The best In entertainment...great location...great for people gathering and watching....the…read moreatmosphere is beyond...entertainment is beyond...food and drink - exceptional...this is a must for festival goers in the East Valley of Arizona

This was a ton of fun! Awesome venue! Beautiful location and views; very clean! There could have…read morebeen more port a pottys and some ran out of tissue. There was a ton of food and many options to delight any culinary palate. Lots of wine, beer and liquor set up in convenient places. We loved the music of Berlin and especially Huey Lewis. It was a beautiful, sunny AZ day topped with all the other things to make an event near perfect.

Even after living here for years, I never seem to make it out for the Olive Mill's Garlic Festival…read more I finally went this year! After hearing so much hype about this, it was underwhelming. Maybe it was the nearly 100 degree weather in the direct sun? A few of the vendors gave samples, but most were merely selling their artisan fare. Only great thing was getting to buy some garlic cloves so I can plant garlic in my garden for this season. I missed the ordering window from my usual Arizona farm. The table to make yourself an olive branch crown was also a quaint but it was too hot to stand out in the sun longer than necessary. My advice is to attend this event early in the day! Expect a crowd if you are attending this. My honest opinion is check out the Olive Mill's any other day of the year. Lots of unique items and locally grown olive oils and vinegars are there to purchase all year long.

Went on a late saturday afternoon 9/23/23. This festival takes place at Queen Creek Olive Mill over…read morea couple of weekends. This is a decent family friendly event since there are plenty of activities to do. Things like classes on how to grow and cook garlic, garlic vendors, face painting, raffles, corn hole competitions, and live music. I came here mainly for the food. They have several food trucks and the olive mill building itself has several eating establishments inside of there. Got in line for Del Piero Kitchen and ordered a Drunken Garlic Pulled Pork Sandwich. For $15 it came with a side of Sicilian slaw and del piero olive mix. The sandwich itself had olive wood smoked pork shoulder, carmelized pineapple and prickly pear agrodolce made with prickly pear white balsamic reduction, house Sicilian slaw, on a Noble brioche bun. Was a bit disappointed. Seemed to lack flavor. I ended up pouring some drunken garlic bbq sauce from the $9 bottle that I just purchased in which it gave it somewhat flavor. I could only eat half of the sandwich and didnt want to force myself to finish it even though I was still hungry. Since I was not satisfied I wanted to go check out the two food trucks that were there which were It's Seoul Good and Chef on the Go. Both were closed up already and getting ready to leave which I found disappointing as well since the time was only 6:30 pm and the place closed at 9. Ended up going to McDonald's after to get a McDouble just to satisfy my hunger. Some useful info: Place is located on the corner of W Combs Rd and S Meridian Rd with the entrance on the west side of S Meridian Rd. Parking is free and is on a dirt lot so wear the appropriate footwear. Admission is free. This event is in it's 10th year so it's been going on since 2013. There are several port o potties if you need to go to the bathroom. Make sure to grab a free informational guide at the entrance which gives you an overall map of the place and schedules of events. They have misters where the outdoor dining tables are for your convenience. For the Garlic Fest there is a separate garlic menu just for this event. The olive mill itself has it's own normal daily operations in which you can check on their website at www.queencreekolivemill.com Overall, my visit was just ok. If you have been to the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, this does not compare for that one was bigger and you had more food options. So if you come to this event, don't set your expectations too high. Yelp 2023 Review #29 922 overall

HUZZAH! Who doesn't love a good renaissance fair visit? This is my third time going but my first as…read morean Arizona resident. Each and every time has been great. It's a hit or miss with the weather, you might get 70° and you might get 100° but that's just the look of the draw and the season. Pro tips: arrive early to avoid crazy traffic, bring an umbrella for some sunshade, you can bring one sealed bottle of water per person, and wear shoes that you're not afraid to get dusty. There's plenty of food & drinks for purchase (cash only), lots of shops with great trinkets & garb, tons of shows like the main joust and fire whip, a petting zoo area and lots of walking. It's fun for all ages! Don't be afraid to dress up & live your full on fantasy.

Huzzah! I attended the Houston Renaissance Festival three times over the years. It's one of the…read morelargest in the world and there's even an HBO documentary about it. So, I was excited to see how the Arizona Renaissance Festival compared. I stopped by with two friends on a Saturday close to 1 p.m. The start of the experience wasn't great. We hit bad traffic on the way there which extended our commute time by about 45 minutes. From what I've read, this seems to be the norm. I wish there was someway around that. But, once we arrived, things got a lot better! Since it was our first time, we spent a good amount of time walking around and taking it all in. We drank some mead (which is obligatory at ren fest). We had some good food. I had a sausage on a stick. I'll get to the rest lately. Also grabbed a refreshing smoothie. You have a good variety of food options with all that you would expect including turkey legs. The highlight for me was stumbling across chimney cakes. If you've never had them before, it's a must. They're a famous Hungarian/Romanian dessert which I wasn't expecting to come across here. This dessert has been a thing for hundreds of years and they will make them fresh for you. I had a S'mores one. Prices for food and drinks are reasonable by festival standards. Outside of food and drinks, there's plenty to entertain you. There are vendors selling everything under the sun. A lot of people dress up (which makes for elite people watching) and they have themed weekends (Celtic Weekend when we attended as it was close to St. Paddy's Day). A bunch of performances at various stages throughout the park. They have three jousting performances daily that are held at their biggest arena. We attended one of them. While it was quite hot when we were there, we still had a great time. You can bring in an unopened water bottle and a backpack. There are water fountains outside of the bathrooms. Lines for food and drinks tend to be too long. That's one of the only downsides of the experience. Also, if you get your ticket from Basha's, you'll save less than a dollar compared to the price of buying your ticket online. So not really worth it unless you're already planning to shop there. Parking is sponsored by Basha's and it's free so that part is appreciated. While I don't think I would go to ren fest every year, it is a cool experience that I'd check out every other year or so. I'd definitely love to check out some more of their performances. And continue to get into character by referring to everyone as my lord or your grace.

I have to say I didn't realize how crazy busy this place would be. Of course I like my country…read moremusic so there was plenty of that a lot of different vendors and people just selling products. The wait is very long. I would say parking was difficult Due to how busy it it I lucked out and found one not too far away. I will say if you don't like a lot of crowds this is not for you because you're literally side-by-side with people.

The only reason this gets any stars is because of the kids section. The parking situation was a…read moredisaster. No one to direct traffic in the lots so people were parking TERRIBLY. Once inside the lines for tickets so you could get beer and bbq we're out of control and they kept running out of tickets entirely. Hubs and I ended up not eating or drinking anything. Luckily, we brought water for the kiddos. Got the unlimited rides wrist band for my 4 year old and let him run amuck. He had a blast. Which is good because nobody else did. We ended up leaving pretty early because we were starving and they had AGAIN run out of tickets and the lines weren't moving. Took a while to figure out how to get out of the place since it was set up like a maze. Got to my car which was boxed in along with 3 or 4 other cars in the lot we were in. Police were there to help some people out and after a 47 pt turn I was able to escape the lot, but it was truly nightmare inducing with the overly tired 4 year old and hungry 5 month old. Actually, hungry everyone. Thankfully, I had gotten free tickets so I wasn't out anything but the wrist band. Hopefully they can get some organization together before next year! It has the potential to be a really fun event, but they need to overhaul the drink/food ticket and parking lot situation.

We attended this event with a group of friends. They closed off one of the streets in San Tan…read moreVillage Mall and the vendors set up their tents There were plenty of tastes of the various foods that the vendors brought with them. The cost of admission included up to 10 drinks which was about eight more than I can typically drink so it was a little bit of a waste to buy ticket that included 10 alcoholic beverages. We had a great time. Would definitely consider going back next year. There was a nice variety of vendors.

What a great event! Great food by the restaurants in San Tan Mall, great beer, great music, just a…read morefun time overall. My only complaint would be the restaurants need to provide more vegetarian/vegan choices. My friend had to go to Chipotle and buy dinner since she couldn't eat much of the food offered. The event would probably get even more attendees that way! Either way, a great way to support a wonderful cause.

I've been in the area just over three years and have been meaning to get there…read more What a cool setting! Lots of shade in hot weather. I walked in wondering what I'd order, not even knowing what they serve. After seeing a few plates of biscuits and gravy and speaking to the ladies that were enjoying it, my decision was made easy. I make biscuits and gravy and mine is my judge on the worthiness. This was pretty darn good. And I'm typically disappointed when I do try it. Biscuits were large. Gravy was nice and chunky and not too salty as most seem to be. I ordered a side of country taters. Also tasty. So tasty that when I went to order a coffee a blackbird decided to swipe a few. The pastry case called me too. I got a Blueberry muffin and a Cherry Turnover. Both fantastic, although when I got home I wondered what I ordered because it was $16. For two pastries? Nah. Great family atmosphere.

Super crowded in cafe Bought cookies and peaches…read more Both were horrible Don't waste your time

We've been going to the fall festival for years now. It is the same thing every year. The kids…read morestill love it. My 6yr old just became big enough to go down the slide and was ecstatic to go down after waiting for like 3 yrs. Definitely buy tickets ahead.

What a great time!! Plenty to do for the entire family. Pumpkin patch area in the front if you…read moredon't opt in to do the Fall Festival - no entry fee required for that and pricings are very reasonable! We got a giant pumpkin for our toddler to carve when we went on the weekend and there were way too many people for our liking. We came back during the week and it was much better so I would suggest going during the week right when they open at 3pm so you've got plenty of time to enjoy all the festivities. Admission: $12 general admission $10 with donated canned goods $6 for one-day pre-sale Kids 2 and under are free :) Free parking! I love that admission includes so many activities for kids to keep busy for hours. This year they added in a photo booth at the entrance which is so cute to help capture memories - often time it's hard to get a picture of the entire family if one person has to be the photographer so I hope this stays for the years to come! Corn maze, pallet maze, jumpers, train ride, petting zoo, slides, etc. are included. Food for petting zoo ($2) and pony rides ($5) are extra. Some things to keep in mind: They do not enforce mask policies here - you can wear them if you want to. Very dusty from all the dirt so maybe masks would be a good idea :) I would recommend wearing close toed shoes because of all the dirt/dust so you don't end up with brown feet... unless you're into that!

The Chandler Jazz Fest was a great time. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere was relaxed and…read moreeasygoing, and the artists were outstanding. If you plan to go, don't forget sunscreen there's very limited shade, mostly just under trees. Bringing a camping chair or blanket is a must unless you want to stand the whole time or sit in the grass with the bugs. Parkin was easy to find and FREE!! There were a few food options, including a lemonade stand, popcorn tent, pretzel cart, and what looked like a burger stand. Most of the other tents seemed to be craft vendors or event sponsors. We went earlier in the day and left before dark, and it's definitely something we'd look forward to attending again next year.

Loved the annual Chandler Jazz Festival this weekend. It's completely free to attend and there are…read morenumerous bands that play all up and down the street, as well as at the main stage set up in the middle of downtown Chandler at A.J. Chandler Park. It was a beautiful afternoon and after watching some of the jazz bands we walked down the street for a glass of wine at one of the nearby merchants.