This weekend I attended the taste of Colorado. This is my first year attending the event and needless to say it was a big let down. I have attended several similar events in other major cities, and the vibe of the old ones was coming together of sorts. I remember when I was younger and I attended The Bite of Seattle. It would take part in the later part of July and would go for three days. One thing I can remember is that there were literally hundreds of food venders from around the city. Now if you have never dinned in Seattle you will find that there is every kind of food for every type of taste.
One thing that is interesting is that it’s free for the venders to set up there booths and sell food, the only stipulation is that they have to have an established restaurant and sell samples of there food at a set price of 3 dollars, hence the bite idea. That way if you just wanted to sample the food you could do so, and buy a full plate of food if you wanted to. More so then that, their was a feeling of the city coming and grabbing a bit of culture from the city and its inhabitants. And not to mention a bunch of killer local bands to help the week along.
After I entered the Taste of Colorado the air seemed a bit different. I noticed the way they set up the booths was in a giant circle around civic center park. This was a great idea because if gave everyone a chance to hit all the food vendors as well as the people selling merchandise. I soon found out that in order to buy food you needed to buy tickets and redeem them for food. I was ok with this because I literally wanted to sample as many places as I could.
I dropped 20 bucks on a pack of tickets and went on my way. As I got closer to the food vendors I saw that there was a decent variety of food. The first vendor I stopped at was a rib vendor called Famous Dave’s, I grabbed a sample of there ribs for three tickets, which at 5 dollars for eight tickets goes for about 62 cents a ticket, which is 1.62 for a sample. So overall not to bad, since the cost for a rack is somewhere around 15 dollars. I have to say I was impressed with Famous Daves. There ribs were pretty tasty and they had a good variety of sauces to choose from.
After I was done woofing down the rib I moved on to the next food vendor. The next stop was at a both that has kicken chicken wings, or so they advertised. As I looked up at the prices for a sample I saw a blank. This told me right away that they didn’t offer a sample, which was ok, but next available dish was a 6 piece of wings for 10 tickets, which equaled 6 bucks. I wasn’t really in the mood to blow six bucks, when all I wanted was a sample, so I moved on.
When I walked to the next vendor I saw that they two did not have a sample. This continued on till I got to last vendor who offered a sample of wheatgrass for 4 tickets. Needless to say I passed. With my stomach empty I decided that I would grab a water and head to the merchandise vendors. Which came to 4 tickets. I dared not even buy a beer, with every brand offered being 10 tickets which is six bucks if your counting at home.
When I reached the vendors tents I saw a mixed amount of local and national vendors. This really didn’t bother me, because any local event that I have been too there was a group of national companies trying to pimp there wares to the people. As I moved from tent to tent I became increasingly surprised how pricy everything was. I expect things to be a bit more if they are not retally available in stores, but paying 25 bucks for a red t-shirt that said U.S.S.R. was out of the question for me. And everything else I saw could be bought on overstock.com for not even half of what they were offering.
When I had completed the circle I was left with 10 dollars worth of tickets and eager to hear some music. So I blew all 16 tickets on a soda and a plate full of Mexican goodness. This I have to say was not bad, but really after eating it I wasn’t that full and felt I could have gotten fuller on the number 1 at taco Bell. I walked to the main jazz stage and caught a local act. The crowd seemed to be less then impressed and most people were sleeping in the sun then actually listening to the music. That really didn’t bother me, because had I gotten my fair share of food, and or, drinks, I would have had a Siesta as well.
After being there for a little under 3 hours, it was time to pack it up and go home. I grabbed the light rail back to my bad and called it a day. My overall impression was that of a half assed attempt to throw a decent city event. I felt like I paid 20 bucks for a small plate of food a sample of a rib and water. I know that may be silly to bitch about, but I found out the reason that most places didn’t offer a sample of their food is because vendors had to drop almost a grand to participate and the event got a cut on food. So I sat at home thinking that if I want to go to a good food festival, I will wait till Octoberfest or hop a flight to Seattle or Chicago.
So I’m left with a sun burn and a lesson, and that’s not to trust an event that doesn’t charge at the door, because chances are they are going to make there money regardless.
