plenty of parking, but FYI it cost $5 so make sure you have some cash handy. We jumped in line and then the guy came around, checked ID's and gave us handstamps. After that the doors opened and they scanned our tickets and we picked up our cups. The cups are red solo cup look a likes but they are ceramic. Super cute cups! As soon as you walk in there are beer booths and bacon booths. We got a few samples then headed out to the field to get away from the crowd. Loved the variety of the food! There was a good balance of sweet and savory. Loved that they were not stingy with the food and they didn't run out, except for the bacon cupcakes. They ran out 1st session, ugh. Only thing I would change is to have more of the beer vendors present. There were a lot of volunteers pouring beers and when people had questions they really couldn't answer. Looking forward to coming back next year, I really enjoyed this event. read more

Bacon and Beer Classic - Beer tasting cups! - Festivals Near Me - San Jose, California

Awful. Just awful. I've been to several of these. They've really gone terribly downhill. The last one I attended at Avaya stadium spring 2019 was the worst yet. The tiny shot glasses they gave us for our beer kept us constantly in lines. You couldn't actually get a full beer. The food was VERY limited and not very good at all. Again, it kept us mostly in line as we arrived with appetites and were expecting to be fed WELL. Finding anything of quantity to stay hydrated was near impossible. I could have gotten a better meal at a fast food joint. The promoters have gone too big for the way these are hosted. The smaller venues like the municipal stadium was awesome and had tons of delicious food. It seems they've lost most of their food vendors. The beer was good. Sadly, I won't be returning. read more

Chaotic, long lines, running out of food, awful crowd. An over-served bro reached out and grabbed food out of my hand, When I challenged on it, proceeded to take a swing and a miss at me, then shoved my girlfriend to the ground. Stay classy Santa Clara. read more

I'm planning on going this weekend and taking my brother in-law for his birthday. I like how the people that won the VIP tickets through yelp mentioned they don't like beer or bacon lol then why would you sign up to win tickets that could of went to someone else that actually wanted to go and actually likes beer and bacon. Any ways I'm looking forward to it! I have been wanting to go for years, just never bit the bullet to pay $60 a ticket. See you guys there! read more

A few weeks back I was minding my own business checking out what's going on around town, when I read the words 3 hours of bacon and beer. 3 hours of BACON and BEER?!?! Sign me up! So I did, right then and there. We opted for the night event, for $59 a person it seemed pretty steep but then again, unlimited bacon dishes and beer? Was pretty sure we could get our money's worth. (You ever wonder who were the idiots that paid full price for an event when everywhere there were discounts and promo codes? We were those idiots... as soon as I purchased the tickets I started seeing them everywhere. Note to self - next year look for promo codes...) Flash forward to last night and the event itself. Horrific line when we arrived to get in, but it seemed to move pretty quick. Then, horrific lines as soon as coming in at each of the restaurants in the front. We skipped that nonsense, went all the way to the end and started with the beer. After drinking for a while, there weren't as bad of lines for food so it seemed to be a good plan. Unfortunately though, that meant we had to walk by the OBNOXIOUS survey to win a cruise guy multiple times. Seriously guy, yelling bacon isn't going to get me to take your marketing survey. And no amount of beer would have made you tolerable. Great restaurants with great food - favorites included Spuds, Habana Cuba, Faultline, Sweet Tooth and Firehouse No.1. Some restaurants just phoned it in - Looking at you Taco Bar with your little half shot of guac without any decent amount of bacon flavor and a couple chips? Towards the middle of the event, it got quite stuffy in the concourse where some of the restaurants were. That wasn't an optimal set up since there wasn't enough space for the lines that were creating. The time seemed to fly by, was a little disappointed a few places shut down with almost an hour left - they ran out of beer or food (GASP!! THE HORROR!). But overall it was a great event. TL;DR... I died and was in a piggy boozy heaven. It was fairly chill, not obscenely crowded outside of the concourse and if you didn't just stop in the front. We had a great time, definitely something we'll keep our eyes out for next year. read more

So much fun. Tons of beer, food, and music. I love the souvenir tasting glass. So many breweries to choose from, lots if local food vendors, and games. It was so much fun. read more

See all

I loved it..I went the santa clara event earlier this year and it was awesome although VIP is recommended so you can try food and beer without the long lines.Plus they won't run out of the good stuff as quickly. The levi stadium was beautiful. I won tickets so it was all well worth it either way but the food part is my favorite....and ciders. read more

My husband and I attended this yesterday. It was pretty awesome. Parking is $10. No big deal. We were able to park in the lot with plenty of spaces at 11:45am. Our event started at 12, since we purchased the VIP passes. We were let in promptly. There was one annoying, older lady working the event shouting rudely at the crowd because there was one entrance area for those who purchased their tickets through the stadium website and another entrance area for those who purchased their tickets through discount sites (such as Eventbrite). There was very clear signage, she had no reason to be shouting at people. Annoying. Anyway.... We had a great time! Purchasing the VIP tickets is a GREAT idea because you get to go in one hour earlier than the general crowd and it was so much less crowded! Even when it was time for the general crowd to enter, it never felt crowded. There was plenty of space for everyone and I never waited in any lines. No lines were long. I am taking one star away though too because like another reviewer mentioned, some of the vendors were not ready when the VIP crowd was let it. If we are paying to get in early, they should have been ready. (That's you Churro people and carnitas people!)It worked out though, because we were able to hit those booths which were not open when we started, on the way out to leave. I wish I could remember more names of some of the foods/ beverages that stuck out to me. But I didn't have anything that was bad! Everything was good! We liked the monkey bread, the jalapeño bacon, the bacon chocolate chip cookies, bacon cheesecake. There was one booth with chile verde that was so good I went back 3 times! So good! And another one with really good pork belly! Yum! We enjoyed the photo booth and games and chatting with the vendors. Everyone was very friendly. And the crowd was all well behaved people just looking to have a good time. There were no hidden fees. The only time I had to open my wallet was to pay for parking and that was it. We would do it again! read more

Vendors for both the bacon and beer were generous. The bacon was just amazing. Please get the SAME CHURROS stand again this year - his were outstanding! He made them right there for you, I was only able to eat 2 because I also wanted to stuff down the bacon! read more

The Bacon and Beer Classic had some great bacon inspired food. I got the VIP pass which was $50 more than the regular ticket. It let you get in 1 hour before the regular pass and gave you access to the infield and 'special' beer tastings. The special beer tastings were a couple dark beers that came from bottles. They also advertised access to educational sessions; there were none to be found. Getting there an hour early was a huge bonus because we got to taste everything without waiting in the huge lines when everyone else came. I'm not sure it was worth an extra $50 though. When everyone else showed up, it was chaotic at many food booths. Vendors were running out of food and handing out food that was not as well prepared. The Beer and Bacon Classic also loses a star (I would have rated 3 stars) because they really pressed everyone to fill out a survey so they could improve next year. There was supposed to be a drawing for a cruise. What really happened was everyone who filled out a survey got a call from a timeshare company saying they won. The caller said they were a travel company and not a timeshare company but that that you had to attend a 1-2 hour tour of their place to get the free trip. COME ON! If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck. They have called multiple times and left multiple messages on my phone. read more

Came here this past Saturday for the 1-4 session Great easy close parking right across the street, $10 bucks to park. Walked in, no lines at all! Beer right away, LOVED that! We tried to hit every booth and I think we did LOL I will say the lines went really fast and the whole vibe was great!!! Around 3pm we started to see a trend of food vendors saying there out of food????? HUH I thought this was 1-4pm session with unlimited access? We went to a vendor who clearly had a ton of cookies left but wouldn't give any out and when asked why he said, you got one earlier? Um so its only 1 per person for the entire time? he said yes we have to save them for the night session. What the heck? LOL $50 bucks isn't worth it, $25 okay but not $50 since its defiantly not unlimited. Most the beer vendors were still pouring but by 3 food vendors were pretty shut down. There was about 30 beers and maybe 15 food vendors so completely different from what was advertise. Not sure id go again. read more

Went to bacon and beer 2016 in Santa Clara at the levy stadium and It was so much fun. So many different beers and the food was great. Never did I encounter a vendor deny giving me seconds or thirds. Lol I had my favorite food stations that were better than others. Overall it was a lot of fun and I can't wait for next years bacon and beer classic. read more