Brought the family back here for the festival of lights. First I would recommend buying the…read moretickets online as they are cheaper online than at the gate. It was a little bit of a hike as we were coming from Bethesda but we had heard a lot about it so we decided to check it out. After getting off the highway there was a lot of time on 2 lane roads that made the trip feel longer. The tickets are for specific times so we picked a time that supposedly had the most ticket availability and therefore less crowded but that ended up not being the case (not that we went 4 days before Christmas). I felt like it was bumper to bumper traffic all the way through. The light displays were pretty good but felt like there were spots where there were noticeable gaps. We prefer these drive through light shows that allow you to stay warm in the car. Now what Bull Run has that some of these others don't have is the carnival at the end. There are rides, all types of carnival food, petting zoo and camel rides. Stopped at the carnival to pick up some funnel cake for the family to munch on during the ride back home. Overall it was a good experience.

Awesome experience, loved the lights, carnival and petting zoo…read more Even open area with fire pit was awesome for s'more's and to get warmed up during cold evening. Love it.

Punjabi Festival (Mela) 2016 was an excellent experience. The only problem was that due to the…read moreweather storm it has been moved from May to (hot) August day. The festival offered free water and that was helpful. There were probably 30+ tents (10 with food). You could buy really inexpensive amazing looking jewelry. (my top three places for inexpensive and unusual jewelry are Afghan, Armenian and now Punjabi festival). It is shame that beautiful and colorful clothing for sale is not made out of cotton but "new materials" but in todays world you rarely can have a inexpensive AND quality in the same boat. Food was great and inexpensive. I like northern Indian cuisine (Punjabi) more than I like Southern India cuisine because I do not tolerate super spicy food without crying out. Meals were between $6 and $8. I loved Mango Lassi from Silk restaurant based in Leesburg. It tastes even better and more refreshing on 90F+ weather. Puffy fried bread could be eaten by itself - it was that good. Buttered chicken with rice and lentil with fried potato dumpling were both delicious. People were so friendly - I learned the differences in Sikh headdress from a gentle gentlemen who expressed his satisfaction in sharing his culture with me. Unfortunately, busy and hot day took me away early so I could not enjoy in their cultural program so I must go back in May next year to enjoy that part as well. Important fact - convenient parking and entrance to the festival was free - which is rare at Bull Run Park Special Events venue.

Truly, a festival of the American diversity. Amazing! The parents became the chefs and they had…read moredecorated their spaces. There were at least 15 different food stands (Korean, Irish, German, Italian, Indian, Chinese, ...) I treated myself with some Kenyan food. It was good (picture attached)! The hostess was offering me to try a Kenyan hard liqueur but I could not have it at Noon for a life of it - too early for me. Cookies selection was very large and you would have a hard time choosing. Cost is right and free parking available. This is a lot of fun for kids as the event is in the school and there are many games available for kids. There is very nice entertainment with various ethnic performances to compliment good food. The church is nice. In 2016 the festival is Oct 1.

What a great event for sampling beers and ciders from breweries from all over Virginia. There were…read moreplenty of food booths to compliment the beer tastings. Tickets were $25 for early birds, $35 at the gate. Price of admission included a 2 oz. glass and 6 tickets for tastings. Additional tickets could be purchased for $2 each. The mashed potato cheese balls were $6 for 4, but totally worth it. I was full after 2 and glad to split it with my husband. It went great with beer. Saw people walking around with necklaces strung with pretzels, which I thought was clever. Didn't see anyone selling them, so I assume those folks brought their own to snack on while sampling beers. Think candy necklace, only with pretzels instead of candy. Brilliant!

This annual two day event is held at the Bull Run Regional Park Event Center. It is an outdoor…read moreevent where participating vendors have booths. This year over 50 breweries and half a dozen cideries participated. The breweries included international and Virginia ones. Many of the Virginia breweries were local to Northern Virginia. Adult and Designated Driver tickets were available. Adult tickets include a 4 ounce glass and 6 tickets to obtain beer samples. Additional tickets are available for $1; I needed a few more. Most breweries offered at least 2 selections. The most prevalent selections had fall themes such as Octoberfest and Pumpkin. In addition to the brewery booths, there were booths for food, arts and crafts, political candidates, cigars, and sales of various products. There also was live entertainment. The beerfest was well attended and crowded. Some of the breweries had long lines but they moved reasonably fast. I'd recommend the beerfest to beer lovers and advise you to arrive early because some of the selections do run out later.

6th Annual Persian Annual Spring Festival - Sizdah Bedar - Bull Run Regional Park - is like a…read morePersian Woodstock. It is all about peace, love for nature, fun and dance and family time. It is very inclusive, which is demonstrated with the beer garden next to the stage where DJ spun lively Persian pop music. When a person asked me to take a picture of their group in the Farsi language I felt as one with them, not looking different, or having a different accent that triggers the loaded question that comes with the cultural baggage, "Where are you from?" Every vendor thanked me so much as if they are the guardians of their culture and I am a VIP guest. It felt like they were so many bridges, not any walls between us. Food escapades started with the Ash Reshteh soup. I worried about it because it looked like they were too many spices and ingredients in the soup - you know what color you get when you use too many colors - mud. However, the soup felt like it was in the layers - so many tastes, not killing but supplementing each other. Cost $5. Next one was the tongue - the menu was in Farsi and lady pointed her tongue when I asked her to give me something that is most popular. I got the tongue in the nice broth and sesame bread. It was so soft that I could cut it with my spoon. It was so good, that I would drive 30 minutes to eat it again. I also had to try Persian tea which was stronger than I anticipated. Cost for both $4. I did get a kebab platter and it was not good looking but it tasted good. Cost $10. At the end the real treat was Persian ice cream with saffron and cream that was so different and so rich and sweet and presence of saffron, the most expensive spice in the World, adds a rich taste and makes you feel good, as long as you do not think about how laborious is to collect delicate saffron threads, plucked from flowers and dried. $5 The biggest compliment came from my 9-year old son on the ride back, who said - eating skittles after this great Persian food is kind of lame. In order to fully enjoy the festival next year, buy tickets in advance, bring friends, blankets and do not come before 1PM. Next event is April 1, 2018.

Damn. The FTR guy seems a little jealous of buff dudes and hot chicks. Haters gonna hate. Stop…read moresipping on the haterade and start sipping on the actright, homeboy!! (It's always the ugly ones hating, though!) This festival is huge and yes, it's filled with a variety of people from the super serious wine connoisseur, to the people who give two shits about wine and just there to get tanked. Whatever. It's a fucking WINE festival. If they only catered to the "super serious" they wouldn't have tickets for only $25. For those who DO give a shit about wine, you can pay extra and sit in a nice tent and have your wine discussed... talk about tannins, oak, aromas of peach... whatever it is you people discuss about wine. For those who are average wine drinkers like myself and my abundance of friends AND THE REST OF THE WORLD (as David R. describes as Trophy Wives/Girlfriends and Large [hate on biceps, much?]), we have a blast. It was hot as balls out but they had a sprinkler you could run through which cooled us down. It was fun to see everyone participating in the sprinklers such as children, fat people, white people, blacks... whatever. The festival is open to everyone and one should not judge them being there. After all - VIRGINIA WINE REALLY KINDA SUCKS, so you're just going there to have a good time. You can also bring a tent or blanket to sit down and picnic.. basically relax and enjoy life. Yes, getting the wine to taste takes a shit load of time. You're in line FOREVER. Fuck it. It's too hot out to taste, anyway, and proper tastings should be discussed and with a long lines, this is impossible. Whatever - just go to the cashier, buy a bottle and share it with your group of friends. Don't like it? Throw it out. Whatever. If you're that poor, you shouldn't be at a wine festival anyway. As for children... yeah, what a pain in the ass they are. My friend Erik wanted a face tat of the Mike Tyson tattoo from the face paint lady, but those damn kids took up the entire line! We were too drunk to wait for that shit. But one should beware of the $500 strollers, though, because those types of parents are no joke. They'll ram that shit into your cheap shoes and laugh as their private school educated preschoolers throw grape juice at you. And guess what , they're so drunk they could give a shit and laugh as they have the nanny handle it. I can't hate on strollers, though... they hold your alcohol with ease. Hell, I might bring in a stroller next year! Also good was the food vendors and I enjoyed the music as it wasn't too loud I could focus on my self absorbed conversations with my friends about how incredibly hot we are. How rich our boyfriends are and how everyone else is a loser. Naaaa... just joking! Seriously! The jackassery shown in other reviews is absurd. If you're serious about wine, you'll probably want to skip this. But if you enjoy fun in the sun with a bottle of cold white wine? Bam... come here. Tips: Take a shuttle bus from Vienna metro or a party bus. Anything. Get a DD. Drinking and driving is bad. Also, bring water! :-)

I am little bewildered by some of the bad reviews, as I loved this festival…read more 1. Take the party buses from Arlington. Yes, it's more money, and yes, you have to deal with annoying yuppies on the buses (some of who are already drunk), but it was super easy and beats trying to find a DD. Also, you get seats and tents, plus you get to skip the entrance line. 2. It's a wine festival, in June, in Virginia. It could be cold, it could be warm, or it could be unbearably hot. Be prepared. 3. You can bring in outside food, water, blankets, chairs, tents, etc, which is awesome. 4. You can also bring children, which is not awesome. When I was a child, we were allowed at the park, McDonald's playplace, and the country fair. That's about it. 5. Food trucks, yay! Long food lines, nay! We ate early so we didn't have any issue. 6. Most of the vendors were extremely friendly and fun (some were not). I had a great time sampling the wine. Yes, the pours are just tastes, but we bought a few glasses (and a cigar, too). So we ended up drunk. It was not as crowded as I thought it would be. I never waited more than 10 minutes for a tasting. 7. We bought some wine, and you can pick it up after at a tent outside of the festival. So much better than carrying it around all day! I had a great time and definitely want to return next year.

We attended on Sunday only and luckily purchased tickets ahead of time since the event had sold out…read moreat the door. Despite all the complaints we had heard about the lines, we were able to walk right up to the vendors and taste the wines right away. I'm not sure how many wineries were there in total, but it did seem like less than the 40 that were advertised. Regardless, we had a great time tasting some amazing wines and the checkout process at the end of the day went smoothly when we picked up our wines from will-call. I'm glad we didn't let the negative reviews from Saturday discourage us from going!

The event this year was at One Loudoun. It had the potential to be a great space, but it felt…read morereally sad. We came on a rainy Sunday, which worked out for us because the vendors said Saturday was oversold and tastings had an hour wait. This year, despite having 16 wineries listed, there were only 14 present on Sunday. Most were amateurish with inexperienced pourers. Though the crowds were small, those pouring the wine were in effective at moving groups out of the way for the next tasting. I had attended this event for 15 years, but the last 4 have been under new management and it shows poorly. There use to be over 30 wineries - some larger names like Williamsburg - that could handle the crowds. Unfortunately, poor ticket management and past disappointing location choices have led to the downfall of a great festival. Would I go back again? No, there are too many great wineries that have gone to other festivals. There is no reason to return.

Vick performed as Professor Snape at our twin boys' 8th birthday party. He was amazing to work…read morewith, especially in light of the commute required. We were so lucky he agreed to drive well outside of his usual area to perform. His illusions were mesmerizing, and he expertly handled a room full of inquisitive and skeptical kids by getting most of them involved in his performance. He gave a great message in the end of the performance also, drawing on the themes of inclusion and acceptance from the Harry Potter stories, which the adults present also mentioned as being a highlight. We cannot say enough great things about his professionalism and performance and we would highly recommend him for any event!

We hired Vick for our wedding reception! I was thinking of a simple way to entertain older folks,…read moreyoung children, and everyone in-between -- he was the answer! Vick had a wonderful story line and great tricks that kept everyone's attention! We had some guests that are very skeptical of magic tricks, and he still blew them away! I'm so happy we had him! We ended up starting his show a little late, unfortunately, but he was incredibly patient, set-up, and mingled with a few guests while he waited! He then put on a 45-50 minute show for all of us, and included some guests, my father, and us in the show! I highly recommend him for ANY event -- weddings, birthdays (children AND adult), social events, etc. Thanks, Vick!

So, we came here specifically for bowling and had such a great time!…read more We initially attempted to reserve two lanes, however, reserving two lanes required a $400 deposit. So, we decided to walk in at 12pm on Saturday, which was a much better idea and more feasible. We had no issues with our lanes and had soooo much fun. For shoes and two hours for our two lanes, the charge was about $24 a person.

there's a bartender who was wearing cornrows hair style that was very creepy, he kept staring at me…read morenon stop since I walked into the door. he kept walking by me and standing in front of me to get my attention and talking really loud trying to be cool. I purposely avoided him and only went to the bar to order from other bartenders when he wasn't around, even then when I ordered from other bartenders, the creepy one would run up to me and kept calling out to me to talk to me. I had no issues with any of the other employees, they were not creepy and the other employees were helpful

I love a good light festival that doesn't require me to get out of the car! Even better, this one…read moreis open until 10 on Saturdays. We packed up the kids when most kids were likely winding down for bed and made our way to VA! This Festival of Lights was definitely worth the drive. Each section had a different theme. There was a story book section and a winter wonderland section for example. Also, there are two lanes for cars the whole way which is nice. At the end, there's a carnival! You can choose to explore the carnival or stay in your car ands keep driving home. We choose to explore the carnival. There were camel rides, a petting zoo and some of your typical carnival rides. I personally enjoyed the fried Oreos and hot chocolate. I will be adding this lights festival to the yearly tradition!

We bought coupons just for this ride because the lights were on and looks like it's on to ride but…read moreNO. Everything was overpriced and we couldn't ride what we wanted. Enjoy the lights but the carnival sucked