This was The 4Th Annual Tacoma Craft Beer Festival at the 21st Street Park on the Foss Waterway. It…read morefeathered over 50 breweries from allover. The festival was on Labor Day weekend this year which gave it more of an issue to compete with other happenings on the long holiday weekend. As an avid beer nerd there are several things I look for in these types of events, one is is it at a place that is easy to get to and has plenty of parking and then inside has plenty of places to sit. The next is the level of literature about the beers and the breweries featured. And third the "extras" like food and entertainment. Tacoma Craft Beer Festival is at a nice park next to the Foss Waterway which has a major road that goes overhead creating a large shaded area to sit under and that creates an area for the food vendors and honey buckets to be placed. Most all of the breweries are under there own tents and are spread out among the park with almost all on the grass. The stage for the bands was placed a little further away to have more an area for people to listen and not be in other people's way. They had a good list of breweries from all over, local, national and the world. My only real complaint for this year is they did have a map of where all the breweries were in the park, they did not have a list of what each brewery was serving, (This is something every other festival does.) All in all a good summer day spent drinking a lot of good beer.

I believe this is the same festival as before, it having moved into Cheney Stadium since the…read moreprevious year presumably to handle a bigger crowd. Cost was alright, $30 for 10 tastes was fairly reasonable, my only real complaint here was the additional $10 parking fee, which I felt should have been included. Beer selection was great, and we all found a new favorite from a local brewery none of us had never heard of (real ginger ale at 11% FTW). Crowd was good and setting was pretty mellow, though it might have picked up later (we left around 5). There was live music for most of the day, but they were having some issues there. First off, of the 3 bands, one was okay, one was terrible and the last seemed to be having some serious technical problems. It didn't help that the sound system was also horrible, everything sounding tinny and piercing. Logisitics also did not seem that good, it seeming to take quite awhile to swap out bands. Seeing the question about dancing below? It might have helped to lay down a temporary dance floor assuming there eventually were danceable bands playing.

This year was my first time coming to Taste of Tacoma in Point Defiance Park! Over 200 vendors,…read morethis is the food festival event of the year of the year outside the city for the Tacoma area. Parking is super chaotic so park blocks away and just take the hike to avoid paying $10-$20 dollars for a spot. There are packages called "taste of tacoma" vouchers that work like cash where you pay $18 to get 4, $5 vouchers. This gives you around 4 opportunities to taste different things from vendors that generally have a $5 smaller options. Don't be discouraged by the $5 options - these vouchers work like cash where you can buy anything you desire for around $20. Prices are super overpriced for a lot of the meals but what do you expect at a food festival. I never ate anything that was really life changing at this event but it was a good way to hang out with friends, learn more about some local businesses, and leave feeling full and satisfied. I think if you've never been - it's worthwhile to attend this event if you're around the area!

The Taste of Tacoma has made some improvements. I noticed a lot more food vendors, ATM machines and…read moreplaces to sit and eat. Parking is still a crap shoot however you can catch the bus at TCC if you don't want to deal with finding a park. Once your in you must try the fried Alligator. They have liquor for those that need their fix, there's beer, wines and other drink specials. I had a some type of summer punch that was really refreshing sorry no pics I was kinda thirsty. There's a live band playing that mixes up the music from rock to Beyonce. Expect to spend $10 per vendor for a full size sample sometimes more however most of the samples can be shared by two. If I have nothing else planned I may come back before it ends Sunday.

Lots of fun and not too expensive, thanks very much everybody had a good time. Rides, food, prizes,…read morebooths, animals

Helping buyers and sellers connect at the Pierce County Fair at Frontier Park in Graham, August…read more9-12 come see me and my fellow Brokers! Enter to win a TV! But most important come see me!

There are lots of festivals in the area, but this is probably the one most tightly focused on great…read morehand-made food. It's unbelievable how many people turn out to make snacks, dinners, and desserts for this. Even speaking as someone who grew up in this town, I never really noticed this church and all the space it has. You get in free, so they need that space--it gets *packed* by the end of the night. The main space is the big tent out back, ringed by food vendors and craft vendors. You eat very well. Sausages made to order and available only at the festival, tons of other entrees, and especially all the different pastries and cookies...all this stuff is just outstanding. Virtually everything costs just a few bucks. There's music and dancing and traditional garb around, too. They DO want this to be a genuine heritage festival, and among the older generation, there are a bunch of people either born in the old country or whose parents were. I'm the least thing from Greek myself, but just digging around looking for interesting food and interesting stuff to take home, I had a ball. I was out of line all those years I didn't attend (this was the first time).

Heaven. It's just heaven. First off when you enter, you can either go upstairs or downstairs or to…read morethe left? The left is the bakery and should not be missed! Upstairs is the church, downstairs is where it's at....bypass the people in line and head out to the tent. Do yourself a favor and pick out a few enticing items to box up out of the pastry case or grab a box of baklava at the bakery on the way out. My favorite thing at the festival are tiropitas (phyllo dough with Greek feta) they are light and crispy but also very rich and savory. FIND THEM! They are not in the food tent. I enjoy the gyros and the calamari with the garlic potato dipping stuff. (Please forgive me as I know not the proper words for some of this glorious food)..They make little tiny donuts with hot honey sauce over them..and dolomites (not my thing. Grape leaves taste like crap). Sausages. You can purchase a traditional Greek "dinner" for sit down in the church (near the tiropita window!), or nibble your way through the food tent if that's more your style. Any item is just a few dollars. It is a fun experience to watch the greek dancing every hour or so. Go sit in a pew and listen. Light a candle for a loved one. Learn something about the culture you are immersing yourself in. You can purchase Greek food like olive oil and excellent cheeses and other Greek products in the food tent. They use tokens for the food so be sure to stop at the huge line right when you walk in the main food tent to get some..(hope you've had your flu shot. Touching money is bad enough!! But wait! Touch these tokens too)..there is beer and wine available for purchase. It is buffet style seating and I wouldn't have it any other way. Part of the charm is the people watching for sure. I've been going here since I was a kid. So glad to see it's still wildly popular and just as hard as ever to find a parking spot. It is one of the first fall events in Tacoma I get excited in which to participate.

The venue, lines, and number of people is so much better than previously. They only allow people…read morewho bought tickets online. There is a lot more space to walk around - not bumping shoulders in a crowd - and more lines for each activity keeps the wait way down. However, there still isn't much to do, and if there is, it's not labeled well so we had no idea. The shows aren't good, as the audience was mostly silent during every joke. Even the puppet show had kids leaving. Pricing is obscene. The rides (swings pushed by people) are $9. Turkey legs are $21. Axe throwing is around $10 for three throws. The shops are unaffordable by most people. I never once saw anyone holding a bag of something they bought. If prices were lower, I guarantee sales would be through the roof.

Always a great time! Loved the newer Snoho location. Feels like there are more vendors and better…read moreentertainment this year.

I'm still not entirely sure what makes the unique taste of the Northwest food scene. Like in…read moreprevious years, many of the dishes I've encountered don't seem to be specifically Northwest-inspired. Additionally, the "five-dollar sample" might be a bit misleading because many vendors don't offer it as a discounted price like they do for their full-priced entrees, so you don't really get a sample as much as you might think. I understand that vendors are selling food and that they do offer full-priced meals with sample portions. However, the variety of food offered to entice customers isn't consistent. There were free live performances, which was a nice touch. The event was conveniently held over by the tequila bar, which was pretty cool. Lastly, I want to emphasize the inconsistency in the sample platters or products across all the vendors. Customers may not want to pay the full price for all this offer. They might want a sample of their most prominent dishes for the advertised five-dollar agreement that is consistently stated when mentioning the taste of the Northwest. This is what has driven me to this event for the last couple of years, and I believe it needed to be refined. Other than that, I think it was pretty decent. Overall, it's definitely something entertaining and fun to take your family to. It's like a 50% reduction of the state fair-style event, usually held on the fairgrounds.

Tried The Taste NW for the first time and from my experience I enjoyed small samples for a few…read morebucks each from various local food vendors, the shopping, drinks, live music and fun things to do for the whole family. Would recommend to any one!

I have been going to the Fair since I was a child. My first experience was with my dad and his…read morebrother. Me and my cousin went on rides together and were able to both do the rides and food for $5.00. We loved the scones, ears of corn and of course the hamburgers with grilled onions. Now we take our grand little ones and love doing some of the same things with them that we did with our 5 children, visiting the barns and seeing the animals, eating scones and hamburgers with grilled onions, eating ice cream, riding the merry go round and the other rides available and now a ride on the camel for the kids. We visited the spring fair and did over 10,000 steps. Our 5 year old said when it was time to leave... but grandma, I still have steps in these feet... It is an amazing place and we will continue to go annually.

Came here with Chooksedo Sam and it was a good time, but what the heck was that parking situation?…read moreThe people controlling the traffic were doing so poorly that I parked my car where it was open and free, but they started to come up to my car to have me park again for a third time. The staff trying to control too many cars at once when we could just have road guards managing parked cars or cars in "park mode" then moving staff to guide the cars to drive into certain spots of the lot

Summer us flying by. Stop in for local flowers, veggies, mushrooms and more! The cherries are gone…read moreand soon, so will the market close for the season.

The absolute best thing about this farmer's market are the flower stands. There are so many of them…read moreand they really deliver on long-lasting flowers that are beautiful and cheap. I've purchased so many $5 bouquets from here over the years. Food trucks - they have 'em and there are plenty of folks from the surrounding offices lined up to get at them and order. I've never been blown away by something I had from one of the food trucks here and, strangely enough, have had better food from the same trucks in other locations. I don't know what that's about but there you have it. I never use this street for driving, despite working downtown for many years and living in the Stadium District, so I've always thought it was a great location - close enough to get to, not important enough to make me cranky. Though, location does seem to make it easy to forget! October's arrival usually means my house is a little less colorful.