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 thought it would be fun to go see this fall festival and hang out with friends…read more I was hoping that it would have s lot of food trucks and food options and not mainly art. The river and the park around is a lovely area to walk around on any given day. Today was pretty warm and humid so it was kind of hard to stay out for too long, oh well it's Tampa after all. There was a nice selection of art and different vendors, much like other weekends markets in the Bay Area. For food, though I think it was lacking options. there was donuts booth, coffee truck, hotdogs, kale/ green juice and not much more to choose from. I hope that in the future they will offer more healthy foods and just more options for people to eat and want to hang around.

Gasparilla is the Tampa Bay party of the year. It's the designated day of the year for everyone to…read moreget together and party, hang out, and catch some beads. The parade is right off of Bayshore going towards downtown, a beautiful spot for a festival, though parking is always an issue. Be prepared for some walking or long waits for Ubers if you don't have a DD. The people watching is elite at this festival, and almost everyone is incredibly friendly and nice. Just be careful and look out for creeps, just like any festival they're out and about so be smart

The Gasparilla Piratefest is a must see event. Each year gets bigger & it's slated to have 300,000…read moreattendees. Check it off of your list in Tampa- even if you only try it once!! There's pirates invading the south portion & downtown area of the city & they're tossing "booty" a.k.a. beads, playing music, drinking/dancing while doing so. I've been an attendee on & off all of my life. (Most of my adult life). And in my experience now it's seems there are good times but also a "whole lotta" liquor going on more so than the actual parade. Simply put- try it for yourself & you be the judge!!

I attended Your Tampa Market Pop-up at the Sheraton Riverwalk on 12/12/2020 and 12/19/2020. They…read morehad a lot of great vendors at this Market. I was impressed by how well-organized the market was. There were so many great vendors! Everyone wore face masks. There was hand sanitizer at the booths that I went to. There were vendors on the outside around the pool and bar area and also on the inside in one of the banquet rooms. What better way to shop then with beautiful views of the Hillsborough River and last night was the boat parade which was an added bonus! During this time, it's important now more than ever to support our local businesses who have struggled the most! So, let's get to my shopping! Angie's Fairy Cakes and Parties had some really good prices on bundt cake for $6, Triple Chocolate Chip for $5 and Hot Cocoa Bombs for $10. I sampled some items and everything was so delicious! I ended up buying the bundt cake mmmmm... :-) Chanel's Boutique had a lot of unique items. They had so many different kinds of masks and they were good quality, too! They even had vintage purses and a red 1950s suitcase for sale. There was a really cute 1920s Art Nouveau, leather purse that was going for $200. I looked it up on the internet and a similar one was $225 + shipping. Jennifer Ann's Boutique had a lot of fun holiday, crossbody bags, Christmas ornaments for $8, and face masks for$6. The display was really cute and the prices were not bad at all. I bought some fresh sea moss from BAXXABILLION. It was made that morning. An 8 oz jar is $10 and a 16oz Jar is $20. There were also BAXXABILLION sweatshirts that look pretty high quality. And the owner, Terrence Baxter, told his personal story on how sea moss and also other natural alternatives helped to heal him after he was shot while driving an UBER! He talked about how natural alternatives changed his life, his health, and the health of his family. He's very knowledgeable on natural products. I bought some wine from Brookstone Wine. The wines are locally crafted in Spring Hill, Fl. I got to taste all of them including their delicious Tropical Sunset, Green Apple Harvest, but it came down to the Cranberry Celebration and the Blackberry Blossom. I ended up getting the Cranberries Celebrations but it was a really tough call! They're $20 a bottle. A little pricey but got to support local. I also bought a couple of hand rolled cigars from Smokey's Lifestyle Cigars. The bourbon infused cigars smelled AMAZING. I bought a pack of the Rum infused ones. I think they were 5 for $20. Thr prices were pretty good. There were so many great vendors including Ilianna's Boutique with such great stuff for 20-somethings, Lavish Lab Cosmetics with the most luscious glosses, and on and on. I wanted to buy from all of them but I just didn't have enough money! I put some of their cards in my review if you wanted to check them out. Happy Holidays Yelp fam :-)

I have been to and participated in many "Your Tampa Markets" shows. It's always a great time…read more Incredible food, great art, and a wide variety of vendors. I would highly recommend any of their shows as a great way to spend an afternoon.

This is a two day long festival that was organized by multicultural or society. The events are fun…read moreand interesting. This event was organized along the the Tampa River Walk. There are several city parks were utilized and form several events along the walks. The parks included Curtis Hixon, Waterworks, MacDill, Cotanchobee, Staz, and the Sail Pavilion. The biggest events were hosted at the Curtis Hixon park. It has wiener dog derby, hot dog festival, hot air ballon glow, numerous artists song performance. This year due to dry conditions of the ground, the fireworks was canceled. The concert is still good by the artist. Pepping host the VIP tent that very close to the orchestra concert stage. The crowd show up in number. Thanks to the city for organizing the such a very people event. It has everyone enjoy the free time.

I attended Tampa Riverfest 2017 on Sunday evening, for the free Florida Orchestra Pops in the Park…read moreperformance. I'm not sure what else went on during the day, but Curtis Hixon Park & the Riverwalk area were packed at 7pm. However, the crowds were not so bad that we were not able to find viewing spots or quieter spaces on the Riverwalk, even though we arrived right before the performance was to begin. Lines at the two beer/wine tents were not outrageous, either, at 6:50pm. I also spotted quite a few diverse food trucks, although since we'd eaten elsewhere, I didn't have the appetite to try anything here. We enjoyed very pleasant weather that night, and the music could be heard throughout the park area, even right on the river!

I absolutely LOVE this Sugar Sand Festival. I have been here a few years now and this was hands…read moredown my favorite to date. I went by myself because I knew that it was Dino themed, which I am such a geek about and didn't want to hold up any of my family and friends while I just stared and took the tons of photos I knew I was going to take. Aside from loving the theme, you just have to be in awe of the amazing artwork, skill, patience, creativity, etc it takes to make any of these designs. Like I said, I have been there over the course of several years and honestly, I don't know why I don't make it an annual event to visit. It will never be the same and is reasonably priced. You also don't have people rushing you along to allow for more people to enter. If you feel you do, that is something you allow to happen as I have never felt, seen or heard anything like that. I love hearing people, young or old come in and gasp at the sights and the joy it brings to people while amazing them. To me, this is something that wows everyone, and brings smiles more so to the adults as they understand what it all takes to complete. They always have a sand sculptor present and working so that people can see what goes into the process. They also have a section dedicated to junior or aspiring professional sculptors to showcase their work, which you can vote on by putting in a donation in their boxes to help with their costs (and maybe decide the winner). Even those are wonderful but generally don't match the rest of the theme. 1000% advise anyone in the area during this festival to visit, it is well worth it.

Very cute . Kids would love this it was a dinosaur theme this year . Boys would love this . A lot…read moreof places gave out a lot of free swag. It's spin wheels to win little toys and knickknacks decent prices on liquor five dollars for 25 ounces of Zephyrhills water and aluminum bottle which is very cheap by the way lol I'm very very cold. It was a nice day in Clearwater Beach. It was perfect weather no humidity and very warm couldn't ask for a better day. Definitely if you have a kids this is a place to go or a nice day out with a loved one.

This is a local carnival/festival for the church. Hey bring in tons of vendors and rides and…read moreusually host it three day weekend. Wristbands are the way to go there available for purchase at the church and of course at festival.

Good music, good weather and the most are good food. I am enjoying this festival with a strong…read moreCuban emphasis. This is more into the Latin cuisine then just Cuban food. I have seen Puerto Rican food there. This year Cuban sandwich winners are Aloha food truck (third place), the Floridian (second place), and the no 1 winner is Trias. Their secrets ingredient is salami. The Cuban community here is strong and they do hold this festival every year. Latin music playing at the background and people enjoy their afternoon off with family. We have try Sergio's Cuban sandwich from Miami. The line to get the sandwich is long. It takes me 30 minutes to line up to order. The price is cheap with whole sandwich for $7. I could have just order 10 of them and sell $10 to the people line up at the back. The drinks stand that next to the hot the benefits for the people who are in the line. The sandwich is ok. I have tasted better Cuban sandwich at Miami with better mojo pork. We also order the grilled steak meat from one of the food stand. It was juicy and nice. My wife gets the Puerto Rican food. It has the blood sausage, pig stomach soup, and bacalao fried dough. I like the fried bacalao and the pig stomach. It cooks with yellow bean base. Those are savory. Love the festival. The organizer pull a lot of heart include donation to the homeless to assemble the longest Cuban sandwich.

I gotta say, 2016 Cuban sandwich festival was a disappointment…read more There was maybe a handful of trucks selling 2$ samples, but none of the really impressed me! There were some with mayo (complete sin) and some that did not have Cuban bread! The day was beautiful, the weather cooperated beautifully, vendors and crafts a plenty, the he people were great/friendly. We missed this festival the past 2 years in a row, both since we came on the wrong day and the wrong time! So we finally made it and did it. It would be so much better if they offered a sampler plate with the top 5 to compare side by side, and some beer, sangria something for the palate Not sure we will go back next year, but maybe we will make our own sandwich sampler throughout the Bay Area!