Dig IN

This was my first time to #DigIN, and it didn't fail to impress. Positives:- location. The location was great. Let's admit it: Military Park is perfect for these types of events. Centrally located, lots of parking, beautiful space. - veggie options. For being a vegetarian, there are lots of options! Worth the full amount for price of admission? That's up to you to decide, but I was full with most of the veggie options tried. - variety. It seemed like a great variety of food options. Soups to cookies. Tacos to local veggies. Negatives:- food ran out. With an hour still left of the festival, it felt like nearly all of the vendors ran out of food. What's up with that?! I feel like if a fest goes till a certain time, the food should be full till the end. - water. It's HOT outside. Charging water for customers that spend that much money while eating all of that food and adult beverages isn't the best idea (my opinion). Overall, a very fun event! If you eat meat, definitely a festival for you. Don't eat meat? Not sure if I'd pay that much but that's my opinion! Great event and great organization of the event, Dig IN!

DigIN is my FAV-ORITE day of the year, the day where all of the finest Indiana chefs come together and feed the crowds using the finest ingredients cultivated by the finest Indiana farmers. If you enjoy eating, then you're going to relish in this mega feast.Every second counts at DigIN, so if there's one thing I've learned about this festival, it's that you should invest in the early bird tickets. That extra hour of eating means you have 60 precious minutes to taste the 40+ dishes available because once the general admission crowd comes pouring into the park...there's no guarantee that you're going to get a bite of everything!Take it from a hungry pro: you don't miss out on Indiana's best celebration of our food and the hands who grow and prepare it!

Let's face it. This is my favorite festival of the year and I always leave feeling miserable for one of two reasons: 1.) redheads can't handle the sun (it's no secret) or 2.) I've gorged myself into blob status. Miserable or not, I keep coming back for more. Who can pass up a day filled with 84 chefs and 48 farms celebrating our wonderful state's creativity in the food and drink industry? Not this sunburnt, food-baby filled lady.

Still a great event. You can try a bunch of food and drinks in one spot, and get too full too quickly. It's a must to come prepared though. Think water bottle, sunscreen, bug spray, even your own lawn chairs to set up shop in the shade.I think next time I will ask them to customize my food samples. Think I can step aside so I am not holding up the line. While the food is still amazing and there is so much variety, I am not a big fan of sauces/dressings and stinky cheeses. I like to taste food in their natural states!

I had the opportunity to volunteer for this event and wouldn't change my decision on that. My friend and I signed up for the Sunday morning shift and planned to grub after working. I was at tent six with the latest and greatest Tinker Street and Chef Kellner. The team of people there were awesome. I got to chat it up with chefs fiancé and test the food before I was the passport checker. When the crowd came passport checking was easy peasy, chat about food and check passports! Volunteer next time, this awesome event can't happen with the dedicated foodies of Indianapolis! Once our shift was over we grabbed passports and ate our way through the afternoon. We saw lots of guests carrying around larger trays. This is key, but luckily Yelp! helped us out and handed out trays that would be returned at the closing of the event. The tray pretty much allows you to stack your food instead of consuming it in 2.3 seconds. I can't say my favorite booth, they were all so good! My friend and I ventured over to the local products tent and found a few new favorites. I posted a picture of Best Boy, they have specialty mustards. The ones I sampled had great flavors and I'll be watching for them at the Market District next week. I also found my new favorite almond butter, Revival. The creator was there and we were able to hear her whole story. I purchased her almond butter and a jam that was also being sold with it from Home Ec Preserves. Next year: tray, bug spray, reusable water bottle, tray, and volunteer again!

Best food festival of the year! Ok, it was my first food festival, but there's so much to love about Dig IN! Chefs come from all over the state to serve Hoosier farm to table food at what can only be described as a giant public picnic complete with music, friends, drinks and gourmet food! Did you know that DigIN pays for the vendors' main Indiana ingredient? How awesome is it to have a festival that supports local farms in such a delicious way! Recommendations:-Parking can be tricky especially if you're not familiar with the area, so be prepared to walk and/or pay for parking.-Ride your bike along the canal to the festival if you can! Military Park is right off the canal making it an accessible stop on your bike ride.-Wear sunscreen and comfortable shoes. -Bring lawn chairs, blankets, etc. for the real picnic feel.-Come early, come hungry and leave happy!

My son and I started our day at Dig In as volunteers. The staff seemed very organized and I was impressed with how quickly we were able to get such a large amount of people in to the event so quickly. After our shift we then got to enjoy the delicious goodness that is Dig In! We sampled from almost all of the booths. My son enjoyed trying duck for the first time as well as many other new foods. The duck meatballs looked like a work of art! They were visually very interesting and my son said they tasted great. We both agreed that the minestrone soup from Duos was the best dish! It was absolutely delicious! The owner was also very nice and personable. My son decided that we should have their soup at least once a week.I really love the venue change and added shade that Military Park offers. I also appreciate the smaller cups so that sample sizes of the adult beverages are given to keep things a bit safer. I was however a bit disappointed by the amount of vegetarian dishes that were offered. There just really weren't many and they weren't marked on the passport as being vegetarian which made it a little difficult to seek them out. Lastly, I wish that water was given out to attendees for free. I wonder if the organizers could allow a company or even a few to donate water and perhaps brand them for an added incentive to keep everyone well hydrated?

I have to update my review just to say I loved the new location in Military Park this year - tons more shade and more room to see where the lines actually were. I got to almost half of the food vendors, and I still found myself wishing I had made it to even more just by looking at everyone's pictures! I was so full though that I literally had to stop myself. That's not a bad thing! The beverages were also might tasty! I like the idea of voting for the local favorite, but I don't think many people were keen to pay $10 for those tokens. (I personally would have, but my group was in a hurry to leave once they were tired so I didn't get a chance to.) If you like watching the Food Network or any cooking shows, I highly recommend the chef competition! You get to not only watch close up but get to smell all the great things they come up with. This will continue to be on my can't-miss list every summer!

Love, love LOVE me some DigIN! We've paid the extra VIP for the last two years and once you try it, there's no going back. In addition to regular admission, you get free parking, early admission, access to the VIP tent with shade and table/chairs, special samples not available outside the VIP tent, and real, air conditioned bathrooms.This is an amazing showcase of Indiana chefs. Dishes are inventive and unique. Some are already on restaurant menus and some are being tested at the event. It's a foodie paradise where you can talk turkey (so to speak) with fellow foodies and chefs. I was so happy this year to see that instead of distributing bottled water, they had cold water kegs where you could fill your own reusable bottle or glass. This event is nearly perfect, but if I could change just a few things:- add another water station (and ideally one in the VIP lounge); there were long lines for water, even with several filling lines- Space the wine/beer tents a bit apart so that they can serve from two sides of their tables; again, this would cut down on long lines- encourage tasting tables to keep utensils separate from plates so patrons do not have to take a new utensil each time unless they want to - the waste just kills me!- have three waste containers - trash, recycle, and compost- invite someone from the skin cancer association, dept or health, etc. to have a sunscreen booth where they offer free spray on sunscreen

Hello mouth, welcome food, welcome drink! Dig In A Taste of Indiana!This event is the one event foodies must do! It is a four hour feeding frenzy by some of the best damn chefs in the city! About 40 plus vendors come and prepare a "sample" for you to try! Some food, some coffee, some beer, and some wine! All items are locally sourced foods prepared by local restaurants! Spend the afternoon walking though the park as you sample, sample, sample!