The Chocolate festival I attend is the 9th annual event. There is a lot of people. Parking is a…read morenightmare due to a lot of people. The compound parking is not enough. Every car try to cut in and take advantage the line. The festival location using the Egypt Shriners. It has good building structure to host the event. It also has the clean restroom and place and table for the food you want to eat. The festival chocolatier is on the building. The food trucks surrounding the building parking lot. There is a lot of food trucks. It turn out a good food selection. We got to try the Groovy Dawgs hot dog. They carry two type of sausage. The crawfish and gator sausage. We got the crawfish sausage. It is ok. But I really want to try their gator sausage next time. We also stop at the Flipino Cuisine Masarap Bowls. We got the bigol bowl. It has cabbage, grilled chicken and noodle. Is is just ok for my standard. I wonder the food truck collect tax after the price in compare to many food truck is one price. We also has the Boba Nirvana. They have very good boba. They have this green Thai tea with boba. Love it. My wife have the brown sugar milk tea boba.

Where we the chocolate? I was so excited to attend this…read more What I had in my head was not what I pictured. Entrance to this venue was like a scene from Mad Max! People were driving aggressively so they can get in to park but there wasn't any where to park so people got creative. There were no police to help with traffics flow. There were no staffer to help direct parking . People were parking in the gas station, on the side of the road, this road only had two lane and people were parking on shrubs, grass, bushes & rail road tracks. When we finally park we see that the parking lot of the Shriner had a few spot open. The first thing you saw were food trucks. Then some vendor selling cute items but the chocolate was indoor and there weren't that many to choice to try chocolate. There were hardly any sample to get a chance to taste. Only 2 vendors had sample. Those were the one I bought from. Some of these chocolate were fancy & expensive. Which is fine but I want to know what I was paying for. I also got a s'more cookie and a macaroon. I did have some chicken empanadas & this amazing lemonade from a black own business. She makes her own lemonade, even the syrup. My friend from Orlando was looking forward to glowing to this I told her her don't. When we left the police and for fire department finally showed up. They block the entrance to help ease traffic & parking is my guess. This was a big disappointment.

I absolutely LOVE this Sugar Sand Festival. I have been here a few years now and this was hands…read moredown my favorite to date. I went by myself because I knew that it was Dino themed, which I am such a geek about and didn't want to hold up any of my family and friends while I just stared and took the tons of photos I knew I was going to take. Aside from loving the theme, you just have to be in awe of the amazing artwork, skill, patience, creativity, etc it takes to make any of these designs. Like I said, I have been there over the course of several years and honestly, I don't know why I don't make it an annual event to visit. It will never be the same and is reasonably priced. You also don't have people rushing you along to allow for more people to enter. If you feel you do, that is something you allow to happen as I have never felt, seen or heard anything like that. I love hearing people, young or old come in and gasp at the sights and the joy it brings to people while amazing them. To me, this is something that wows everyone, and brings smiles more so to the adults as they understand what it all takes to complete. They always have a sand sculptor present and working so that people can see what goes into the process. They also have a section dedicated to junior or aspiring professional sculptors to showcase their work, which you can vote on by putting in a donation in their boxes to help with their costs (and maybe decide the winner). Even those are wonderful but generally don't match the rest of the theme. 1000% advise anyone in the area during this festival to visit, it is well worth it.

Very cute . Kids would love this it was a dinosaur theme this year . Boys would love this . A lot…read moreof places gave out a lot of free swag. It's spin wheels to win little toys and knickknacks decent prices on liquor five dollars for 25 ounces of Zephyrhills water and aluminum bottle which is very cheap by the way lol I'm very very cold. It was a nice day in Clearwater Beach. It was perfect weather no humidity and very warm couldn't ask for a better day. Definitely if you have a kids this is a place to go or a nice day out with a loved one.

What a fun way to spend your afternoon. I spent about an hour and a half, trolley included,…read moreexploring the festival and shops! I parked at Madeira fundamental and rode the trolley to John's pass. It's free fair and "admission" and perfect for a nice ride. You're dropped off and picked up under the bridge-- super convenient! When walking around it was packed, but definitely busy. I got the crab Rangoon cheese sticks and a strawberry lemonade. Both were good, but not outstanding. The food selection was unfortunately smaller than anticipated, but there was some great live music!

Overall **** This is a well put together street fair that is large enough to spend a few hours at…read morebut small enough to not be too crowded. It is free to enter and there are no gimmicks like buying tickets to get food. The crowd was very chill (mostly 50-70 years old), the music was good as was the shopping and it was a great way to spend 2-3 hours. We did choose to eat at a restaurant instead of the vendors because it was too hot to walk around eating a big meal out of plastic containers. Let's start with the parking. Personally I wouldn't even attempt to drive all the way to the festival, if you go early it is possible but you may have trouble getting back out. Using the free shuttle service was very easy to use. We used the free lot at Madeira Beach Fundamental School. The shuttle seems to run about every 10 minutes from there. It takes about 20 minutes to get from the lot to the festival. There is additional parking at City Hall but I don't suggest that. The trolley's load first at the school so if it's full there you aren't getting on at City Hall. When returning it stops at the school first so the trip is 10 minutes shorter than City Hall. Ok, enough about the parking let's get onto the festival itself. The trolley will drop you off and pick you up at the John's Pass parking at the foot of the bridge. You will walk under the bridge and up Boardwalk Place East. It will be obvious where to go from there or you can follow the music. If you are in need of a mixed drink I suggest you stop at the festival entrance where the Friendly Fisherman Restaurant has an outside bar/tent. The mixed drink lines grow dramatically the further in you go. If you are drinking beer or coolers those are everywhere and at only $4 a bargain. There is a large stage at Boardwalk and Village but if you prefer something quieter, a smaller stage is straight down the end of Boardwalk. Along Village Blvd is where most of the action is with plenty of food and other retail vendors. All the brick and mortar stores were open so there is plenty of shopping to do. As far as the food goes, while it is predominantly seafood there are other options as well. The one downside I felt is they were all selling essentially full meals and they are no bargain. We wanted more of small bites we could walk around with sampling different options. If you choose to go the full meal route there is a large covered eating area in the parking lot at Village Blvd and 129th where there is an even larger stage. This is already long enough so I will wrap it up with a few other highlights; -There is a kids zone on 129th. -Dogs are allowed. -The North end at Bamboo Beach Bar is more adult oriented.

This is the 2nd year of the Day of the Dead (Dia De Los Muertos Fiesta and Fashion show. It is so…read moremuch fun. They hold this in the Pioneer Park. It's conveniently located almost across the street from Casa Tina. There's so much detail for this fest. There are a few vendors selling day of the dead memorabilia, face painting, some snacks and drinks from Casa Tina, a fashion show, and parade, and music. The park is packed, but very comfortable. You can take tons of pics with all who are made up. It is tons of fun for the whole family. This is definitely a favorite of mine. Parking is a challenge since it's in the middle of downtown Dunedin and people come out. If you are hungry restaurants end up being a 45 minute wait. Take all those into consideration. It's really really worth it though.

This food truck festival is sponsored by the Paavo County Recycling and Education. There are more…read morethan twenty vendors for your choices. The festival is located at the back of premier outlet mall parking lots. Festival is free. However the food is kind of expensive for food truck. It almost like a sit down restaurant price. There are a few truck below fifteen dollars. We have the conch salad but very little conch there. We also go an Indian Marsala fried fish. The pieces of the fish also tiny. The best is the kielbasa on the stick. The participants customer also not a lot.

This non-profit museum in St. Petersburg focused on hands-on learning for children especially those…read moreunder 10 years old. It features creative play areas like a pretend city, pretend supermarket, vet office, climbing structures, fire department, city map with vehicles on the wall, art stations, and a few animals. They offer stimulating learning through creativity, play and exploration. Cost is $12 for adults, $15 for kids 1-17, free under 1. Next door to Sunken Gardens. A fun day for the kids.

This was not what I expected - I thought it would have more interactive and educational exhibits. I…read morealso thought for the price we would get access to the sunken gardens (right next door) as well. Overall it was a good way to kill a few hours but for the price I am not sure it was worth it. Also - for as many kids and families come through here i would suggest more bathrooms and to clean the ones you have more frequently. Our favorite exhibit was the grocery store, and the room with all the reptiles.

Zoofari is a P_A_R_T_Y!!!! I'm still dancing in the rain thinking about it. Saturday's rain did…read morenot affect this awesome event. There were so many food and drink vendors, and music galore in every inch of the zoo. Lines were long, but it did not matter because every step you made waiting for food, you would just eat, drink, and be merry with EVERYONE. Some of the restaurants and food vendors that were there included Yacht Starship, Longhorn, Empress Tea, Texas De Brazil. Graphite Junction, Shells, BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse, Flippers Pizzeria, Coopers Hawk, Carne Chophouse, just to name a few. I think there was a total of 50? I can't even remember what my favorite food vendor. I can remember the drinks that were awesome. Anything pineapple makes me happy. They had a pineapple ale. That was good. Sangria and ale from Keel and Curley Winery, oh yeah!! Why did they have to be so far away from everything? Hurricane drinks from Shells. They were the star of my show. Music everywhere, how could music not make one happy. Who cares about the rain, just dance in it. I loved the music, the food, and the drinks. I am happy that I got a chance to check it out thanks to Yelp. They also had super fun pics that you could take with fun Zoofari backgrounds. Of course though they want you to pay for those like $20 each, no thank you. Awesome fun time at Zoofari!! If you get a chance next year when it rolls around in November, just go.

Zoofari is an incredible yearly event at the Lowry Park Zoo. I won free tickets through Yelp this…read moreyear and got to experience it for the first time. Basically - they turn the entire zoo into a huge food, drink, and music festival. There were vendors as far as the eye could see and they were GENEROUS with their sample sizes. There was an eclectic mix of local restaurants as well as chains and full pours of alcohol were included in the pricing. There were enough vendors that there weren't long lines and the bands were very good. I only stayed for a couple hours because I became very full early on in the night, but loved that I got to sample so much. Definitely an event that I look forward to attending in the future!

Had an awesome time at annual 97x next Big thing at amphitheater as we have for the last 3 years in…read morea row! 21 pilots and monsters and Men gave exceptional performances. Walk the moon has shut up and dance W me, neighborhood has sweater weather, Andrew McMahon has Cecilia and satellite, Robert delong has super 80s song don't wait up but not all his songs are that great. We ended up skipping Robert Delong and going at fo fitty pm after half time of the Gators vs Bama Sec Championship game. I was really dissapointed that X Ambassadors didn't play later in the day because they're really good and I wanted to see them but I didn't want to be at the concert from 2PM or the whole day. Grow financial gave out green red and white glow sticks and the crowd looked amazing at night! :) Cons: I'm not a huge fan of the amphitheater venue. I prefer 97x Backyard BBQ's venue of the Vinoy Park because it's more spread out, it's on the water, and there's fun activities to do in between bands. They need to have some fun kiosks in between shows to Visit. They should cut the 30min interval in between bands to like 10 minutes. $10 parking, far from south Tampa, $12 brews, $8 funnel cakes, the lawn was so packed it was hard to find a spot to hang out. A large percentage of the crowd was a little bit younger at this show as is typical of the apt rock up and comer scene. My buddy was asking "where are these kids' parents!" lol

Panic At The Disco and Bastille headline the eighteenth annual 97X Next Big Thing, concert series…read more The lineup also includes Foster The People, Young The Giant, Chvrches, AJR, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Elle King, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Grandson, LANY and other acts. I was a bit shocked when we pulled up to the Amp and the lady said it was $20 to park. I'm a frequent patron here and have never paid to park prior to any event here. The funny thing is, my friends who came a little after us, the woman told them it was $45 to park. Hmmmm a wee bit fishy since they parked in the same area as us. Even Jimmy Buffet, who is a major headliner didn't have "paid" parking, you just couldn't get into the parking lot without proof of having a ticket. The musicians all put on great acts. Bastille was definitely my favourite of tonight's artists. The Coordinators of the event did a great job ensuring that plenty of vendors kept the crowd entertained. Each tent had company spokeswoman/spokesman that interacted with the crowd and gave the typical concert/event freebies, koozies, bottle openers, ponchos and carabiners. They made sure to stagger the drawings for prizes (each had stipulated that you must be present to win). If you were interested in a particular prize, you knew exactly what time to be present at the booth. The way they were set up meant you would miss seeing 1/2 of the lineup if you were trying to be present at drawings. We all had a good time, and I was very intrigued that they let you "upgrade" your tickets free by patrons giving them your ticketed seat and they gave you a better ticket. Very smart on their part since the event wasn't sold out.