Mac and Cheese Fest AZ

This review is a little bit late, but better late than never! This was a very fun food festival! Who does not love mac and cheese? My family and I got so much food-overload! General Admission tickets are $15 online. Children ages 4-12 are $5. Kids 3 & under are FREE. In addition to buying the regular ticket, you would also have to pay for golden tokens to buy food. This was sold in $10 increments.Mac & Cheese sample - $2 (1 token)Spirits - $10 (5 tokens)Water/Soda - $2 (1 token)Beer - $6 (4+ tokens)There were a lot of booths when we went. I think it is great since you get to burn the calories while walking around to different ones haha!I remembered trying out the following:1) Vegan Mac & Cheese - This was from Gabba Green. It had some mashed potato on top. It was just okay.2) Vegan Truffle "Bacon" Mac & Cheese - This was from Seed Shack. This was my favorite so far and is a vegan one! It had some crispy "bacon" topping. The flavor was perfect for me.3) Truffle Mac & Cheese - Smelled good and lightly flavored.4) Chili MMMac -This was from Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers. This was a little bit spicy for me. But if you like spicy, then this should be fine with you. It was made with American/Provolone Cheese, Pepper Jack and Chili.5) Brisket Mac & Cheese - This was good because there was a generous serving of beef brisket. I think I forgot to take to take a photo of this. I ate it right away. ;)6) Mac & Cheese w/ Bread Crumbs - This was from Dave & Busters. Love this one too! Generous serving with lots of bread crumbs.7) Stovetop Adult Version Mac & Cheese - This was from Saucy Pasta. This was okay. It tasted like regular mac & cheese. Too bad their Baked Chile Pork Mac & Cheese was sold out.There was also some stuff to entertain children like the giant slide, bouncy castle, water-walking balls, etc.We all had a great time and would go back here again!

Took the Family to this years event at Salt River Fields not as many restaurants as I thought there might be but there was plenty of gooey cheesy fun to be had. We got our tickets on Groupon the samples were 1 or 2 coins we had a good time.

Well..hmmm...the concept was good but the event was short of a disaster. There were so many people and not enough staff or space to accommodate the crowd. The line to get in was at least an hour long, then you had to stand in another 30 min line to purchase food tickets. It was hot which is understandable for AZ but shade was scarce and water was limited. The Mac and Cheese samples I did get to try were only filled half way because they were running out but they were pretty good and most of them were hot. The lines had no real organization. Some were super long and others you could just walk right up. The staff was very friendly though. At each booth they smiled and kept positive even though it was so chaotic. I only stayed for about 45 min. Tried five or six samples, got a free reusable bag from sprouts, tried some free lemonade and wasted my paid for drink tickets because I don't drink beer and there was nothing else to buy. I saw post-event on Facebook that they apologized for underestimating the crowd and popularity of the event and that next year they will plan to accommodate better. Like I said, the concept was good but the actual event left me hot, irritated and still hungry. Better luck next time.

New venue in 2019 and there was alot of room at Salt River Fields to roam around. Unfortunately, they failed to have enough macaroni vendors signed up. I counted about ten at most and one of them was a dumpy place called Tacotopia which left their samples out in the open and they were cold and disgusting and returned. Most other places gave you hot samples straight from a tray. Each sample was $2 and among my five samples was a Buffalo Chicken, a Southwest style, one with Brisket and one normal. Finding the $2 drinks is really difficult. They make you buy Tokens in $10 increments which is a cash grab. This is definitely not worth $15, but luckily I paid $5 in advance to enter. I left at 12:30 and big lines were starting to form. Get there early and get out or better yet, don't go at all. Besides for sampling, very little else to do at this festival.

For weeks leading up to the Mac and Cheese Fest, I had been dreaming of delicious and warm mac and cheese, which I certainly had at the festival. Then again, I also dreamed of a convenient event where there were few lines, plenty (of water) to drink, and no hassles. While I personally had that experience (for which I was grateful), I know this obviously was not the case for others. My own experience was a 5-star experience, as I had been lucky enough to be given a pair of VIP tickets. My girlfriend and I arrived an hour before the festival started (around 11 AM) through a special VIP entrance. We were given plenty of food and drink tickets to use at booths. There were NO lines (though some of the booths were not yet ready for us). There was also a special VIP area with (limited) seating, two additional drinks (including wine, margaritas, and sodas) each, a commemorative t-shirt, and a private bathroom. The VIP experience was selling for $75 each including admission, food/drinks, and all of the other special treatment I just mentioned. And then there was my sister, who did not have a VIP ticket. Thus, what I would have considered a one-star review. She waited in a long line like everyone else for about an hour. She would have waited in a long line for tickets (food/drinks) though we showed her of a ticket booth further back beyond many of the booths, which saved A LOT of time. While there was plenty of water for my girlfriend and me, the water disappeared very quickly once everyone else came in. My sister was lucky enough to get some water, but with the heat, she didn't want to stay inside for too long. When she was ready to go, my girlfriend and I left at the same time. We appreciated some of the vendors from the lemonade samples to the apples at the Sprouts booth. We also were excited to learn about the Art of Ice Cream exhibit coming soon. All in all, the concept behind the event was great, and the location had the potential to be a nice area for a great festival. In reality, the location didn't work at all, the lines for the general admission was outrageous, and it appeared that few people past 12 noon (when it opened) got the experience they were expected. I feel very lucky that I had VIP tickets. I really enjoyed the VIP experience but I felt bad for others who were attending. When thinking of the two VERY DIFFERENT experiences people had, I give the Mac and Cheese Fest a 3-star review. I'll consider trying it again next year (in a better location with better line management).

Not well doneBadly organized, which is a shame because there were very good samples of mac & cheese available, if you accidentally found them.If I owned a restaurant that paid for a stand at this event, I would demand a refund.

There definitely were a lot of things wrong with this event, but it was a beautiful day and I had a pleasant experience. I'm not from Arizona so perhaps I am just used to very crowded and disorganized festivals. My main complaints are that the ticket pricing was confusing, I did not realize you needed to buy admission tickets and food/drink tickets separately. I was able to get this straightened out and refunded and repurchased what I needed. I also heard there would be a vegan option at the festival which I was never able to find, but usually expect these things to happen. I did get some extra drink tickets for my trouble. I suppose I also may have been upset if I wanted to have some water and found they were all out and of course there was a long line to get in. However, there were no lines at the bathrooms which is always a plus. Everyone seemed to have way more food and drink tickets than they needed which is also nice. I arrived late to try to skip the line (unsuccessfully) and stayed til near the end. They did run out of stuff, but this was not at the beginning and is also something that occurs at most festivals I attend. It seemed possible to eat a ton of mac n cheese if you choose to, my boyfriend got full after his 5 samples even though we had many more food tickets. I had more than my fill of beer. Overall I think this festival would be greatly improved if it was at a different location which was more spread out. I think the lines to get each separate item were the most frustrating. Having never been to this location before I did enjoy it, but perhaps it is not an appropriate setting for this event. If I lived in the area I would definitely give it another shot.

I don't like to give bad reviews, but this was the worst event I have ever been to. Very disorganized and not well planned out for the crowd they had. There was zero signage anywhere so no one knew what line they were supposed to be in. Once you stood in the line to gain entry for 30-40 minutes, there was another 30-40 line inside to get your food/drink tickets. You pay $15 per person for entry and another $20-$75 for their food/drink package. YIKES!They only had one side of the Waterfront reserved for this event. With the volume of people it should have wrapped all the way around the park so there would be more space between booths and you would not be trying to squeeze through the crowds of people on the sidewalk/gravel. I wouldn't be so upset if it was enjoyable and relaxing once getting in, but there hardly any shade to get away from the sun and we saw medics were having to help people with heat stroke. The fact that we paid $70+tax for the two of us for this event is criminal. Towards the end we were trying to use up our tickets just to get the heck out of there. I'm hoping they will learn from this experience if they are able to have it again next year, but I'm not sure that I will be able to convince my family to give this another try. In the words of my family who is generally easy going, the consensus was Never again...

Omg! The line is atrocious! I saw it, then drove to Sprinkles with my kids hoping the line would die down in a bit. Came by again, line was still horrible, so then ended up taking my kids to the Mcdonalds playground. Will wait it out for a bit then try one more time...No way I'm going to wait longer than an hour in line in the hot heat with my two little ones, no mac n cheese is worth that!

2019 Mac and Cheese Fest was a bust. Very few actual Mac and Cheese vendors this year. I'm vegan so I knew my selections would be limited already. I loved the Green Chile Pumpkin Mac from 24 Carrots. 2 of us burned through $30 of tokens in just a few minutes with only 1 drink and 3 samples each. Drinks are extremely overpriced. Had I paid full price for my admission, I would have been pretty upset. Nothing is included in the price of admission, so I can't imagine paying $15 to be overcharged for everything once you're inside.