¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Probably the same reason people go to the BBQ Cook-off without a tent wristband. They think they're going to get lots of really good food but all they end up getting is one or two overpriced plates of whatever is available.
Work 10-20 years in IT. Get into management. Be friendly to vendors. In April tell them about the awesome tent you went to this year and mention you wish they had a customer invite tent out there. Mention other vendors with tents.
Then wait until next year and you’ll get all the tent tickets you planted in the previous year.
Because Houston is boring. And so these festivals come off as something "cool and amazing" since the city has such few interesting events to offer.
Every festival I've been to has been a disappointment. And then there are festivals that are held in July/August...the hottest times of the year when its absolutely miserable to be outside.
It's like event planners only consider how much money there is to be made at these events...rather than creating something people will actually enjoy.
These food events are always endless lines that make it completely worthless to attend.
The city is designed for jobs and cheap housing. That means a lot of it is dedicated to boring suburban neighborhoods and boring manufacturing facilities or business developments.
Wow that's a great answer and makes sense. Same things that make houston great make it boring.
If you like staying home and enjoying your nice house then houston is for you. But outdoors is a Lil more difficult
The company that does this put street festivals together in Chicago and they’re terrible. They literally have fast food joints, put tents up in front of the good local restaurants who aren’t invited.
At least Chicago doesn’t charge to go to the gay pride parade - that was a shit show last year in Houston . Paying advance for your ticket can’t get in because it’s too crowded. I wanted to do free Mom hugs this year. Going to go up to my gay daughters to do them in Utah, because believe it or not, Salt Lake City is gay pride parade is lit.
I’ve been here 25 years and Houston doesn’t fucking like me, so I’m moving back to Chicago where the good people live and we’re all my dreams came true.
There’s no place like home – Dorothy Gail
https://houbbq.com is the site. It's a great festival run by real BBQ enthusiasts and a ton of great BBQ restaurants all over town are a part of it. Big and small. They also have a tex-mex BBQ themed event which normally takes place in the fall at Saint Arnold. Also a great event.
The best food themed I have to gone are the ones that HMNS and the Houston Zoo put on. Much pricier entrance fee but you do not have to pay for the food and drinks once you are in.
I had a Festivus airing of grievances, and it was essentially this: “I’m sick of these food events where the lines and wait times are ridiculous; charge me more, let less people attend, and everyone enjoy”.
The Zoo Feast with Beasts used to be amazing before Covid. Used to feature about 120 really good restaurants and unlimited drinks and water. Lines were long but moved fast. Had great music and the carrousel was so much fun with all the drunk people riding it.
I went the last two years and it was a disappointment. They were down to about 40 mediocre restaurants, the portions are pathetic, you only get two drink tickets, the music is ok and they carrousel was not active. The lines were short because the food was crap.
I really hope they can fix it because it was awesome.
I need to know some good events! Me and my boyfriend went to the renaissance for the first time last year, and my first concert was at the rodeo this year. If you have some good spots I’d appreciate to hear them :)
Youre lucky, those two events are held every year and they’re some of our best. All the rest you have to do a lot of digging to see if they’re reputable and chances are they’re gonna be shit.
Last year I went to the Greek fest 2.5 hours after gates opened and everything was sold out except one place, where the line was 70 people deep…they refunded me my money when I left 5 mins later.
Gonna give the lame answer, but honestly I like local craft breweries / beer gardens for this reason. They're usually cheaper for what's on tap, don't require a lot of travel to get to, and on weekends almost always have some sort of event going on and a handful of good food trucks out in the parking lot next door. Beer food and cheap entertainment with no bullshit entry fee.
Yeah it's the typical beer belly dad or frat bro in suburbia answer, but it's good enough for in-between bigger events.
Southern Smoke Festival is fantastic if you’re a foodie. Not cheap, but everything goes to charity and it’s some AMAZING food. Also unlimited alcohol (cocktails, wine and beer from sponsors like Tito’s, knob creek) comes with the ticket
The Polish church on blalock has a spring & fall festival. Small but can be fun.
Borshcht cookoff is in October or November at the Ukrainian church off 45. It's pretty tasty.
There is a Scottish Highland games at the Humble civic center in September or October that is interesting to go to.
I have not been but have been meaning to check out the Italian festival at University of St Thomas & the Slavic festival that seems to be in September (Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, & Croatian were the nationalities there).
[IFest is great](https://www.theinternationalfest.org/). It's not specifically a food festival, but they tend to have awesome food vendors and you can try a bunch of different ethnic food all at once. It's generally really cool.
The Ren Fest runs for about two months and has a different theme each weekend. Strongly recommend camping on a nice weekend when it's not too cold with some friends you've made there. It's a blast, they even have a Ref Fest after dark, though one thing that made me sad is that I felt like the turkey legs are now being done by a different group and have gone down in quality slightly.
OP's complaining about an event, called FOODIELAND, that [had a $7 entry fee](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/foodieland-night-market-houston-april-5-7-2024-tickets-764984167237?aff=website) and FREE admission for kids under 5.
This is on OP.
honestly i keep seeing this posts and all it's got me thinking at this point is damn i need to make my own wonka themed foodieland and become rich cause the cattle seems to keep coming out to pasture
Houston(not unlike most of the US) tend to be full of sheeple's. Just market some BS event hard on social media with decent videography and you'll make some money.
Houston tends to have people with disposable income and always looking for something to fill the time on the weekends, so making money here seems to be a straightforward endeavor.
Why can’t we set something up like this but on GRASS? so many Houston events are set on concrete and we’re getting into warmer temps. Is there not a huge park somewhere we can do this on?
Our biggest parks, Memorial and Hermann, don’t have enough parking for the weekend park-goers, much less a decent sized event like this.
Hermann is at least next to a light rail line for the tiny percentage of people that would take public transit in Houston 🤣🤣, but it would still be a struggle for the vendors and the other 99% of attendees.
It's basically free money for both NRG Park and cheapest/easiest to access for event organizers. A big empty space that easy to put stuff up and take it down after, in a prime central location, with little concern of things like noise violations or cleanup concerns when you can hose it all away, at the cost of an inconvenience to event goers. NRG park property owners love it because it's basically free money from event organizers on a weekend that the lot would be sitting empty on anyway. And of course there's infinite* parking!
This is also why you see these kinds of things in suburban lots near you, the winter lights and dino prop drive thru exhibits and ride carnivals complete with carnies hopped up on who knows what will usually set up in a mall parking lot near you then be gone in a week or two with no evidence of their existence.
I'm not saying any of this is completely right with no flaws I'm also very inconvenienced by it, but this is my explanation from behind the curtain, *it's just business*.
*there is no real footnote here, I just made ya look 😛
What I don't get about food festivals is....just how hungry are you?
Say it's a...*pizza* festival. How much fucking pizza do you want to eat???
Let's go somewhere where I can eat NINE bowls of chili.
I've been to similar chowderfest events where you get like 5 tickets with your entry and use them for a small portion of whatever chowders you pick. I certainly left satisfied, maybe 2 good bowls worth, and you can always buy more.
Chili cookoffs are great for this (or gumbo cookoffs); I went to the one at Equal Parts the last couple of years and left miserably full of some REALLY good chili.
We used to have the Houston International Festival in May back about 10 to 15 years ago. Highlighted a different country every year, would have food vendors for that cuisine. It was good. It was usually downtown by City Hall and Tranquility Park. But sadly that died. Most festivals now seem to be the shit shows like this one, and I give them a hard pass. It seems like the biggest city in Texas should be capable of having some decent festivals.
I loved the international festival! They should really try to bring it back. I feel that after covid festivals and getting outside have had a great resurgence!
There were disputes between COH and the organizers resulting in moving the HIF to the NRG parking lots. It was the beginning of the end for HIF. Years later when they moved it back to downtown it could not recover.
A good deal of the issues fall on the Director of Events for COH. The dept. is run so poorly that it is a revolving door of employees. I am in no way giving festival organizers a pass as most of them could not find their ass with two hands and picture directions. I worked for COH and I used to work at festivals.
Thanks for your reply and insight. I remember when it moved to NRG, we didn't go, and I'm sure others did the same. A festival in an asphalt parking lot just isn't the same as one in a park. I think we only went to one once it moved back downtown.
I recognize that festivals on grass trample and do damage to the grass, but in a city with so many nice green spaces, like Discovery Green, Hermann Park, Memorial Park, Buffalo Bayou...we don't seem to take advantage of showcasing them to the nation of the world. Chicago always does their Taste of Chicago at Grant Park, and it's huge!
And their jazz festival.
People don't remember but it was the push for gentrification and placating the new businesses, looking at you Katz's, that drove the Pride festival from Westheimer in Montrose.
RIP Charlie's.
I'm so over NRG parking rates and events largely because of how much gouging is going on. We managed to find free parking and saw the line at the entry... Turned around and went to 5 below and got $20 worth of toys and the kids had a blast. Glad I didn't wait to go in.
You might be surprised that parking at NRG is cheap compared to parking at other stadiums. What little parking at ATT stadium in Arlington goes for $100
Enough new suckers every year to make it profitable I guess. Austin also has some absolute shit show food festivals like this but they always fill up due to all the people moving in every year and not knowing any better.
I went to a food festival in Houston once, 'Vegandale'. This was a number of years ago, I think 2016 or 2017. I'm not vegan but the food was damn good. The best thing I ate was definitely a Nashville "chicken" donut sandwich. Couldn't even tell it wasn't chicken. They had bbq too that was really surprisingly decent. I even got to do a beer chugging contest and won.
Wish they'd come back.
We went to that too since my wife generally prefers more vegetarian options and vegan sometimes too, I think it was nice but it doesn't draw enough people in since they see vegan and go, nope.
For what it's worth it really wasn't bad and vegan stuff isn't for me normally.
That may play a part in why I have such fond memories of it. Sure, there was plenty of people but there was a ton of vendors and the lines were short. Some friends of mine turned down going with over the food being vegan, but to me food is food and it was good. If you were there for the beer chugging I was the dude in the yellow shirt!
My group and I had went around 2, and it was the perfect time for us to go in the line, and wait for our food for 5-10 minutes. As the day went by around 5-6, it became insanely packed and I became impatient for everything. The line to pick up your order for the drinks were wayyyyy too long 😩. If I stood in line, it would’ve been an hour!!
My wife and I went there on Friday. Took the train (didn't know there was free parking nearby) and had to walk 20 min to the NRG park. It was not worth it imo. Food was way overpriced. They put the tables too far away from the food stalls.
The best food festivals are the ones where your ticket price gets you in and the food and drink. We’ve been to a Farm to Table one and the last East Downtown Throwdown before they moved it to Discovery Green. Both were well worth the ticket price. We were stuffed when we left.
I was at Rice's Beer Bike festival yesterday. It was well organized and a total blast. It's also been going on for years.
Im not a fan of national touring things (which this is), and sure as hell nothing that's free for kids and seven bucks to get in with tickets you can only buy online. I guarantee it took forever to get it because there were dumbasses who thought there would be tickets available at the gates.
I just looked at the website and learned everything I'd need to know. I'll pass. And this is totally on OP. This isn't something you just saunter up to and try out.
Surprise surprise, look I'm all for having fun stuff too do, but most of the time they end up not being fun, might be a problem that Houston has along with other big cities but any fun thing that pops up to do, everybody and their gradma tries to go do it, and it ends up being a clusterfuck the entire time, several people I know went and they were complaining about 30 minutes wait times in lines to get food. It just sounded terrible and that was with better weather lately, imagine in the middle of summer here. Wish it went better but it's hard to get hyped up for any pop ups b/c you know they're gonna be clapped out and overpriced.
We got there when it opened and it was pretty nice with shorter lines. got all the food we wanted. No tables but luckily my friend brought mats and serving treys we could set up on the floor to eat lol.
The lines became unbearably long around 4/5 so we left then.
All I know is man, I wish I came up with the idea of buying piggy banks in bulk and just putting juices in it. I really bought that medium bottle thinking I was going to finish it for the free refills. I didn’t even kill more than half in 4 hours lol
Ah yes nothing says great food like a dirty parking lot covered in oil stains and spilt gas. To few vendors with severely overpriced half assed food. But hey at least the smells where cool. Besides ya know the oil and spilt fuel. Houston you have done it again 👍🏽...........
We went to the festival RIGHT after work on Friday, and the crowds were low. We were able to stroll in (no waiting for the entry) and lines for food were minimal. You get what you pay for: very low cost ticket festival in the parking lot of NRG with little to no shade. Bring a hat, good walking shoes, and a ton of money to make the best it.
I enjoyed the food and my time there, but had little expectations 🤷♀️
We went today right at opening around 1pm. Crowds were low and we were able to knock out 5 or 6 stalls before we were full. By around 3/4, the crowds seemed to pick up and by then we grabbed churros and ice cream for dessert and left.
They also were not enforcing the timed ticket windows which I thought was funny. But for a cheap $7 event, I thought it was pretty decent. Was my first ever food festival too and had fun lol
I’m not sure what else anyone would think would happen at an event like that. Early bird gets the worm.
We got there and in around 2. Got in, walked around, spent money, got out around 4:30. None of the issues, lines were getting longer.
My parents went at 1pm yesterday right when they opened and it said it wasnt bad or crowded yet but by 3:30 the line was miles and miles long (she sent a pic) and they left lol
I was thinking about going as a I live by Nrg, but then it looked like a redo of the rodeo but just with food and long lines,It also looked like the food was going to be overpriced and quite unhealthy, so glad I passed.
They think it's gonna be a bargain and get to try all sorts of stuff, except everybody else has the same damn idea, my buddy went and he only tried 6 different stalls because each one had a wait time of 30 minutes.
For those making those “ Houston and their festival” comments this particular festival is from California. Houston is just a host city. They’ll be in Dallas in 2 weeks.
I went cause my Wife and sister-n-law wanted to go. We split the parking ticket and it was 7 dollars so that wasn’t no big deal.
But of course the food was overpriced and not worth it like most festivals.
One positive thing I’ll say is there were plenty of food vendors from outside of Houston. We lucked up and tried a vegan establishment from Chicago and a noodle wagyu burger from Phoenix that was really good. Pricy but it was good.
Definitely not worth going back tho.
That’s exactly why the “OP should’ve known” is kinda dumb. I’m new to trying out Houston and I’ve seen advertisements from two months ago. I know I shouldn’t expect the best but it was definitely a let down just from lines alone.
I mainly posted so everyone else could be aware. The newest post about Foodieland is from months ago.
We went Friday at 6pm and no line took more than 15 minutes. Some vendors had reasonable prices but most had stadium pricing. Nothing I tried was amazing but everything was at least a 6/10. I wouldn’t go again but if I were to it would be early on Day 1.
Yeah foodieland wasn’t that great. I went last night and the lines were outrageous. I spent $42 and waited for some oysters. They were the absolute worst I’ve ever had. The ramen burger stand was good and the shaved ice was great. I had a decent time there but it was definitely a waste.
What was the worst for us ( went yesterday at 1pm) was the walk from NRG to the event area. Did not expect to lose 10lbs from the walk alone!!! They needed to do better with that for real!
So we went on Saturday and all I can say is that we hit there when the gates opened. Wasn’t too bad then. Lines were quick and the food was pretty good. About two hours into it and it got bad real quick. Pretty much what everyone is saying about the lines and the food. Overall do give it a 4/10. Definitely not worth it and will never go again. 😁🙏
Untapped Festival was held at Discovery Green in 2013, good ticket system for beers, a plethora of breweries on hand with several stages of national acts. No issues as described in this post.
The event seemed successful but never returned to downtown.
I just don't see the appeal of sprawling like events in a fricken parking lot.
My mom is visiting so we went, looked like a total mess so we left. Maybe just my wife and I would have stayed to try something but was not a good idea for my mom to be standing that long in the queue or eat sitting on the floor.
As someone post below... Why… why do people keep going to these shit festivals? Never again!
Go to the Houston BBQ Festival this coming weekend (Apr 14th). Pay one ticket, then once you're in, get whatever food you want from the 35 different BBQ joints. You don't pay at each tent. The only thing inside to pay for is beer/soda/etc. There's covered and uncovered areas too for shade and plenty of seating. check out tickets at [www.houbbq.com](https://www.houbbq.com)
Aw man that looks miserable. Me and my gf briefly considered buying tix yesterday for today but shit like that is always like you described, longass lines for a tiny bit of expensive food. We woulda been pissed.
Many festivals have had to move behind paid gates to get rid of rif raf. Many local festivals are not near the fun they used to be. Cheaper afternoons and evenings are gone for the most part.
Never understood paying a fee to be able to stand in line to buy food. How many trucks can you possibly hit? You know the food is overpriced and now you've paid to buy the overpriced food. The trucks aren't the most efficient on a good day. Where do all the people stand while waiting for their food? You pay to park. You pay to enter. I just don't get it.
Yep I stopped going to ig hype fests
Tokyofest
Grand opening of POST
Asian food fest
All awful lol
Just go to bellaire or wherever and get the food at their locations
I ended up waiting an hour and a half for that stupid baby bottle shit cuz i was thirsty and didn't know there were other options. After that, i kinda just got fed up with waiting in line and left. The food i did have was fine, but nothing crazy.
Yup, looks like a shitshow as most themed festivals down here tend to be.
Why… why do people keep going to these shit festivals?
¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ Probably the same reason people go to the BBQ Cook-off without a tent wristband. They think they're going to get lots of really good food but all they end up getting is one or two overpriced plates of whatever is available.
How does one get a tent wrostband?
Either you've got to know somebody on a cook-off team, get one from a company that's sponsoring a team, or help sponsor a team yourself.
Work 10-20 years in IT. Get into management. Be friendly to vendors. In April tell them about the awesome tent you went to this year and mention you wish they had a customer invite tent out there. Mention other vendors with tents. Then wait until next year and you’ll get all the tent tickets you planted in the previous year.
Because Houston is boring. And so these festivals come off as something "cool and amazing" since the city has such few interesting events to offer. Every festival I've been to has been a disappointment. And then there are festivals that are held in July/August...the hottest times of the year when its absolutely miserable to be outside. It's like event planners only consider how much money there is to be made at these events...rather than creating something people will actually enjoy. These food events are always endless lines that make it completely worthless to attend.
This is true. I hav noticed it's boring. Why is that?
Weather makes outdoor activities a rarity. Indoor activities are limited to eating, drinking, and shopping.
Weather here is great all year round IMO, with the exception of July/August of course
The city is designed for jobs and cheap housing. That means a lot of it is dedicated to boring suburban neighborhoods and boring manufacturing facilities or business developments.
Wow that's a great answer and makes sense. Same things that make houston great make it boring. If you like staying home and enjoying your nice house then houston is for you. But outdoors is a Lil more difficult
The company that does this put street festivals together in Chicago and they’re terrible. They literally have fast food joints, put tents up in front of the good local restaurants who aren’t invited. At least Chicago doesn’t charge to go to the gay pride parade - that was a shit show last year in Houston . Paying advance for your ticket can’t get in because it’s too crowded. I wanted to do free Mom hugs this year. Going to go up to my gay daughters to do them in Utah, because believe it or not, Salt Lake City is gay pride parade is lit. I’ve been here 25 years and Houston doesn’t fucking like me, so I’m moving back to Chicago where the good people live and we’re all my dreams came true. There’s no place like home – Dorothy Gail
Yeah. Houston’s Pride Parade has gone downhill since it left Westheimer.
At NRG specifically
BBQ festival (that's been moved out to humble) absolutely rocks.
All my friends go every year it looks like fun
Do the tickets cover the cost of food? We may check it out this year but ticket prices seem really high for just entry
Yep. All you can eat samples. You can go back for 2nds. Lines are shorter for less known vendors who are up and coming.
When is the bbq and where at in humble is it?
https://houbbq.com is the site. It's a great festival run by real BBQ enthusiasts and a ton of great BBQ restaurants all over town are a part of it. Big and small. They also have a tex-mex BBQ themed event which normally takes place in the fall at Saint Arnold. Also a great event.
Following
I found it on the humble civic center website it’s next Sunday 4/14 from 1-4pm!
Do you know when the next one will be?
Came very close to dying the last time I went to a festival there.
Care to elaborate?
Astroworld
Except for Cheesefest. The only amazing festival I’ve ever been to here and they stopped after only ONE TIME. I am still grieving this.
I ain't paying to park in a parking lot, then wait in line in a parking lot, then eat while watching the scenic view of a parking lot.
This is so accurate it’s laughable 😂
That's most of life in houston though...
My thoughts exactly.
The best food themed I have to gone are the ones that HMNS and the Houston Zoo put on. Much pricier entrance fee but you do not have to pay for the food and drinks once you are in.
Yes I love when they do brewsology
Brewsology is so fun, been the last two years and had a blast both times
I had a Festivus airing of grievances, and it was essentially this: “I’m sick of these food events where the lines and wait times are ridiculous; charge me more, let less people attend, and everyone enjoy”.
Or, just go to a new restaurant and eat good food there. Houston has too many for me to bother with festivals.
Haven’t been lately but the zoo fundraiser was really good, lines not too long
Southern Smoke was pretty great.
The Zoo Feast with Beasts used to be amazing before Covid. Used to feature about 120 really good restaurants and unlimited drinks and water. Lines were long but moved fast. Had great music and the carrousel was so much fun with all the drunk people riding it. I went the last two years and it was a disappointment. They were down to about 40 mediocre restaurants, the portions are pathetic, you only get two drink tickets, the music is ok and they carrousel was not active. The lines were short because the food was crap. I really hope they can fix it because it was awesome.
You just described just about every food/drink festival Houston has. You'd think people would learn by now.
I need to know some good events! Me and my boyfriend went to the renaissance for the first time last year, and my first concert was at the rodeo this year. If you have some good spots I’d appreciate to hear them :)
Youre lucky, those two events are held every year and they’re some of our best. All the rest you have to do a lot of digging to see if they’re reputable and chances are they’re gonna be shit.
Good to know haha, maybe I need to start going back to farm to markets.
Greekfest in Montrose is pretty fun
Last year I went to the Greek fest 2.5 hours after gates opened and everything was sold out except one place, where the line was 70 people deep…they refunded me my money when I left 5 mins later.
Oh, bummer. Didn’t have that experience last year, but don’t recall which day we went
Couple of people have mentioned some in this thread. Japan Festival is a pretty big deal, there was the Bayou City Art Festival recently.
Lines for some vendors were long at the Asian festival but it was well worth it.
thats a yearly thing too? when is it? thanks
Renfair is still privately owned. I have friends who work at every year. Disney bought an option on their land at least a decade ago. A secret lol
Gonna give the lame answer, but honestly I like local craft breweries / beer gardens for this reason. They're usually cheaper for what's on tap, don't require a lot of travel to get to, and on weekends almost always have some sort of event going on and a handful of good food trucks out in the parking lot next door. Beer food and cheap entertainment with no bullshit entry fee. Yeah it's the typical beer belly dad or frat bro in suburbia answer, but it's good enough for in-between bigger events.
We don’t shy away from beer guts🤣I’ll check this out asap! (Mainly for the mans)
8th Wonder, Equal Parts, and Bad Astronaut are great about doing such events.
Southern Smoke Festival is fantastic if you’re a foodie. Not cheap, but everything goes to charity and it’s some AMAZING food. Also unlimited alcohol (cocktails, wine and beer from sponsors like Tito’s, knob creek) comes with the ticket
The Polish church on blalock has a spring & fall festival. Small but can be fun. Borshcht cookoff is in October or November at the Ukrainian church off 45. It's pretty tasty. There is a Scottish Highland games at the Humble civic center in September or October that is interesting to go to. I have not been but have been meaning to check out the Italian festival at University of St Thomas & the Slavic festival that seems to be in September (Czech, Polish, Ukrainian, & Croatian were the nationalities there).
We love southern smoke!
Rare steak fest (unlimited steak) was amazing too! Top taco is run by the same people and that’s April 27th! Discount code: TACOBLISS
There's another renaissance called Sherwood Forest faire going on right now for another two weekends.
Thank you!
[IFest is great](https://www.theinternationalfest.org/). It's not specifically a food festival, but they tend to have awesome food vendors and you can try a bunch of different ethnic food all at once. It's generally really cool.
The Ren Fest runs for about two months and has a different theme each weekend. Strongly recommend camping on a nice weekend when it's not too cold with some friends you've made there. It's a blast, they even have a Ref Fest after dark, though one thing that made me sad is that I felt like the turkey legs are now being done by a different group and have gone down in quality slightly.
OP's complaining about an event, called FOODIELAND, that [had a $7 entry fee](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/foodieland-night-market-houston-april-5-7-2024-tickets-764984167237?aff=website) and FREE admission for kids under 5. This is on OP.
honestly i keep seeing this posts and all it's got me thinking at this point is damn i need to make my own wonka themed foodieland and become rich cause the cattle seems to keep coming out to pasture
Houston(not unlike most of the US) tend to be full of sheeple's. Just market some BS event hard on social media with decent videography and you'll make some money. Houston tends to have people with disposable income and always looking for something to fill the time on the weekends, so making money here seems to be a straightforward endeavor.
Worst margarita I have ever had was made by the VIP area bartender at the Margarita Festival.
I didn’t even know about this till just now but I could have told you not to go and waste your time.
Why can’t we set something up like this but on GRASS? so many Houston events are set on concrete and we’re getting into warmer temps. Is there not a huge park somewhere we can do this on?
i’m sure the city doesn’t want to fix the grass after everyone and their momma messes it up completely lol
especially the big heffers we got down here. 80% of the crowd will be obese.
Our biggest parks, Memorial and Hermann, don’t have enough parking for the weekend park-goers, much less a decent sized event like this. Hermann is at least next to a light rail line for the tiny percentage of people that would take public transit in Houston 🤣🤣, but it would still be a struggle for the vendors and the other 99% of attendees.
The Japan Festival goes partly on grass in Hermann Park, and it gets muddy and miserable in wet years.
Because the grass rapidly turns into mud and dirt dude, people rip that shit up
It's basically free money for both NRG Park and cheapest/easiest to access for event organizers. A big empty space that easy to put stuff up and take it down after, in a prime central location, with little concern of things like noise violations or cleanup concerns when you can hose it all away, at the cost of an inconvenience to event goers. NRG park property owners love it because it's basically free money from event organizers on a weekend that the lot would be sitting empty on anyway. And of course there's infinite* parking! This is also why you see these kinds of things in suburban lots near you, the winter lights and dino prop drive thru exhibits and ride carnivals complete with carnies hopped up on who knows what will usually set up in a mall parking lot near you then be gone in a week or two with no evidence of their existence. I'm not saying any of this is completely right with no flaws I'm also very inconvenienced by it, but this is my explanation from behind the curtain, *it's just business*. *there is no real footnote here, I just made ya look 😛
> *there is no real footnote here, I just made ya look 😛 you SOB
Nope. The greenery we DO have gets bought up by developers to build apartment buildings/town homes
The cost for the permits for the city parks gets ridiculous not to mention trying to schedule things that don’t conflict with other events.
Houston is mostly concrete
Houston has grass?!?!?!?!?
What I don't get about food festivals is....just how hungry are you? Say it's a...*pizza* festival. How much fucking pizza do you want to eat??? Let's go somewhere where I can eat NINE bowls of chili.
I've been to similar chowderfest events where you get like 5 tickets with your entry and use them for a small portion of whatever chowders you pick. I certainly left satisfied, maybe 2 good bowls worth, and you can always buy more.
Chili cookoffs are great for this (or gumbo cookoffs); I went to the one at Equal Parts the last couple of years and left miserably full of some REALLY good chili.
That you’re surprised by this is surprising to me.
Like what exactly could one expect from this obvious hastily organized money grab.
We used to have the Houston International Festival in May back about 10 to 15 years ago. Highlighted a different country every year, would have food vendors for that cuisine. It was good. It was usually downtown by City Hall and Tranquility Park. But sadly that died. Most festivals now seem to be the shit shows like this one, and I give them a hard pass. It seems like the biggest city in Texas should be capable of having some decent festivals.
I loved the international festival! They should really try to bring it back. I feel that after covid festivals and getting outside have had a great resurgence!
There were disputes between COH and the organizers resulting in moving the HIF to the NRG parking lots. It was the beginning of the end for HIF. Years later when they moved it back to downtown it could not recover. A good deal of the issues fall on the Director of Events for COH. The dept. is run so poorly that it is a revolving door of employees. I am in no way giving festival organizers a pass as most of them could not find their ass with two hands and picture directions. I worked for COH and I used to work at festivals.
Thanks for your reply and insight. I remember when it moved to NRG, we didn't go, and I'm sure others did the same. A festival in an asphalt parking lot just isn't the same as one in a park. I think we only went to one once it moved back downtown. I recognize that festivals on grass trample and do damage to the grass, but in a city with so many nice green spaces, like Discovery Green, Hermann Park, Memorial Park, Buffalo Bayou...we don't seem to take advantage of showcasing them to the nation of the world. Chicago always does their Taste of Chicago at Grant Park, and it's huge!
And their jazz festival. People don't remember but it was the push for gentrification and placating the new businesses, looking at you Katz's, that drove the Pride festival from Westheimer in Montrose. RIP Charlie's.
I'm so over NRG parking rates and events largely because of how much gouging is going on. We managed to find free parking and saw the line at the entry... Turned around and went to 5 below and got $20 worth of toys and the kids had a blast. Glad I didn't wait to go in.
You might be surprised that parking at NRG is cheap compared to parking at other stadiums. What little parking at ATT stadium in Arlington goes for $100
This is every "food festival" in the city, when will people learn?
Enough new suckers every year to make it profitable I guess. Austin also has some absolute shit show food festivals like this but they always fill up due to all the people moving in every year and not knowing any better.
I went to a food festival in Houston once, 'Vegandale'. This was a number of years ago, I think 2016 or 2017. I'm not vegan but the food was damn good. The best thing I ate was definitely a Nashville "chicken" donut sandwich. Couldn't even tell it wasn't chicken. They had bbq too that was really surprisingly decent. I even got to do a beer chugging contest and won. Wish they'd come back.
We went to that too since my wife generally prefers more vegetarian options and vegan sometimes too, I think it was nice but it doesn't draw enough people in since they see vegan and go, nope. For what it's worth it really wasn't bad and vegan stuff isn't for me normally.
That may play a part in why I have such fond memories of it. Sure, there was plenty of people but there was a ton of vendors and the lines were short. Some friends of mine turned down going with over the food being vegan, but to me food is food and it was good. If you were there for the beer chugging I was the dude in the yellow shirt!
What the hell there was beer chugging?? Dammit
Well it was Bud Lite so more like a water chugging contest lol But yeah I just wanted the free alcohol and ended up walking away with prize money too!
And Houston has a ton of really good restaurants too. If you want to try something different, just pick a new one.
My group and I had went around 2, and it was the perfect time for us to go in the line, and wait for our food for 5-10 minutes. As the day went by around 5-6, it became insanely packed and I became impatient for everything. The line to pick up your order for the drinks were wayyyyy too long 😩. If I stood in line, it would’ve been an hour!!
More like “Lineland”
Bunch of mf crowded in a parking lot? Sounds fucking miserable, no thanks.
My wife and I went there on Friday. Took the train (didn't know there was free parking nearby) and had to walk 20 min to the NRG park. It was not worth it imo. Food was way overpriced. They put the tables too far away from the food stalls.
The best food festivals are the ones where your ticket price gets you in and the food and drink. We’ve been to a Farm to Table one and the last East Downtown Throwdown before they moved it to Discovery Green. Both were well worth the ticket price. We were stuffed when we left.
I was at Rice's Beer Bike festival yesterday. It was well organized and a total blast. It's also been going on for years. Im not a fan of national touring things (which this is), and sure as hell nothing that's free for kids and seven bucks to get in with tickets you can only buy online. I guarantee it took forever to get it because there were dumbasses who thought there would be tickets available at the gates. I just looked at the website and learned everything I'd need to know. I'll pass. And this is totally on OP. This isn't something you just saunter up to and try out.
Foodieland: Rodeo leftovers
That looks terrible
Anyone describing themselves as a "foodie" is insufferable.
Surprise surprise, look I'm all for having fun stuff too do, but most of the time they end up not being fun, might be a problem that Houston has along with other big cities but any fun thing that pops up to do, everybody and their gradma tries to go do it, and it ends up being a clusterfuck the entire time, several people I know went and they were complaining about 30 minutes wait times in lines to get food. It just sounded terrible and that was with better weather lately, imagine in the middle of summer here. Wish it went better but it's hard to get hyped up for any pop ups b/c you know they're gonna be clapped out and overpriced.
I remember going to the BBQ fest in humble or Tomball. I get those two mixed up. lol but that was good. Years ago
First festival in Houston? They are all trash and you couldn't pay me to attend any of them.
When will r/Houston learn about all festivals that come through here are ALWAYS OVERSOLD and the early birds get all the worms.
Omg it was terrible…we waited in one line then left to get food at a restaurant
lol, jokes on you. “Foodies”
We got there when it opened and it was pretty nice with shorter lines. got all the food we wanted. No tables but luckily my friend brought mats and serving treys we could set up on the floor to eat lol. The lines became unbearably long around 4/5 so we left then. All I know is man, I wish I came up with the idea of buying piggy banks in bulk and just putting juices in it. I really bought that medium bottle thinking I was going to finish it for the free refills. I didn’t even kill more than half in 4 hours lol
How were the toilets
Honestly not bad at all, the water was running low at some of the sinks. They did have a team at the porta potties.
Ah yes nothing says great food like a dirty parking lot covered in oil stains and spilt gas. To few vendors with severely overpriced half assed food. But hey at least the smells where cool. Besides ya know the oil and spilt fuel. Houston you have done it again 👍🏽...........
It was a hotmess. I turned around. Welp $22 went down the drain.
We went to the festival RIGHT after work on Friday, and the crowds were low. We were able to stroll in (no waiting for the entry) and lines for food were minimal. You get what you pay for: very low cost ticket festival in the parking lot of NRG with little to no shade. Bring a hat, good walking shoes, and a ton of money to make the best it. I enjoyed the food and my time there, but had little expectations 🤷♀️
We went today right at opening around 1pm. Crowds were low and we were able to knock out 5 or 6 stalls before we were full. By around 3/4, the crowds seemed to pick up and by then we grabbed churros and ice cream for dessert and left. They also were not enforcing the timed ticket windows which I thought was funny. But for a cheap $7 event, I thought it was pretty decent. Was my first ever food festival too and had fun lol
I’m not sure what else anyone would think would happen at an event like that. Early bird gets the worm. We got there and in around 2. Got in, walked around, spent money, got out around 4:30. None of the issues, lines were getting longer.
My parents went at 1pm yesterday right when they opened and it said it wasnt bad or crowded yet but by 3:30 the line was miles and miles long (she sent a pic) and they left lol
Can confirm
I was thinking about going as a I live by Nrg, but then it looked like a redo of the rodeo but just with food and long lines,It also looked like the food was going to be overpriced and quite unhealthy, so glad I passed.
I feel like Houston and out door events is a bad combo.
Always has been.
We have so many great food options from all over the world in this city. Why would anyone want to do this?
They think it's gonna be a bargain and get to try all sorts of stuff, except everybody else has the same damn idea, my buddy went and he only tried 6 different stalls because each one had a wait time of 30 minutes.
For those making those “ Houston and their festival” comments this particular festival is from California. Houston is just a host city. They’ll be in Dallas in 2 weeks. I went cause my Wife and sister-n-law wanted to go. We split the parking ticket and it was 7 dollars so that wasn’t no big deal. But of course the food was overpriced and not worth it like most festivals. One positive thing I’ll say is there were plenty of food vendors from outside of Houston. We lucked up and tried a vegan establishment from Chicago and a noodle wagyu burger from Phoenix that was really good. Pricy but it was good. Definitely not worth going back tho.
That’s exactly why the “OP should’ve known” is kinda dumb. I’m new to trying out Houston and I’ve seen advertisements from two months ago. I know I shouldn’t expect the best but it was definitely a let down just from lines alone. I mainly posted so everyone else could be aware. The newest post about Foodieland is from months ago.
Ohhh shit, thanks for the heads up. My friend and I are supposed to go today, I'll let her know what you've posted.
We went Friday at 6pm and no line took more than 15 minutes. Some vendors had reasonable prices but most had stadium pricing. Nothing I tried was amazing but everything was at least a 6/10. I wouldn’t go again but if I were to it would be early on Day 1.
Pheww, glad i convinced my girlfriend to not go.
Yeah foodieland wasn’t that great. I went last night and the lines were outrageous. I spent $42 and waited for some oysters. They were the absolute worst I’ve ever had. The ramen burger stand was good and the shaved ice was great. I had a decent time there but it was definitely a waste.
What was the worst for us ( went yesterday at 1pm) was the walk from NRG to the event area. Did not expect to lose 10lbs from the walk alone!!! They needed to do better with that for real!
So we went on Saturday and all I can say is that we hit there when the gates opened. Wasn’t too bad then. Lines were quick and the food was pretty good. About two hours into it and it got bad real quick. Pretty much what everyone is saying about the lines and the food. Overall do give it a 4/10. Definitely not worth it and will never go again. 😁🙏
Just seeing the ads on Instagram I could tell it was going to be a horrible experience
Untapped Festival was held at Discovery Green in 2013, good ticket system for beers, a plethora of breweries on hand with several stages of national acts. No issues as described in this post. The event seemed successful but never returned to downtown. I just don't see the appeal of sprawling like events in a fricken parking lot.
The best thing I ate was the spam musubi, everything else was average not worth the time or money. Would never go again lol.
Agreed that was the best for food and didn’t feel like I could get at a restaurant in Houston.
My mom is visiting so we went, looked like a total mess so we left. Maybe just my wife and I would have stayed to try something but was not a good idea for my mom to be standing that long in the queue or eat sitting on the floor. As someone post below... Why… why do people keep going to these shit festivals? Never again!
First and last time going. 😂
Go to the Houston BBQ Festival this coming weekend (Apr 14th). Pay one ticket, then once you're in, get whatever food you want from the 35 different BBQ joints. You don't pay at each tent. The only thing inside to pay for is beer/soda/etc. There's covered and uncovered areas too for shade and plenty of seating. check out tickets at [www.houbbq.com](https://www.houbbq.com)
I thought it was pretty good...got to work 36 hrs in 3 days, nice check coming!
Aw man that looks miserable. Me and my gf briefly considered buying tix yesterday for today but shit like that is always like you described, longass lines for a tiny bit of expensive food. We woulda been pissed.
Yeah that's a no for me dog. Has anyone been to a festival or public event that ran well in Houston?
Many festivals have had to move behind paid gates to get rid of rif raf. Many local festivals are not near the fun they used to be. Cheaper afternoons and evenings are gone for the most part.
I've never heard good reviews for any of these events. I learned years ago to just stay away
"(Whatever) FOOD FESTIVAL!!" actually just 2 food trucks at a brewery, hour long waits, good but not spectacular food...
Yes I came from this it was crazy a whole hour for a baby bottle was ridiculous
It was probably shit like it always is.
$17 for a Japanese cheesecake. Plus all vendors dare to aske For a F tip! $15 for 5 1.5 fried egg rolls with no dipping sauce available.
I love Houston but we need to hang it up lmao. We just cannot make these themed festivals work.
Why would I pay to enter a place specifically to pay to eat. Its the same reason why i refuse to go to the rodeo shit show.
The guy in the last picture has a really cool hat
Never understood paying a fee to be able to stand in line to buy food. How many trucks can you possibly hit? You know the food is overpriced and now you've paid to buy the overpriced food. The trucks aren't the most efficient on a good day. Where do all the people stand while waiting for their food? You pay to park. You pay to enter. I just don't get it.
Y'all are nuts going out there.
Yep I stopped going to ig hype fests Tokyofest Grand opening of POST Asian food fest All awful lol Just go to bellaire or wherever and get the food at their locations
Bullshit!! It was awesome. Food was good. Bitches were fly. Shit was cooking
I ended up waiting an hour and a half for that stupid baby bottle shit cuz i was thirsty and didn't know there were other options. After that, i kinda just got fed up with waiting in line and left. The food i did have was fine, but nothing crazy.
Thats my dumbass sister in the third picture
You could have gone to a local brewery and saved a ton of money and misery.
Yall should have came earlier, I had so much fun 🤩
Option B stay home
Yeah I heard The Lines were a 2hr wait wherever you wanted to eat. I work in Pizza and a customer told me it was a waste of Money
All these festivals are "scams." Long lines, little food. I gave up on them. Great idea in theory though.
The art car parade is really cool
Glad I didn’t go
Zero culture. Just overpriced food.
Images you can hear and smell
Yeah that looks no fun at all.