This is an annual festival taking place the Friday after Thanksgiving, with a tree lighting at…read more6:00pm, followed by a delightful parade at 6:30pm. For the 2024 event, most people brought their own chairs, others just stood behind those seated. I arrived an hour early, and set up my chair to ensure a good view, situating myself near Niles Town Plaza, midpoint of the parade route. Then I walked around to explore the antique shops on Niles that were still open after 5pm, as well as a couple merchandise vendor tents outside. Entertainment before the parade included live music by Anthony Arya Band, street performers like jugglers, as well as costumed characters including the Grinch and SpongeBob SquarePants walking down Niles Blvd and posing for photos with kids. I also saw 4 food trucks on site, serving sushi, sliders, chicken sandwiches, and mexican food. And there was a drink stand selling hot chocolate, coffee, and tea for a dollar donation. The tree lighting was not your traditional christmas tree, it was just a regular tree along the street (the one with the stage set up next to it, across from Nature's ice cream shop). But they did make it look pointy at the top, with the lights, lol. Decorated vehicles and performers in the parade represented numerous organizations in the community, including little league teams, East Bay Regional Parks, and Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. Golden Gate Basset Rescue had several dogs being walked with colorful string lights on the leashes. It was adorable. American High School color guard did a wonderful job with their performance, and marching bands from various schools and institutions created impressive sounds on percussion and wind instruments galore, including the bag pipes. There were plenty of cars in the parade too, adorned with beautiful designs, lighting, and props to put you in the holiday spirit. The crowds grew as it got later into the evening. But it never became chaotic or unmanageable. The event seemed to be organized well, yet still casual and flexible (like people could cross the street during the parade), even with a heavy police presence. It was such a laid back and joyful atmosphere, free to attend, and parking and traffic isn't too difficult if you arrive early and leave early before the parade ends. Otherwise, good luck.

I feel like the experience gets bigger and better every year! Been coming here for 3 consecutive…read moreyears now and have enjoyed it every time. I'm a big fan of local functions and activities and community involvement so this Christmas tradition is always a delight. My son loves seeing Santa and Mrs. Clause! He enjoys the entire parade full of cars and many lights with local performers. our friends and family always gather here every year now as part of our new tradition. We have a friend who lives on the street where they have the parade so her place is usually our usual spot. We've started bbq'ing and drinking before the parade as part of our festivities and then head over to Papillon's down the street for our dinner to celebrate Christmas season amongst friends. I appreciate Fremont a bit extra for having this tradition that I feel we are a little late in experiencing but now that we have, we refuse to ever miss it if we're in town. (We live in Southern California now.)

This is the big summer festival for Fremont. First the good. This festival has everything. There's…read morea section of rides for the kids. They have a nice selection of local services. You can maat and talk with the local emergency services employees (firemen,police, EMT). I like how the food vendors were all along the same row. It's nice to say some new vendors, along with same old usuals. Now the bad. No parking,or charging $10 for parking. I saw everyone parking in the shopping center. Even though there were signs stating no event parking. Otherwise you had to park way down the street. For such a large Indian population,not much if anything representation,no Indian food vendors. I personally feel there weren't enough garbage cans near the food row. Most were full or needed to be emptied. But still a great time.

IMHO 5 years since…read moremy last review. Went on a Sunday this year. Hoped it would be cooler. Nope. Still lots of vendors, but many were different and new. I missed my favorites. Understandably, prices are higher... but dang!!! Normally my hubby and I like to buy a Lockeford sausage roll but they weren't there! Nothing piqued my foodie interest this year. Before we left, I bought a medium Dipping Dots bowl for $8. It was the perfect way to end our visit. It was very refreshing. The only item I purchased was a colorful wind spinner for $15. It brings me joy when I see it spinning in my garden! Will we return next year? Probably.

DIG DEEP FARM PUMPKIN PATCH REVIEW: This review is for the pumpkin patch at the harvest festival…read morepresented by Dig Deep Farms. This pumpkin patch is perfect for families with young ones. Besides pumpkins, there's a crafts table with stickers and coloring, a "corn maze", haystacks for climbing, old tractors, and a tented area for sitting. The corn maze is made of tall sunflowers which the little ones can see through so they never feel like they are lost. There's also a little hay house that's like a single room, that they walk in and exit a few feet away. It's a toddler's version of a haunted house. So cute. The pumpkin patch is only there for a few weeks before Halloween, and we make it a point to visit it every year.

This review is for their Halloween pumpkin patch…read more Short Story: A great place to take your kids to for Halloween! The patch area is quite sizable with lots of pumpkins of all sizes that you can choose to buy, a very short corn maze, lots of areas to take pictures, etc. The prices are quite seasonable with $5 for adults, $3K for kids, and under 2 is free (no ID checks). Verdict: I'm definitely going back!

Took my niece and nephew here and my nephew kept screaming "best day ever" while running around, so…read moreI'd say this place is a resounding success! We went at around 9 pm on July 4th and there was still a lot of people but not enough to dampen the experience thankfully. Tickets are easy to grab online and there is ample parking available because it's in the great mall. When we first walked in we were greeted with lots and lots of foam. Foam in the air like its snowing, and foam on the ground. My nephew was so excited and kept running through it excitedly which was cute. We were also told the last show of the day was about to start so we luckily caught it. Loved watching all 3 performers - aerial, juggling, and hoops. From there we just walked around and saw as much as we could. The little rooms they have with different decorations and aesthetics are great for pictures and selfies. There are so many good photo ops that I basically spent an hour being the munchkins personal photographer :) was a great time

Saw this event on my feed on Facebook and brought my daughters over. They both absolutely love it!…read more There is so much magic on this exhibit! It was just beautiful! It is so fun to see them laughing and skipping and jumping around. It really melts my heart. Yeah. Lots of photo ops for all of us. The exhibit also had a small acrobatic performance and a show that a transformer changed into the robot from the car. This was not communicated. We figured out when it was too late. Wish these timeline were either on their website for informed when people checked in. The flowers are beautiful to look at but it had the plastic smell. Also there are some rooms that we just can't breathe with so much chemicals..: hence one star off

We attended this annual festival at Fremont's Downtown Event Center on Saturday afternoon, and a…read morehad a positive experience. Free parking was available in the lot for the plaza and the place wasn't crowded and had an awesome laid back vibe. There were a few merchandise vendors, and we ended up buying some salt-free spices. They obviously also had a good amount of beer tents, but you could only get beer by purchasing a tasting package for $50-60. It's a pretty good deal for an all day affair, if planning to try a lot of the different beers on site. But not for us on this day. They had about 5-6 food vendors on site, but some of the tents were out of burger-related dishes by the time we arrived in the early afternoon (ie. Kay's Creations was out of their classic cheeseburger lumpia and loaded cheeseburger lumpia). Still, I liked the diversity in the festival's food offerings overall, food trucks selling halal and pakistani menu items, a cheesesteak truck, and a taqueria (Rincon del Cielo) also selling lamb and beef burger specials which we ended up trying (it was yummy and cheesy!). They also had a burger throwdown and competition with awesome trophies for best burger and People's Choice best brew award (yes, the trophies were shaped like a burger and glass of beer... of course I took pics!). Our favorite part of the event was the live music on stage. We spent a majority of our time picnicking on the grass and lying around while listening to the sounds of the Evan Thomas Band. The sound quality was excellent, and the band was outstanding as they played mainly blues music for the small audience. The festival overall was quite small, but it was free to attend, and on such a beautiful sunny day, we enjoyed our visit.

The Fremont Burger & Brew Fest was this past Saturday, 5/21/22. $40 in advance (+ tax & service…read morefee) or $50 at the gate for AYCD beer...way way too much. How much beer do you have to drink to make it worth it? With your spiffy wristband, you can indeed fill up your 4 oz glass as much as you want. Here's the rundown: ================= * 12 breweries ...and a 3-4 whiskey booths for an extra $10 ticket fee * Community booths * Artisans * Food Trucks (10 or so) for separate purchasing Burgers?: ======== * For the price, shouldn't it include a burger, or burgers? * Shouldn't a event name like this feature, or in addition, serve up the best burgers in the city? * The Food trucks, none of which were BURGER trucks, had a special of the day BURGER ($12-16) to their menu offerings. Two of the trucks were the ol' "roach coach", not specialty trucks. Additional problems I have with this event: ===================================== * The breweries were mostly pouring out of cans, and a few out of a keg. * It felt small, like a small community fair (that's what it is, actually). Positives: ========= * I really liked Shadow Puppet Brewing from Livermore, CA (#1 at the event) * Oakland United Beerworks was #2 (in my opinion) The bottom-line: =============== It's for beer drinkers. They can take their 4 oz glass and sample the heck out of those breweries. You can, if you wish, walk the event unpaid, and still eat at the food trucks and check out the artisan and community booths.

Thank goodness we bought our tickets online! Still had to wait in line, but it was fine. When I saw…read morethe big Asian cat, I already knew it was going to be mostly Asian. LOL Now that I read some of the reviews, it's true it didn't say "Asian" Night market on the flyer, but it almost seemed like one, having most of the vendors being Asian, which I was totally fine with! Although, I wasn't able to find any Asian vendors that were shorter lines, so I ended up eating mini burger and fries at Food Truck Mafia, which was like the only short line. LOL. The sliders were really good. The lady that helped us though, was really rude though. Honestly, I just wanted to eat something & not waste my time in the 1+ hour lines. At least I got to have Milk Tea at Bubbly when it got darker at night, when it surprisingly got shorter lines. (hello, night market, surprised it died down quick.) People are saying they didn't get Boba in their drinks, I was OK with grass jelly, which I got to get! So cool these bottles were & a keepsake. I also got to visit my friends booth, "Simply Lovely Catering." Those Hawaiian donuts though. Yummy! Sam's Matcha was worth getting too, because it had green tea AND red bean inside. #HEAVEN It was really cool to see a booth set up for karaoke. Also a booth set up for children's reading/telling stories. My least favorite was the merchandise vendors, I just skimmed through, nothing interesting to see. I would definitely come back.

The 4 stars is for the vendor (whom I cannot remember the name of) which was stationed right next…read moreto Jaden's Kettle Corn on Friday night (the 13th). They served the best Hawaiian Malasadas with a banana filling. These balls of warm dough were generously showered with sugar and cinnamon and served with a side of goat's milk caramel. Price: $7.50. Haven't had malasadas this satisfying since my most recent trip to Maui this year when we dined at The Mill House. We were served with an identical version which was just as satisfying! With each bite, I was transported back to my trip to the islands. I looked at the list of vendors on the Bay area Night Market website and could not locate them. Would anyone know who this vendor was?

Always the best! Concerts so fun! Clean and safe! You can spend the whole day exploring. They have…read moreeverything from food, to animals, to stunt bikes to drones and much much more.

Waste of time and money, one of the worst festivals ever. Charge $15 to park, $25 to get in, jump…read morehouses for kids additional charge per jump house, nothing else for kids. Food vendors ok but not enough for the crowd, merch vendors mixed - some very cheap, some ok, a few excellent quality. Set up for eating was awful - picnic tables spread across open asphalt pavement - no umbrellas and not enough seating for the crowd. Hot!!! Families were sitting on the sides of dirty concrete planters or dirtu steps trying to eat. Everyone was trying to find a little shade. Inside the buildings where merch vendors booths were located the AC was either non-existent or not keeping up. Never will I take my poor mom to this again. The organizers should be fired.

I won tickets to this event through the yelp east bay instagram contest. I was super excited to go…read moreand learn about the cultural and try some food and enjoy the festival. What was included was booths lined up after the entrance gate that had all sorts of things like bracelets and henna Turkish desserts. After that you got to the food court area. There were many options you could choose from like drink shaved ice and bbq. In the back were a few rides going on. There was also a little dome that held some music and cooking demos. For food we tried the chicken lumpia and a briyani plate with chicken tikka kebab on top. The lumpia was really good! Sometimes when you order lumpia they come all oily in the middle and super hot. These were cooked perfect. Nicely rolled where the inside was just the stuffing and it was crispy and delicious. The briyani was excellent as well, a little on the spicy side but full of flavor. The chicken was cooked perfect not tough and not undercooked. Yum! Why I took off two Stars was I thought I was going to learn more about some of the cultures. I did not. There were some shows but they were at strange times and not happening all through the event.

At first glance the festival looked tiny in a huge furniture parking lot off of Stevenson Blvd…read more Upon entrance there's quite alot of non food stalls (going on an empty stomach made me rush through) selling from household items to spices, clothes and one stall with a variety of Turkish delights. Narnia comes to mind. The pistachio was pretty delish, but really sweet. It'll pair well with tea I'm sure. Rounded the corner and that's where the treasure is at. BBQ, gyros, bean pies, schwarmas, Puri bites, kabab plates, burgers, smoothies, Rita's Italian ice custard and gourmet ice cream! About 10 stalls in all, but quality is where it's at. We came at noon when it opened so the grilling was just starting. We started off with Puri bites to wet our palate. $3.50/6 pieces! Great deal IMO. Dahi Puri is a crispy shell filled with mashed potatoes, tomatoes, tamarind sauce, onions and crispy bits on top. It was delicious. We then tried the Pani Puri. Same crispy shell but filled with tamarind and green chutney sauce. Eat it right away otherwise the shell gets soggy and you'll have to pick it up with a spoon. Trust me. The line for the peshawari kabab stall was amassing quite a line and the person manning the stall was a bit overwhelmed. It took some time for me to get our $2 mango lassis because he was torn between taking orders, getting change, passing out drinks AND food. The poor guy. We waited about 20 min for my lamb kebob plate for $10. Luckily the lamb was succulent and grilled to perfection. All's well that ends well. We got gourmet ice cream from Golnazar at $5/ small tub. Just the right proportion to end on a sweet note. The also had cooking demos and live music, but we left before that started. I'll return for the Puri for sure, but it was a great outing on the weekend. I hope they continue next year because the food is on point.

We visited the Palo Alto Festival of the Arts this past Sunday, and had a wonderful time exploring…read morethe many activities and vendors along University Avenue, a row of seemingly endless booths. Food, art, and merchandise  galore, to be viewed and/or purchased. Fascinating art displays caught my eye at every corner, so unique and simply remarkable. The Italian Street Painting Expo featured pastel paintings by chalk artists (my fave was the Sleeping Beauty piece... cuz how could I not love the rabbits in the boots!). Chopin & Chandeliers was an interactive piano with a "play me" sign just calling for musicians among the crowd to showcase their talents and entertain attendees under a shaded tent decorated with chandeliers sculpted from upcycling materials (ie. plastic bottles). The live entertainment was amazing and enjoyable, getting the crowd on its feet and in the mood for this joyous event. The rhythmic sounds of the violin and keyboard, by Tom Rigney & John R Burr, was a treat for my ears. And the late afternoon band on the Waverley Stage, The Cook 'n Fenny Combo, kept the good vibes going, heavy on the harmonica, tambourine, and guitar, performing hits like Joan Osborne's One Of Us. This was a great festival with free admission, lots to see and do, well organized, welcoming atmosphere, friendly people, and easy street parking less than a block away in the afternoon.

First time here to this upscale art festival as after all the toney, well heeled folks in this area…read morehave disposable money. I really enjoyed this festival and unlike other festivals in the Bay Area there were not as many food vendors which was fine as University Ave has a plethora of great restaurants to choose from.