What a great time! This annual event, sponsored by Crisco, is reminiscent of a small town's fair…read more Friendly people abound here, and Pie Pride oozes from every single booth. There are markets, bakeries, and restaurants galore here, all keen to have you taste either their take on a traditional, or point you with special glee towards their own creations. The weather cooperated, the band was great, people struck up conversations with strangers, and everyone got a little sun. I'm awfully glad that Yelp made this a Yelp Event. I didn't see any other Yelpistas, but then again, my eyes were looking at all that deliciousness..... So, come tomorrow- or next year. And, keep you eyes on the pies!!!

One of the best events we have each year is the Great American Pie Festival over at Celebration! I…read morehave gone to this even for the past 4 years in a row and it always is worth the drive. This year, I was lucky enough to get free entry into the never ending pie buffet from our friends at Yelp! Thanks Colleen for the pie! Since parking can be a nightmare even without events at Celebration, we always park by a friends house over by the high school and walk over. It only takes about 10 min to walk over and besides, it is a nice walk back to the car to walk off some of the pie we just inhaled. We arrived on Saturday around 1 pm and found the crowds this year to be a bit lighter than in the past. After checking in with the info booth and getting our wrist bands, we enjoyed checking out all the vendors and seeing if their was any arts and crafts we might want. There is a large booth that sells t-shirts, cookbooks and of course pies! This year, there were also a larger amount of food vendors selling the normal fair type foods. We did not indulge since we were saving room for pie. They also had a zip line contraption that looked like fun. We made our way over to the pie buffet entry. You must have a wrist band or you cant get in! The pie police are watching you. Once inside, we armed ourselves with plastic forks ( I suggest bringing your own metal one if you like) and then started to check out all the booths. There seemed to be less vendors than in the past. Publix and Winn Dixie were there as well as Kroger's and the Village inn. All make great pies but the ones I enjoy most are from some of the more independent pie companies that make unusual combinations of flavors. Bakers Square, Bonerts, Legendary Baking, and Wicks pies are these types of vendors. Yet this year, they only seemed to have a few flavors to try while in the past, they might have 10 or more types. My favorite of all time was a chocolate coated frozen cheesecake on a stick.... but alas, it was not there this year. Sniff Sniff... All in all, it was still a great feast! I will say that most people can eat about 5 or 6 slices before they are done but one friend of mine ate 10 slices! Oink! Some people like to eat one slice at a time while others stop at each booth, grab the ones they want, and then find a place to spread them all out and eat them one by one. After our pig out, we continued to check out many of the other booths that circle the stage. Crisco is the main sponsor but there are also booths for Duncan Hines, Smuckers, and Dunkin Donuts. Duncan was having a bit of a scavenger hunt with their new stir in flavors of frosting. You had to collect all 12 of the flavors and then visit their booth to be in a drawing for prizes. I collected them all, got my ticket for the hourly drawing but never got back to see if I won... oh well... There was also the appearance of Poppin Fresh! and Pie man! Always popular and sometimes a line to get a photo with them. The main stage had an assortment of entertainment including comedian Kirk Marsh, singer Dean Daniels and guest chefs David Sloan and Brian Ehrenholm. If you want something fun to do and love pie, I do recommend checking out the pie festival. The normal entry for adults is $10 and if you eat enough pie, it pays for itself. Our best tip would be go in... eat pie... walk around and enjoy the booths and sights... then go back again for more pie! (Then take a really long walk back to your car!) Enjoy!

This year was the 50th anniversary of the Bloomin' Arts Festival. The shows name comes from the…read morecolorful azaIeas blooming throughout town. There are flowers that top all of the street signs adding to the blooming theme. I always wanted to explore Bartow and the festival gave me the perfect reason to finally come to town to check historic Bartow out. The festival is held the first weekend of March every year. Main Street is shut down and tents are set up along the street. The Bloomin' Arts Festival is staged by the Bartow Art Guild and run by volunteers. The show is juried and they offer awards totaling $12,000. It attracts artists from all over the country. Surrounding the festival is free attractions including an antique car show, Bloomin' Bike Ride, flower show, a quilt show at the free history museum located in the historic courthouse, student art show, kids art/face painting tent, Sunday afternoon Free Concert, and food trucks. Parking is free. It was drizzling while I visited the show but a little rain couldn't ruin the fun. The DJ had a sense of humor as he played every song you could think of that mentioned rain in it's lyrics. I enjoyed browsing the many tents filled with paintings, glass, sculpture, jewelry, leather, mixed media, photography,  wood, ceramics, fiber, and fine crafts. I also visited the museum and enjoyed shopping at the many cute and unique shops, many of which were offering specials sales to coincide with the show. There are so many great places to eat in addition to the food trucks. A tip I learned from visiting the festival is that they set up port a potties on the street but you can use the nearby and much more pleasant restrooms at the history museum. I loved my visit to this festival and Bartow has some beautiful architecture. I adore Old Florida towns. If you missed the art festival they stage an annual sidewalk chalk festival in October.

Establishment set up for Annual Spirit of the Buffalo it's been a while since being at one. I'm…read moreattending Pow Wow Fri and will update review with all there is to offer currently. This event is inside the tee pee at the Farmers Market Arburndale, FL wasn't all set up yet but there was a few getting ready with merch, food, & selling items.

90% of the products for sale are resale. All food vendors are typical carnival food with the…read moreexception of one that sells authentic native american food, however since it's the only one the line will be extremely long.

Another excellent time at the fair grounds! This time for the Dream Asia Fest. This festival was…read moreabsolutely amazing! Hope they come back annually. Buying tickets was easy. Bought parking through the fairgrounds website. Getting into parking was easy and I was navigated to my gate entrance to enter. They had so many food, drink, and shopping vendors. Live music and entertainment from both the crowd and the people running the stage. Great time and a lot of fun!

I'm definitely bias since I've only gone to the Minnesota State Fair which is the #1state fair…read moreturnout in the country every year for the 12 days that it's open. Parking was $15 on-site & fair entrance was free for me with my FL medical professional license ID card since I went on a promo day for it. The best part of the Fl State Fair was the petting zoo of baby goats, donkeys, llama alpacas which was free to enter & pet at your own risk of poop & pee from the animals. Some of the alpacas were very agreeable to selfies lol so funny they knew the assignment well. 5 stars for the animals & zero stars everything else. All the food was terrible. I definitely wouldn't go back again. Even if the entrance fee or parking was free... not worth it. My friends that were born & raised in the Tampa Bay Area told me not to go that it's not worth it... should a listened to them lol. None of my Florida friends wanted to go that have lived in Tampa their whole life. I went for the experience. I didn't go on any rides, my germ radar was on too high alert lol.

I'm glad we went to get the Strawberry Fest (the shortcake was DELICOUS) you had me a shortcakes!…read more The livestock was small and hard to locate. The midway was HUGE! The crowd was WALMART ON STEROIDS! The parking was ok...we got lucky on a spot. Vendor area was like a Flea market. I can't say we will every go back but we survived. See u Soon!

I look forward to the Strawberry Festival in Plant city every year now !…read more The fair runs from Late February into the second week of March every year and offers discounted tickets at local Publix stores. It goes back to late 1930 when local members of the newly organized Plant City Lions club has the idea of an event to celebrate the bountiful harvest of strawberries and boy am I glad they did ! There is strawberry everything at this fair - from popcorn to strawberry shortcakes , ice cream , donuts and even fresh picked strawberries for purchase to take home ! There are a ton of rides, food vendors , Local vendors and live animals for all ages to enjoy! I loved the pig races and eating all the delicious fairy food . I really wanted a pair of red cowboy boots ( yes they have retail vendors on site ) but left without them darn it . Parking is not so fun as there is no designated lot so you have to find a lot to park in and ranges from $10-30. This was my 3rd time coming and I will definitely come back with the family and friends to enjoy fun moments .

Pig Jam is current event in plant city parking is $10 concert is free. Lots of BBQ and Many…read moreVendors. Kids area, lots of fun, food, great family time..

Had a blast the food was delicious and the bands were great.Loved the sausage sandwiches.Will be…read morethere next year.

This is for the air balloon festival. I think the tickets were like $20 per person and then you…read morehave to pay for parking in a dirt/grass field. This year it was really windy so they were having some trouble getting the balloons to blow up or the authorization to start blowing them up. I like that they were really focused on safety first when it came to the balloon festival. When I arrived a little later in the afternoon, just before the sun went down, the guy that was attending the parking area didn't even charge for parking because of the low likelihood that the balloons were going to go up. So that was great! The bandstand was pretty much the only thing that was going on and the band that was playing while I was there was actually really good but there were only about 3-4 people hanging out around the stage. I felt bad for the band. Granted, most people had set up their chairs around the balloon field and were just patiently waiting to see if the pilots would get the go-ahead to blow up the balloons. I went for the balloon glow, which is in the evening. I've been to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta so I know what the glow is supposed to look like. I knew this would be on a smaller scale so I didn't get my hopes up. What was really disappointing was that there really wasn't much else to do while waiting. They had booths set up with people selling various wares and only one main food station with long lines. If this event was any bigger, I think a lot of people would be disappointed at the lack of things to do. Fortunately, the balloons were allowed to go ahead. It was pretty cool. My socks weren't blown off but I appreciate the staff doing the best they could with such windy conditions.

This was an interesting event. Will I do it again maybe, not sure. If I would do it again I will…read moremake sure that I will eat first. Or being my own food, if they allow it. A slice of pizza was $10.00, A SLICE! A tumblr of lemon was $10.00! No refill. A can of coke is $4.00 We order chickened & fries that way $20! $5.00 dollars a chicken tender piece. A corn dog with fries was $15.00 Sooo yeah! Due to to weather they couldn't fly the ballon but they were able to at least at least poof them out. That was cool. The band was really good. I love that traffics to park and leave was super easy. Since the whole reason why we were there was to watch the the ballon fly at night they offer anyone who want to come back at 7:00 am the next day to watch the hot air balloon fly you could. We already had plans. The other cool thing about this place was you can talk to the hot air balloons pilot, see the basket up close & ask questions. Tip: pay for your tickets online in advance it's cheaper.

This was unexpectedly probably my favorite part of Food and Wine last year! I hope they bring it…read moreback! It was inside with some much needed air conditioning! And I liked the black light room and all the cool stuff on the walls. It was just fun! I got the Bleu Spectrum, which was really worth the price just to take a picture of it! The Boba balls were also neat. Definitely worth a stop at Food and Wine!

Five stars for ambiance, creativity, and overall aesthetic. Three stars for wait times, lack of…read moretables. I would say to give this a go if you're at food and wine, but I think now that we've done it once we wouldn't spend the time to do it again. The glow-nut was good. Really sugary, but tasty. The cotton candy and tonic water was super sugary. If you need a sugar high to keep your day going, this is the jam. It's a limited capacity room, so you may have to wait in line outside for people to exit before entering. There are lines inside also for both food and drinks. They make the drinks to order, which is fun to watch. Overall: A Solid place to check out if you're at food and wine!