Grilled Cheese Festival

I came to the 2019 festival a few days ago with a wonderful groups of fun girls for a part of a bachelorette party. We had planned this months in advance (as the tickets sell out fast), and were happy to have received ours in time. We went on Saturday for the adults only one from 1:00pm - 4:00pm. There is a VIP ticket that gets you in an hour earlier, but we decided to skip that this year. The line to get in was crazy long, almost the entire edge of the park, however, people were coming down the line to check IDs and give out wristbands to make it quicker to check in at the actual gate. I would recommend bringing some chairs or a blanket to sit on as the picnic tables filled up quickly! We got a plate, a token (for voting), and a glass that had the festival logo on it. Now, this was an all you can handle event. Nobody checked how many times you went through a line and everything was unlimited, so please be careful and drink responsibly! There was security and police on site to prevent any problems. Once we got inside, we immediately hit up the food! There were several tents lined up for all kinds of grilled cheeses. Some were simple while others were more complex and layered the flavors. There were also tons of beer and wine vendor booths on the opposite sides of the park. The lines were pretty long for each place, but they got the sandwiches and drinks out in a very timely fashion! The vendors that were there (especially the beer and wine tents) were incredibly fun and helped make our day awesome! There was a DJ playing all kinds of music to help liven up the mood too. Eventually things started to run out and tents started shutting down, but it was pretty close to the actual end time of the festival, so that was okay. We all left stuffed full of carbs and with a decent buzz going. Overall, it was fun and I would definitely consider doing it again!

While there were plenty of grilled "cheese" stations to choose from, there wasn't much else to see. There were a couple food trucks, (a lot of food stations were sold out of stuff by 3pm) some live music, some things for kids and a couple craft vendors and that was it. It didn't justify the cost of $10 a ticket ($23 for two with fees) for general admission. Saturday was $60 for beer and wine and Sunday was open for $10 GA. My husband and I left after 30-40 minutes. It was fun, but I probably wouldn't come back a 2nd time paying that price. There should be a lot more to do if you're charging that much to get in. Samples were also a bit pricey...$2-3 for a quarter piece of sandwich. The Hawaiian place was the cheapest and best tasting imo with khalua pork sliders for $1 each.

First time at this festival and very pleased! Not overcrowded but definite longer lines depending on what kind of sandwich you wanted. All sandwiches used cheese and had some traditional and also more creative with a Mediterranean and Bahn mi feel using feta and goat cheese variations. Of course had traditional with different cheeses and several different add ons. They had dessert trucks, live music, free bounce houses and beer. Most tickets had to be pre purchased. I liked that it wasn't too crowded and you can pull up a chair or pop a squat. Was laid back, cheesy and tasty good time. Will definitely be going next year. Just bummed that the fry festival was happening at the same time!

Sunday April 9, 2017 Sacramento Grilled Cheese Festival. I so want to give this festival four stars for the Grilled Cheese Sandwiches; but, there were so many things that could be improved that I settled on three stars. We tasted seven grilled cheese sandwiches from five vendors. Only one was not a four or five star sandwich. We all decided that the pulled Pulled Pork sandwich from The Rind was the best. I forget which vendor we all agreed was the worst. My piece was never warmed enough to melt the cheese. Now for the negatives: long lines; food vendors too close together; and not enough places to sit. I stood in line for one vendor for over 30 minutes. That vendor was trying to serve three different types of sandwiches. If they had been split into three booths I think that would have greatly shortened the line. The park is big but all the food vendors were side by side in a line. That meant that a number of vendors, like the kettle corn vendor, had almost no foot traffic and all of us were jammed into a small area. We never even got to where the food trucks were parked. Providing places to sit and eat would have contributed to shorter lines. There was a live band but no chairs. There were other small glitches like the fact that the opening of the gate we entered through was delayed because the persons with the ticket readers were having problems getting the devices to work. If someone planning next year's festival reads this, here are some suggestions: make sure the people at the gates know how to work the ticket readers at least a half an hour before opening the gates; spread out the food vendors and limit each booth to one and only one sandwich, if a vendor wants to sell more then put up another booth; put chairs in front of the stage; and bring in some more tables. This was a nice little festival. We spent an hour and a half there. Over half our time was spent waiting in line. We will not be going back next year.

The sandwiches were amazing and Southside park was the perfect location.The price is a little high for what you get. In addition, there were only two wineries there. We just kept going back and forth between the two.

Love coming here every year!!! So fun so delicious. The vendors are so friendly and their grilled cheese creations are phenomenal. Triple grilled cheese was my favorite, a classic but amped up with a great combination of cheeses blended together to make your taste buds explode. Along with the alcohol vendors and freebies it just made this the perfect day.

This was our second year to attend the grilled cheese festival. A good time, however, the cost with fees is $70+, and the event is supposed to run from 1 to 4pm. By 2:45, some of the beer and sandwich vendors were running out of wares. By 3, only a very few were open. We talked with a couple of staff who gave some weak excuses. I don't know about you, but when I host an event, I usually have more food than I think is necessary because I don't want people to go home disappointed. This festival was sold out quite a while ago, so they knew how many would attend. Understandably, some people gorge themselves and so it probably is a bit difficult to judge how much food is required, but it doesn't preclude attendees from feeling like maybe they didn't get their $$$ worth. Especially if you got there around two and didn't even get to taste a lot of the food. Still a fun event.

This was so poorly organized. Only a dozen or so grilled cheese vendors at a "festival". The vendors also neglected to mention or post signage that there were two separate lines; one for order and one for pickup. Waiting 30 minutes to order then standing in the equally long pickup line for a measly sample of sandwich isn't my idea of fun. Poor location placement of everything within the park. Unless someone else takes charge of wanting to spruce up the event, I won't be back nor recommend.

In 2017, my wife and I stumbled across the idea of the Grilled Cheese festival. Unfortunately it had already sold out. The idea of Grilled Cheese and beer sounded great. In advance, we ordered our Saturday (21+ only) tickets for me and my wife, and another couple. We traveled to Sacramento to attend. (approx 4 hour drive for us each way). We were very underwhelmed with the festival. I had visions of a park filled with beer/wine/grilled cheese tents. This was not the case. There were 8 grilled cheese options. I found most of them to contain very "powerful" flavored cheeses and never went back for a second taste. There were a few that were very tasty. My favorite was a sandwich containing pulled pork! I could be off, but I think I counted 4 beer vendors, and 2-3 wine options. There was 1 stand that had flavored vodkas, and 1 ice cream stand. The music consisted of a DJ playing songs from a playlist. The music was fine, but the set up was a little underwhelming as well. They had a few lawn games (oversize beer pong, corn hole, & giant Jenga.) If interested in playing, plan to wait in line for a while. Also, the lines for the grilled cheese, beer, and restrooms were always quite long. The weather couldn't have been any better so that made for a great day with friends. I was really hoping to give this a great review, but it just isn't warranted. There were 4 porta-poty style restrooms that were out of pretty much everything about half way through the event. This festival needs some help. It is a great idea, but many, many more vendors need to be added. As is, I would have a hard time justifying coming back in the future. Especially with the ticket pricing. Fortunately my wife, our friends, and myself still had a great weekend as Sacramento has a lot of fun things to offer. We really enjoyed Old Sacramento!

I didn't like that they dont give you an option to pay for a whole sandwich. Charging $3-$6 for a quarter of a sandwich was crazy. Had to eat at the taco truck. Ordered carne asada fries( advertised with steak, sour cream , shredded cheese & salsa. Handed me fries with nacho cheese and one small scoop of steak. Just another money grabber, charge high prices and under deliver on service. Thank goodness for the band, took away from how hungry I still was, sing the pain away.