I have always wanted to go and I finally made it. It was almost a four hour drive and it was worth it. There was so many options of food that I did not leave hungry. It was great to see all the different was geotta was incorporated in food. It was awesome to see a geotta vending machine. I was able to stock up for a great price. There where two different bands. One at each end of the festival. This is a must to visit. read more

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Cincinnati Grill at Goettafest needs to step it up. Some of the offerings are sub par (Cincinnati Grill) Hoping for more from other vendors. We liked the spicy kick of the Goetta slab at Reuben's. Will keep you posted! read more

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Awesome time for everything goetta! Their menu items are always so creative and involve generous portions of goetta. This year we also particularly enjoyed their air conditioned tent and live music as well! If you love goetta, creativity, and variety then look no further for your next place to get it and put this on the calendar the next time it come around. read more

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It's all things Goetta! Goetta games, goetta prizes, a goetta world map! How fun! And it's a local product that is run by a guy who seems to be pretty nice so that's a fun product to get behind. I've been wanting to go to this for years and I finally made it. Will I go again? Nope. But that's because I just like goetta and can make everything I want at home and not dilute it with all yhe other stuff. It was worth going to once, for me. The food would have been better if it actually had more than a tablespoon of goetta on it. They also have plenty of alcohol - ever other booth is an alcohol selling booth - so youre covered there as well. It was fun to go and see and meet the founder's son (or grandson?) and learn more about goetta. Beef, pork, oats, and spices - whatever those may be - make a yummy treat! read more

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I am a first time visitor to this Goettafest. And I was pretty happy with the visit. I am from Cleveland Ohio. So it was a four hour drive to get here. The selection of Goetta food was amazing. The crowd was very manageable. And the people working the stands were very friendly. I plan on coming back each year. read more

Glier's Goettafest - Festivals Near Me - Newport, Kentucky

The problem with festivals is that even if you're interested in the theme and what it has to offer, there's only so many things you can do before you're bored. You'll become full eventually, and I'm not to into the cover bands and water dunking of local children. However, goettafest still receives 4 stars from me. Why? I. LOVE. GOETTA. Love it. So much. I choose where I'm eating breakfast based off whether they offer goetta or not. Goetta is a constant in my fridge and is eaten daily. (In small doses y'all, I'm not about the high cholesterol life!) Therefore, an entire festival, however large or small, dedicated to my favorite breakfast meat is instantly put at the top of the list. Goettafest is similarly sized to other food fests placed on Newport Levee's riverfront. Parking is easy because you can park at the Levee for $5 and work your way down to the festival. I suppose you can park down in the adjacent river parking designated for the area as well, but it doesn't seem as conveniently placed to me. Plus, if you decide to do something else on the Levee, you can head back up and do what you please afterwards. The booths are actually pretty creative with their goetta filled offerings. I shall list the things I've had: - Goetta Big Mac: very large, and surprisingly overrun with goetta. A very good deal for $6 that will fill you up. - Deep Fried Goetta Cheese Coney: pass. Being deep fried made the item as a whole weirdly soggy, the chili was a homemade Cincinnati style type and not tasty, and the goetta was lost in the hot mess of it all. A sad miss. - Goetta Pizza: Very inconsistent. I've had great slices of goetta pizza that were overloaded with goetta bites, and sad last piece of the pie slices that looked like the Italianette $2 slices that came from Catholic elementary school cafeterias. Only worth it if you get a good slice. - Goetta calzone - in theory, AWESOME. A garlic buttery piece of dough stuffed to the brim with goetta and cheese? Sign me up. Execution was poor. There were large dough pockets with no goetta or cheese. While the dough was well made, I paid for goetta. Gimme all of it. Plus, it's rather filling and may stop you from eating other goetta goodies. - Goetta Southwestern Sliders - Basically a normal goetta slider with cheese sauce and jalapeños added. The cheese sauce is unnecessary. I'd rather just have a normal slider with mustard tbh. - Goetta Rangon: small but delicious. The goetta and cream cheese actually blend together well, and it's the perfect snack size so you can keep noshing on other things. - Goetta Balls: the stars of the show, in my opinion. They're always hot and fried perfectly. I've been known to take down a few orders in one sitting. (The jury's still out on whether or not I'm proud of that so I'll just let it be for right now.) I love them whole heartedly. So simple yet so tasty - with some Düsseldorf or spicy brown mustard, they're the perfect treat. Here's the thing about goettafest - you have to really like goetta like me to enjoy it. You can't casually be a fan and find this exciting. I mean, I guess if you enjoy live Beatles covers you might find other fun things to enjoy. But this, just as many other festivals, can only be properly done if you like the theme at hand. Believe me, you will not see me at Cannoli fair or Apple cider fest anytime soon. If you are a casual fan, please be festive somewhere else and leave me alllll the goetta. *For the record, I am unaware if there is a cannoli or Apple cider themed festival around. If there is, I hope you enjoy it. read more

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This year the event lasted two weeks. I attended Friday night 8/2/19 and there was a nice crowd of all ages. A good band playing on both ends of the strip and an array of ways to try Goetta. I would argue that the best way to enjoy Goetta is to fry it by itself, Goetta Fest gives you the opportunity to think about new ways to cook with it. Also it's cool that this is mostly a Cincinnati/Northern KY thing. A beautiful night with a spectacular landscape of Cincinnati, made it a wonderful experience. read more

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Since 2001, the first weekend of August has belonged to Goettafest. Known as Cincinnati's caviar, goetta is a sausage-like meat made of pork, beef, steel cut oats, and spices. The origin of goetta is of German-American heritage. It began as a peasant dish in the 1800s meant to stretch out servings of meat over several meals to save money. Glier's is the flagship goetta producer in Greater Cincinnati, manufacturing around 450 tons of goetta annually, 99% of which is consumed in the Queen City. While primarily a breakfast meat, Goettafest gives local restaurants an opportunity to show off their creative non-breakfast goetta dishes. Combined with carnival games, live concerts, local beer, frozen drinks, and a scenic view of Cincinnati, this is one festival you don't want to miss. Some of the unique dishes include: - Goetta Nachos: topped with onions, green peppers, and a homemade mild cheddar cheese sauce over warmed tortilla chips - Goetta Hot Brown: turkey, goetta, homegrown tomatoes, Virginia baked ham, over toast and smothered in a mild cheddar cheese sauce topped with two strips of bacon - Goetta Hash: Browned crumbled goetta, potatoes, green peppers, onions, jazzed up with a spicy sauce. - Goetta Wrap: cream cheese, cheddar, and goetta wrapped in a flour tortilla and lightly grilled. - Goetta Sushi Roll: with cucumber, carrot, and wasabi - Goetta Fried Rice - Goetta Pizza - Goetta Goobers: donut holes sprinkled with goetta - Goetta Brownie - Goetta Eggroll - Goetta Hoagie - Goetta Chilito - Goetta Chili Cheese Coney - Goetta Philly - Goetta Reuben - Goetta Mac & Cheese - Goetta Bun Link (it's like a mettwurst or bratwurst) That certainly whet your appetite! New to the festival this year is Glier's Cooling Tent: an air conditioned tent with tables and chairs to seat up to 400 people at a comfortable 75º. Another favorite of mine includes Snowie, the make-your-own flavor sno cone booth. The nerd in me enjoyed the Glier's Goetta History Tent with the story behind the meat, and the giant map where guests can stick a pin on the location of where they are visiting from. You may also spot a Goetta Vending Machine where you can purchase a goetta log for wholesale price: $3.50 instead of $5.00 at the grocery. Be sure to keep an eye out for Mr. Goetta, a giant plush cartoon goetta character walking around the festival. He's so adorable, you'll want to run up and hug him. Goettafest is a festival unique to Cincinnati, earning its title amongst the ranks of The Flying Pig Marathon and the Opening Day Parade. Running Thursday through Sunday below Newport On The Levee, find time to come check out some hometown heritage. Admission: FREE Food price: $3.00 - $5.00 each BRING CASH! read more

Glier's Goettafest - Mr. Goetta welcomes you to Goettafest! - Festivals Near Me - Newport, Kentucky

We drove from Charlotte to Cincinnati just to attend this Festival and it was worth it. I discovered Goetta only 4-months ago. I bought a ton of the frown variety at Kroger's while passing through Cincy and was just running out when we found out that they have a festival dedicated to all things Goetta! Love the Newport Levee area. Lots of parking and what a great location. This event has something for everybody. Food, fun, entertainment, swag. Wow! We bought lots of different Goetta items to eat, used the Goetta Vending Machine, got shirts, listened to music, took pics, and learned all about Goetta. Major family friendly fun and very inexpensive. Kudos to the organizers and to Glier's for making me a Goetta addict. read more

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I attended Goettafest to only hear The Rusty Griswolds on Thursday night. At 10pm on Thursday night there was still a crowd to check out Cincinnati's classic 80's cover band Rusty's, lots of vendors with variety of food and drink. They even had a special dance stage up front for all of the Rusty's fans. Good time in August on the opening night of Goettafest. read more

I was downtown for a charity event that finished early, so I popped over to the goetta festival with friends. Even just walking around the festival was enjoyable. They had a great band playing (and even two bandstands set up at both ends of the park). Every option of food was available. You name it or crave it..and it was there. Not into goetta? No worries, there was even pizza. Don't forget to bring your lawn chairs if you want to enjoy the concert. People did stand in the back, but a chair would be more comfortable. Great atmosphere for a summer activity!! read more

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We were only here for a short time but I thought it was a really nice festival. It wasn't too large and had a good variety of vendors and activities. There was also a decent amount of kids activities. The festival wasn't super large but there were two different stages full of live music. Plus a really cool vending machine that distributed goetta! How fun. I liked that this festival wasn't as hectic as some others in the area and seemed like a good one to bring the kids to. read more

Glier's Goettafest - Goetta vending machine - Festivals Near Me - Newport, Kentucky

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Goetta: you either love it or you hate it. People have strong feelings about it. My strong feelings are positive. And we love attending this event every year because of the fun foods you cannot find anywhere else. I recommend giving it a try! Gotta get some goetta! read more

We are from out of town, we have no idea what Goetta is and why it deserves its own festival. Well this was totally a crash course in Goetta, it is a sausage that tastes funny and can be cooked into anything and EVERYTHING. Interesting. Live music, two stages, games for the kids, beautiful backdrop of Cincy. Interesting. Food: 1/5 - No yum. Service: 2/5 Location: 3/5 read more

Oh man, I wanted to love this festival so badly. I'm not sure what I expected, maybe more goetta? There were a few amusing goetta concoctions though: 1. a chick playing a pretty rockin' electric violin on stage 2. a vending machine that only dispensed goetta packages 3. a 2 or 3 story tall blow up goetta package 4. goetta balls 5. goetta fried rice 6. goetta nachos 7. goetta brownies 8. goetta reuben 9. goetta balls 10. goetta mac and cheese 11. goetta philly 'cheesesteak' 12. goetta balls 13. goetta donuts 14. goetta pizza and calzones 15. goetta balls So, get yer goetta ball fix here! And let me know how the spring roll goetta tastes, my adventurous side just didn't kick in in time for me to snag one of those. read more

This review is for 2014 Goettafest. + Live music + Great location down by the river. + Alcohol - Mediocre, not so impressive food. I wouldn't say it's a destination spot for food, but if you want to try goetta in different forms, then check it out. It was kind of pricey in my opinion. I had a goetta jambalaya and was not impressed. It was hard to eat and I think it had bits of shell from the crawfish in it. In the end, I'd probably just eat somewhere in Newport and head down for the entertainment. Kind of nice to just walk around outdoors! read more

In my words, the most Cincinnnati of all weekends is Goettafest. This weekend hooked me back in 2005 when I was visiting from college, and now I make sure I get there every year. The people watching is amazing, the prices are good, and where else can you have goetta mac and cheese, goetta doughnut holes, and goetta crepes all in one place!? read more

Goettafest 2013 offered a wide variety of vendors, which made for a fun tasting experience. Everything was fairly priced, floating between $5 - $7. The few bands we saw were entertaining as well. The small area and poor parking staff were what made it a 3 star event for me. I was told by a parking attendant that the $5 lot was full and was directed to the $10 parking lot. Later I found out that wasn't the case, and I unnecessarily spent double. In regards to the size issue, part of the enjoyment of an event like this, personally, is to walk around. There really isn't much place to walk or to see. All in all, if a friend wanted to go, I'd tag along. But I won't be clearing my weekend to make it. read more

I've been to this festival in the past and it was good but I will not come again. There is a a lot of food anad a few activities for the kids and that's about it. The food prices are reasonable but you get very little for your money. Seems like most if the food is $6 to $7. What is really irritating is they scalp you for a 16oz bottle of Nestle water for $3.25, (0.25 each retail at Kroger). What a rip-off! read more

Waste of time! If you would like to try some real goetta go to Eckerlin in Findlay Market, the quality is so much better. The food at this Goettafest tasted like it had all been sitting under a heat lamp all day, which it probably was. The only good thing about this event is the people watching, a lot to see. When I was leaving I saw a mother describing to 3 policemen a description of her daughter saying that she couldn't find her, meanwhile, the mother had a huge mug of beer in her hand, how terrible. read more