I was so excited to have won tickets from Yelp for this event! You cannot beat an evening of craft…read morebeers and chili. Plus, the cold Florida weather was perfect for chili. The chili cook off was formerly known as the "Steve Otto Chili Cook Off." Steve Otto, has since retired and has given his blessing for the event to be renamed as the "Big Guava Chili Cook Off." We got to the event right as it started and everything ran smoothly with checking into will call. The craft beer sampling was included with the tickets but the chili sampling was not. Tickets to sample the chili were only $10, so we didn't mind. There were also some food trucks at the event but I wanted chili to warm me up in this weather. There were several different tents set up with craft beers to sample provided by Pepin Distributing. A couple of my favorites were the Widmer Bros Beers and the Goose Island Beers. There were many tents set up with chili being served. It was so hard to choose which was the best out of all of them. I also liked that there were chairs and some tables throughout Curtis Hixon. I hate to eat standing up! Live Music was provided by Easy Posse and Amanda Drake and the Barnburners. The music was predominantly country music...yuck. Thus, the reason for the four stars.. Curtis Hixon was not overcrowded, for once. The amount of people there was perfect. This definitely was a no-frills event. This was a fun event. I will definitely make time to schedule this event in my social calendar every year!

Great concept and yummy chili. Chili ran out early, but $10 unlimited samples was a great deal. The…read moretwo bands were awesome and played great music. I give two stars because Craft beer was not local, which is disappointing since Tampa has so many great breweries. Also, it was $20 to get a five 4 oz samples of the same beer I can buy at the market across from the event or at the bar across the street and get more than 16oz. I didn't care for the voting. It was determined by how much tasters donated money to the specific competitors. The teams that won had great booth designs and gave out free shots, but the chili was not the best there. It felt more of a popularity contest instead of based on the art of making chili. The teams with the best chili ran out early because it was so good but majority of the public didn't get to experience it, so they didn't get votes. :(

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.

Bloody day in English expression is a bad day. However, we are in the Bloody Mary festival and the…read moreparty is on. Thanks to a friend provide the tickets that we can attend this festival. We are excited to attend this event with a group of yelpers. The event certainly have many vendors some of them try to impress, some doing the right thing and some just have plain Bloody Mary. The ticket include one free drinks and all sample. Music playing at the big stage and all the food trucks are hugging along the area. I like the setting in Curtis Hixon Park to hold the event with Hillsborough River in the Back Drop. I certainly have too many Bloody Mary in one day. I have tried them all and I like the Ella's, Datz, Acropolis, and Roux. Some of them are spicy for my wife. At the end of the day I have wonderful time since we have a group went to this event. Love the event when you have a wonderful time. We went on the riverwalk with solo musician playing at the background.

Yet another cool event in the awesome Riverfest - this isn't a political statement, but Buckhorn is…read morea great mayor just for getting all this cool stuff off the ground. Hopefully this is an annual tradition for the Bloody Mary throwdown - local food institutions (think Datz, Roux, etc) line up to give away free samples of everyone's favorite breakfast booze. They're competing for the prize of "Best in the Bay" moniker, and after samples, you vote via text message on your mobile phone. Some places really brought it, a few just showed up with minimal fanfare and bland beverages, but by and large it was a good time. The other non-Mary-themed setups could have been a little more efficient, and the only place allowed to sell bottled water was the DRINKS TENT with a 200-people deep line. But overall it was a good positive experience. The best part, of course, is that watching hipsters drink before noon means you get to watch drunk hipsters dance poorly to Top 40 Hits at around 1pm. As a professional day drinker, I was unfazed - watching twentysomethings with handlebar mustaches try a Mick Jagger strut was worth every penny and I would definitely recommend it.

This is my 3rd year attending this event and the price has gone up, but to me it's so worth the…read moremoney now. Excellent variety of food from popular (Outback, Dirty Taco, Flames Indian) and not so popular but trying to get exposure (Chicken Salad Chick, for example) and I ate at every vendor they had and didn't have one bad taste the whole day. The trick is to get there early because vendors will give away all they have and sometimes it goes fast. Lots of drinks too, plenty of alcohol options and then there's the silly insurance and cell phone vendors sprinkled throughout. Loved the way they split up the vendors, front is hot and sunny, and back yard is shaded and more comfy with plenty of tables and chairs, they always need more trashcans, the band in front was perfect and the DJ was killing it on the back lawn area. Will go again just to see who is new and coming up with delicious tastes in my area...

Taste of South Tampa was an awesome event!! I have been wanting to go for years and finally…read moreremembered to buy tickets! I purchased VIP tickets for $75 which was totally worth it. GA tickets were $50 but the VIP ticket got you access to an air conditioned inside area with additional and higher end food tastings, bathrooms, and VIP bags. Our VIP bags included a $25 gift card to a local restaurant that I love among many other freebies. The restaurants definitely brought their best items to the tasting as they are competing for the tasters votes for best in three categories: best drinks, best food and best VIP restaurants. I can't wait until next year!

All you can drink beer for 2, 3, or 4 hours!!! This is my second year coming and I absolutely love…read morethis event. I have so much fun trying all of the breweries on the main concourse, then when you try all of those there are tons more down where the ice would be. I'm guessing there were 150+ different kinds of beers to try. There are 3 different times to come: 6pm-10pm VIP: You get 4 hours with this option and food 7pm-10pm General Admission Plus: Unlimited beer sampling 8pm-10pm General Admission: Unlimited beer sample I bought 2 General Admission tickets and it was $120 total. How much beer sampling can you do in a night, I guess is the question? 2 hours is plenty long enough for me. I also, typically go to Yard House before and after the event for more fun. They have photo booths, and video areas where they will put you on the jumbo tron. Plus a bomb DJ goes the entire night. I super duper recommend this event!

Everything from the entrance to the exit. Most organized brew fest I've ever been to and will…read morecontinue to attend every year.

I really enjoyed the Taste of South Tampa 2015 event, from the vendors, food, and beverage samples…read moreto the venue (Steinbrenner Field). Although it felt smaller and more confined than last year's location in Hyde Park, it provided much needed shade,the elevation lent a nice breeze, and the layout provided easy progression from one vendor to the next; it didn't seem as packed and the lines weren't nearly as long. Samples from a long list of vendors, music, displays, it was well worth the price.

Our visit started as an unexpected stop on a day out and I am so glad we chose to attend for the…read morefirst time. The weather was beautiful and live music created a fun vibe as we spent hours on end at Julian B. Lane perusing the various talents of creatives local and beyond. We were excited to pick up a few pieces and make connections with great organizations for the arts. I loved watching the chalk artists at work, in awe of their talent, creating beauty with such simple tools. The onsite food trucks were fantastic and A Boy Named Sous is now on our list of trucks to follow! Our kids weren't with us on this day, but the kid's area looked amazing and it was great that there were many interactive exhibits and workshops for them. I highly recommend a visit to this festival and we plan to attend every year!

Great free event right on the river of Julian B Lane park - dog-friendly and kid-friendly. I am…read morecontinually surprised by the quality of the art and exhibits every year. There are artists from all over the country with different styles. Best event in Tampa

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.