It was a rainy cold day in Arizona. There was a lull in the weather while it dried out…read moretemporarily. This festival is held at the Stagecoach Village annually. Some vendors were still unveiling their artworks. I recognized several artists from other shows and some were new. Plenty of free parking.

This was a Fabulous show. There were many amazing artists and vendors, the venue was small and…read morequaint and beautifully spaced out.

Lines, lines, and more lines…read more You had to wait in line to get on a bus, then wait in line to get admission, then wait in line to buy drink tickets, then wait in line to buy a thimble full of beer. There was about 4 balloons, none of which you could ride, and a lousy eagles cover band. The only thing the organizers got right was that they had an adequate number of toilets. Terrible. Just terrible.

We attended the Cave Creek Balloon Festival last night (2018) and it was a different experience…read morethan prior years. We had VIP tickets which were $80, $60 more than general admission. The VIP food was a big let down. The shrimp cocktail was okay and had a nice hot bite on the sauce. But there was no steak at a country festival! The ribs were a bit dry and had sparingly sprinkled sauce. The spinach blueberry salad was tasty; however, it was the only salad choice. The side vegetables were mediocre looking and tasting. Unspiced potatoes, or lumpy bland mashed cauliflower, or sogged croutons (?) were the only choices. A bite of each was too much torture for a foodie. Only 3 desert choices were offered and never all together. All were awful. The peach cobbler was more dough than fruit and wasn't sweet in any way: inedible soggy slush it comes in runner-up for the worst dessert ever. The thimble sized cheesecake was more crust than filling and had a small piece of strawberry on top. It left a filmy feeling in your mouth. The 3 inch chocolate meringue tartlette was super sweet chocolate sauce with meringue on top, yuck! It is officially the worst dessert ever offered. None of these required a chef. We tried Tonto Bar & Grill's Tornino Margaritas and the first one was good. The second one was watered down so much from ice melt, yet another disappointment in quality control and guest experience. The fly over was only 2 directions this year, instead of 4 and came immediately after the Color Guard presented the flag. It was still a hit against a beautiful blue sky. Madison Holmes' set was wonderful as was the second band (blue grass). We left the VIP area to check out the festival when the third band (country) came out. The music was not consistently pumped throughout the festival. So I don't know if they were bad, or made to sound bad. Because of mild wind, no balloons were inflated. Wind happens daily in AZ and 40 mph wind happens regularly. Yet the organizers announced mild wind as the reason no balloons at the balloon festival. The balloon operators chatted with guests and candelled their torches. It was a nice effect with the waxing moon and bright Jupiter high above. We chatted with one and his balloon stories were very interesting. He was an extreme balloonist who rose and dropped rapidly. The food in the midway smelled a lot better than the VIP food. It rubbed it in that we made a bad choice with VIP seats. Getting a courtesy bus back to parking was a nightmare. There were no attendants in the staging area to stage people. So people started walking down to queued buses. At every bus, dads with monster strollers elbowed people out of the way in the most disgusting display and lack of manners and anger control I have ever witnessed at a festival. We were forced down from the second bus to the 9th. It was pandimoneum with the elderly, disabled, and mannered people literally pushed back by stroller weilding dads. The strollers were huge, not the umbrella type, and hit everyone around the dads' paths. #Shame on them for modelling such belligerence to the young kids. Our bus driver was courteous as everyone boarded. He had to stop a stroller weilding, elbow flairing dad from muscling in to a full bus. #GratitudeToBusDrivers.

Spain this is not. More like rednecks running from rodeo bulls with rounded off horns. The event…read morehad a small festival across the street that I found to be more fun. My prediction is that this event will continue to grow and mature and at some point will be worth attending. Good luck!

i wanted to give this event 1 star but the novelty forced me up to 2 stars…read more ABSOLUTE GENIUS!!!! the event organizer got people (me) to pay to run 1 minute in front of scared rodeo cows. a complete loss of 25 bucks. and to make it even more painful, not even a t-shirt! why? because they ran out of t-shirts. that means every runner at the 2pm and after would get a crappy red bandanna...worlds most expensive bandanna! and they ran out of safety pins to pin the numbers. there's a cvs right up the street ya'll. complete debacle of any organization. they didn't check ID's or vouchers. most people just sort of walked right in and many did the run without even paying (they were bragging about it). but why would they pay, when nobody really checked anything! lets go a step further..."no drinking in the corral"...sure, but get wasted before and proceed to harass the cowboys and the bulls during the run. we even saw two of the cowboys almost come to blows...they were yelling and swinging their lasso's at each other like they were about to start a fight with each other. ugh, what a shame. this could've been such a cool event. i loved the costumes and the band playing (although after the run, most people left until the next start time).

Smaller art market held across the street from Frontier Town in Cave Creek. There are other…read moresimilar art shows held here throughout the cooler AZ months. You will see the typical type of artists such as photography, mixed media, paintings and jewelry. There was also a Lobster sandwich mobile van there. Free street parking.

Guaranteed enjoyment for those who love to shop for uniquely created artisan objects, be…read moreentertained by quality cultural music and dance in the centerpiece Sanderson Lincoln Pavilion and eat wonderful high quality festival foods.

Never having explored Carefree before, I took the Pumpkin garden as my excuse to take a little day…read moretrip. Driving from our home location, it took about an hour, beautiful rock formation, hence why the famous Boulder Resort and Spa are located right there. My friend and I took the weekday, Monday at 10:00 a.m. opportunity to walk through the garden. Knowing that during the weekend this place must be impossible with the crowds and parking. Great decision on our end, very few people, the paths were clear and there were still local artist carving the pumpkins, along with musicians playing music. I assume the only thing we missed going during the weekday was the beer garden and food trucks which I could live without. The pumpkin displays were whimsical creations, beautiful works of art, loved the displays. The path of pumpkin also leads to the huge Sun Dial and a playful playground area for kids. Visitors should take note that, though I read it takes about an 1 1/2 hours to walk through, maybe on the weekend, it took us about 1/2 hour including the Sun Dial. Luckily I had planned that we would drive around and go for an early lunch at one of Carefree's famous local eateries. Exhibit: Fun and whimsical, definitely worth going if you are in the area to do other exploring too.

This was a fun outing and so cool to see the creative pumpkins. There is a 10.00 fee to get in,…read morethere is food and drinks to purchase once in side with a few little vendors and a outside theatre where when we went a clown was entertaining people. I'm not a fan of clowns at all but the kids liked it. There was so many cool pumpkins.

This was a free festival that promised art and a culinary experience. There was plenty of beautiful…read moreart displayed in the breathtaking Carefree Desert but as far as a culinary experience this event fell flat. I was planning on enjoying lunch at this event and had to come up with new plans. I did enjoy looking at most of the art and imagined some of the very expensive pieces I saw looking mighty pretty in my house but some of them cost what my car is worth so I just had to enjoy looking at them. As far as the food I do have to say the food vendor Safari Samosas that serves up African cuisine is OUTSTANDING. The samosas are hand held pies that have meat or vegetable fillings with many different unique sauces to dress them up. The owner very generously gave out samples and the potato curry samosa was really delicious. My husband enjoyed the beef samosa the best and purchased one as a snack. Other than the Safari Samosas they had a falafel vendor, a tamale vendor and a baked goods vendor. That is all the culinary I saw on Sunday. t was a beautiful stroll through the Carefree Desert. It was free. Lots of Art! Just not enough that I would call it a Culinary Experience. Three stars is positive and means A-Ok. Would have been very good if this truly was a culinary event.

I visited the Thunderbird Artists Gallery. I enjoyed seeing all the mixed media, sculptures and…read morepaintings in this small gallery. One can see many of these artists during the Carefree Art & Wine Festival held in the winter months. Free street parking.

Fabulous gallery with many local artists as well as those from around the country. Small location…read morebut very easy to browse. Very eclectic selections. Can find other pieces of artist represented in the Carefree festivals. Staff is not very helpful or welcoming at times.