Twenty-two years and going strong, that's the Santa Monica Festival not me, if only. Although 90+…read moredegree heat was predicted, a light marine layer, cool ocean breezes created a pleasant backdrop to showcase this year's sustainability themed event, as well as, events within like, the Juneteenth Celebration, A Taste of Summer with the Annenberg Beach House and the Santa Monica Farmers Market Challenge which pitted Nyesha Arrington http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-9/bio/nyesha-arrington and Josie Le Balch http://www.josierestaurant.com/ to create a $15 meal for four. I fear this foodie was a festival wimp because I was too wiped to hang out for their food fight. A myriad of activities for folks of all ages with kids really digging the Big Blue Bus and trash recycling truck to hop on and explore. The free bike valet http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/santa-monica-festival-santa-monica-2?select=vH2e66N3SWb9kldxGYxzyg#uVsNV593GV0zcfWGsam18g encouraged leaving the car at home as my friends and I did. Plenty of food trucks http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/santa-monica-festival-santa-monica-2?select=vH2e66N3SWb9kldxGYxzyg#8h3JhmFhSm4yY2dSUK3G3g and even a fashionmobile http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/santa-monica-festival-santa-monica-2?select=vH2e66N3SWb9kldxGYxzyg#_UknuOz5Hw8CSlqpB0GlAw ! Santa Monica is indeed a city of cultural activities and well-honed services to be taken advantage of by all. More here: http://www.smgov.net/Portals/Culture/content.aspx?id=15035 Highlight for me was artist Cassandra Tondro's http://tondro.com/ "From Cans to Canvas" interactive painting experience http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/santa-monica-festival-santa-monica-2?select=vH2e66N3SWb9kldxGYxzyg#wUrJjuqoQeDWgII5lKypig http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/santa-monica-festival-santa-monica-2?select=vH2e66N3SWb9kldxGYxzyg#1rjspkly2CXSvNRTZ6H9sg If you missed today's festival, do bookmark it for 2014, trust me, it's worth it!

We came, we saw, we thronged! From a distance, the Santa Monica Festival at Clover Park looked like…read moreany other free outdoor community event, a weekend sea of pedestrians and rows of white tents and bold lettered banners. But Saturday was cool, Clover's grass was green, and the atmosphere was indeed festive. There were several options for free or metered parking in supervised lots within walking distance, making at least our vehicular arrival and departure quick and painless. After leaving the car, we made a beeline for the park's restrooms, where, as it typically happens whenever we step out to a fairground, we spent a considerable chunk of our visit waiting our turns in slow-moving lines. Plenty of music filled our ears while we waited, especially the notes coming from center stage, where a featured group, The Lions, sounded particularly captivating. We quietly joined standing watchers later on, just in time to see The Lions wrap up their soulful and energetic gig. Festival treats were also close at hand, so we couldn't miss tasting Linde's old-fashioned sugar roasted almonds. We followed our noses to her popular table where I impulsively grabbed us a couple of warm paper cones in a sweet twofer deal. Linde jokingly asked if we were unable to share, to which I honestly replied, "yes." It was a fair-tastic time. The usual apparel gifts and arts-and-craftsy things were available for passers-by to browse and purchase, and interactive activities engaged families, kids, and kids-at-heart. It seemed apparent to us after one walk-through that the city government was out to connect with and educate visitors in exchange for cheap swag and fun, with a number of public service kiosks that let you spin wheels and answer questions for prizes. We didn't get around to checking everything out (see Tess M.'s yelp here: http://bit.ly/11hmlqO for some neat things we missed), but all in all, the Festival was pleasant and low-key, which is pretty much Santa Monica in a nutshell.

I never knew that Little Tokyo does a Haunted Night event, they have been doing this for three…read moreyears already!! It was actually my first time this year in 2019. I am for sure going to try to come to this event every year because it was soo fun. It is a night event where it reminds me of something similar to 626 night market but held in Little Tokyo and is a lot small size. But overall this is pretty fun because you can see so many different people dressing up nd enjoying themselves. There is food to buy from vendors and also things to buy. So shopping around was pretty nice. Food also was super good!! The event is free and pretty safe, I saw plenty of families here that brought their young kids and it wasn't too scary that they were freaking out. But overall everyone was having fun. The DJ and host did an awesome job in music and information. It was super fun and felt really safe in too!

I didn't know there was a Haunted Little Tokyo 2017, but I attended the 2nd edition, full of…read moreHalloween extravaganza of events in this cool part of town. There were cool screenings of horror movies, starting with "Prince of Darkness" on Oct. 5th., showed at one of the locations where it was shot, a fun Block Party on Saturday, Oct. 27th, a haunted tour of the area and there will be a Trick or Treat on 31st. It's a great idea, the area comes to life during this time, there are many activities for the season. People who come here like to dress up anyways, so the Block Party was a fun event to people watch, many cool costumes around, a beer garden, food trucks, DJ, various vendors. It started at 6 pm and went to midnight. The city that never sleeps.... A very cool way to have a Halloween party, I wish they had more acts on the stage, but the Haunted Little Tokyo is a great idea. And it can get spooky...

Love the festival wish it can return in 2023 Games are fun…read morerides are fun and being able to hangout with friends and family during these events makes it a great carnival especially because its so close

Two times out of the year Pacific Blvd. shuts down and the carnival comes to town and every time…read morethis happens I seem to miss it. This time the outcome was different as I finally attended one of these lovely festivals. I came on a Saturday night to spend a lovely time with my community and take in the atmosphere of everyone coming together and enjoying the fixed games and throwing your trash wherever you please. I won a glass cup for making a quarter inside that same cup! I saw everyone else missing completely but not I - I gloated all the way to the bank. Sadly my egocentric world caught up with me as a few games later I embarrassingly missed the basketball game... airballs all the way. On the plus side, I bought a mood ring for $1! The games all seemed entertaining but a wise person once said to me, "I'm not riding anything that takes an hour to build." All in all, I enjoyed my brief stay at the festival and look forward to the next carnival hopefully by fall 2010.

I'm pretty disappointed with the event we attended last night. Purchased VIP tickets and was only…read moreabout 10 people from the front. When we entered at 6:30 (an hour early for VIP), the place was somehow already crowded?? Minutes later, it was hard to even walk inside the hangar. We were shoulder to shoulder with people. Luckily we got to sample most foods. The food selection was great. Plenty of wine tastings and other drink options. The issue was not the food. The problem was how incredibly crowded it was. Around 7:30 when it was time for the general admission entry, I thought there's no way they could fit anymore people in here. Then it became SO CROWDED that you literally could NOT WALK or get to anything! People were bumping into each other trying to get anywhere. It just became an extremely stressful experience trying to get to anything, so we just left. I just want to say shame on LA Food and Wine for overselling and cramming as many people in like a SARDINE CAN! This used to be a wonderful event and I was so excited to finally be able to attend again, only to be disappointed. THIS WAS A FIRE HAZARD! There's no way that many people in that hangar was safe in any way.

A bit underwhelming. Many vendors ran out of food maybe around 9pm. An entire wing turned into a…read moreghost town of empty counters. Bummed I didn't get to sample everything. Tried great scallop, crab, pasta dishes and a tomato soup I really liked. Chocolate chip cookie was outstanding. Blood orange mule was pretty good by Lobos. Other dishes were so so. Definitely not worth the high price tag even after 30% discount.

A really solid event with a ton of vendors selling their products. I loved getting to learn about…read morethe unique snack foods and getting to engage with the people who made the products in many cases. There's so much energy at this event - it gets really, really packed (particularly around the food stand/food truck area). I really enjoyed checking out the local companies, organizations, and vendors, and there was actually a fashion show going on when my wife and I arrived. That was a first for me, and was exciting too. A couple of things to know...there is effectively no available parking the entire weekend within the better part of a mile, so my advice would be to take the metro if you plan to attend, or plan on walking quite a distance. Also, if you're the type of person who gets a little claustrophobic, this might not be your event. I'm planning to be back next year :)

This was a great annual activity! There are tons of great vendors, food trucks with delicious food,…read moreand great entertainment!

I have been to several SFC events but I love their Halloween themed event Boo-ze, Bites, &…read moreFrights!! This particular event was for Final Destination 25th Anniversary! We got merch, played carnival games, went trick or treatin' - so much fun!!

The inaugural LA French Fry Festival was a massive disappointment, a logistical nightmare, and no…read moresurprise--an obscene money grab. For us, the only thing that made the event even slightly palatable is that we had the foresight to arrive more than half an hour early. By 11 o'clock, the lines were biblically long. After checking in, the first thing everyone had to do was go to the token booth (ONE token booth!) to either purchase tokens or redeem tokens that had already been purchased. For those of us redeeming tokens, due to a technical glitch, they initially had to manually look people up one at a time on a printed list of names. Because we were second in line, the delay for us was minimal. But more than an hour after the event had started, people were STILL waiting in line just to get their tokens. The theme of the day was long lines that didn't move. We purchased VIP tickets which, per the website, included skipping the lines. Guess what? That didn't happen. (BTW, two VIP tickets plus a modest number of tokens cost us well over $200.) Everyone, regardless of ticket level, waited in the same lines. I'm not exactly sure what we paid extra for. Oh yeah, a handful of picnic tables with umbrellas that we could sit at and a "free" welcome cocktail, if you had the patience to wait in that line. We did not. There's one factor I hadn't really thought of before the festival and this one is completely out of the control of the organizers. You have to ask yourself, "How many French fries can I actually eat?" We left after two orders. Potatoes be filling! If there is a second annual festival, there needs to be a complete operational overhaul. It really was disastrous. I can't be the only one who feels this way. It seems unlikely that anyone who attended the inaugural event will fall for it a second time. When you sell too many tickets to an event and then underdeliver, people talk. Be better.

I really do miss live shows and getting a chance to get that feeling of happiness when you go to…read moreshows with friends, listen to great live music, and make memories. With the pandemic still very much so at large, we are very limited to these types of experiences, but Insomniac was able to pull this off, while still keeping everyone safe. The only downfall (and quite big IMO), was the wait time to enter the first weekend. We waited over an hour to enter GA, and eventually was asked if we wanted to upgrade to VIP for $50. I wish we were asked this in the beginning, but I wonder if they've been able to fix this problem since then. Also, if anyone has attended this and knows the link to the official playlist on Spotify, please send it my way! I'd love to bookmark this entire playlist to listen in my car.

Tickets are $69.99 during the week, $89.99 Fridays and Saturdays, $79.99 on Sundays. An additional…read more$59.95 to upgrade to VIP (up to 8 people per car) and another $20.00 for the service fee. Yeah, it adds up and it doesn't seem worth it, but if there's 8 of you in the car and split the tab, it isn't too bad. We came through on a Friday night. We opted for the VIP package and bypassed pretty much everyone (that line looked like a thousand miles long, so that alone threw all regrets, doubts and second thoughts out the window!) Bypassing the long line was one thing, but then my passengers' bladders decided to go in sync and in unison all needed a bathroom break BEFORE the drive. The VIP package came in handy once again - they have a separate set of porta-potties for VIP peeps, too! Needless to say, there were no lines there either. So, yeah, off to a good start. I didn't really know what to expect, so I decided not to expect too much. There were a lot of mixed reviews on Yelp (complaints were mostly about the cost) so I kept an open mind. THE VERDICT: Totally WORTH IT. This whole production was well put-together. It was beautifully created with a lot of imagination. The engineering and construction alone were astonishing, how long did it take them to put it all up! And I really liked that they coordinated all the lights' movements with the music coming off the assigned radio station (107.9.) And those souls braving the cold as they entertained us with their dance moves... KUDOS! (I didn't get to see what's in the VIP box but going by how each of my passengers went through it like the Tasmanian Devil, I'm gonna assume whatever was in there was fun!) If this is your thing, here are a few tips: 1) Entry is at Holly and Huntington NOT at the main entrance. If you do end up at the main entrance, they'll reroute you. No worries. 2) You can come through as early as 30 minutes before your scheduled time, but try to be there within that window just for the sake of being considerate. The whole thing is about 45 minutes to an hour, all depending on how slow or fast you go. 3) CLEAN YOUR WINDSHIELDS! I meant to, but I completely forgot. But even with the semi-dirty glass, it was still pretty good. 4) Sunroofs are great! I didn't have one (wouldn't have mattered if I did since I was the one behind the wheel) but I was sorta jealous of the peeps who made full use of it. I imagine that's the best way to experience it. 5) You are allowed to open your windows. Just watch out for fog machines... 6) Take your time and let it all sink in. If you can afford it, I highly recommend it, something cool to do social distancing style. It's an event for all ages and a great excuse to get out of the house more especially during these challenging times.

I walked into my third Unique Markets telling myself I would be restrained this time. I should have…read moreknown that wouldn't happen because I'm only half way through and I have 5 bags on my arm. I absolutely adore Unique Markets and make a point to come very time they're in town. For just $15 you can have access to incredible vendors, music, food, art and overall a wonderful group of people. Everyone is so kind and cool and makes you feel at home. Each year the founder and her team (yes HER) work to curate a wide variety of vendors with something for everyone. If you're shopping for a fathers day present or something for yourself you'll find all that and more. I cannot recommend coming enough. They have shows in Portland, DC, Phoenix and LA. If you can, definitely splurge for the $45 VIP bag. Thanks unique markets!

This twice yearly event takes over the top floor of a downtown arts district high rise and is a…read moreblast! Some sticker shock at the entry ($15), but includes a tote bag I keep in the trunk for Erewon runs for a single bottled water (also $15, so a good deal in comparison). About 100 booths of "shop small" businesses, largely handmade stuff including jewelry, soaps, clothing, cards and gifts, tarot, and food. The booths are run by the artists/sellers themselves which is a great way to connect with these super talented entrepreneurs. Hard to make the rounds without picking up a few items and supporting local artists at the same time, most of whom work out of their apartments. There are some foodie freebie samples and a freebie photo booth too. Meters all around downtown but as of this writing (5/23), self-parking in the building was a flat $8. I ended up with a giant chicken named Bella along with cards, stickers and iron-on patches. Yelpers, you will run into people you know, so the 'no sweatpants' rule applies. See you there.