Sacramento Banana Festival

It looks like it's been 2 years since I first came to this festival. The first time I went, the location was in Elk Grove, but now it is in William Land Park. I feel like the cost for admission should be around $5. It's $8 in advance or $10 at the gate. It isn't a large festival and you won't spend more than an hour, hour and a half tops there. They had a lot of typical fair vendors and MLM booths and a decent amount of banana themed foods. You can park a short distance away for free. My biggest complaint was that the location is very vague. The address on their site is the general address for William Land Park and it takes you close to fairy-tale town, but is actually just over a mile away from the actual festival. I was getting frustrated driving around and seeing nothing but kids parties that I almost went home. Thankfully someone on Facebook told me to head towards Delilahs and then I saw the festival, but not before spending at least 30-40 minutes looking for the place. Please either give a different address (Sac city college or Delilahs for example) rather than a generic address for WLP. WLP is huge and the address took me to the completely wrong area.

$10 to get in it was really small and I was only there for a couple hours max. There was some kids activities, lots of fried foods which I couldn't eat and some drink selections. Half of the vendors were advertising products.

Waste of time and money. No music, overpriced mediocre food. Never again. I don't mind dealing with the heat if there's music to listen to but nothing except pickle ball

My first visit to the banana festival!! I was expecting it to have a bigger food area considering it's all about bananas... A lot of places had fun drinks and smoothies, like the long refillable cup of lemonade, or the flavorful boba smoothies, but there were only a few stands with actual banana flavored items. I tried the fried bananas (they give a great portion for $3), frozen chocolate banana, Italian ice (no banana flavor... got cherry/pineapple/orange & mango), and a chicken skewer. I should've gone for the banana shaved ice at a different stand but I felt too guilty for spending on other food items and the $5 entrance fee. Overall it was a fun couple hours spent out in the sun, and my dog looked happy too. I don't think there was enough banana themed food for me to come back next year. The food list on the website was extensive but I didn't spot as many at the actual event. Next year I'll probably just come back if I'm looking for something to fill my weekend, otherwise I'll probably do without it!

Where is it?It took us at least 20 minutes to find the actual event. This was our first year attending the Banana Festival and it is on its 6th annual. We actually left our home a little bit early to make sure we got there as soon as they opened and had decent parking and, well... that didn't happen. We parked way yonder because we got lost trying to locate the event expecting to see something big for us to easily find it. Bookmarked the event on Yelp (4000 S Land Park Dr)... nope! Then tried to find the address on Facebook (3800 S Land Park Dr)... nope (this address took us to some residential homes)... anyway, the event website said located on the Village Green at William Land Park, at the corner of Freeport Blvd and the Sutterville Rd. Found it after circling the place a few times. Whew! having said that hopefully, the first-time visitors are able to read my review for easy find of the place.We had an online deal for four (which included free banana s'mores) but I needed to buy one more ticket (there were five of us). General admission for 2015 is $6/person. The entrance line went fast for us and once inside the park we explored what the event had to offer. The booths were spread out nicely, not too crowded. Some of the food booths that I noticed were banana nachos, banana popcorn, chips with banana mango salsa and banana chicken shish kebab, dessert-like banana burger, which consists of a veggie patty made of bananas and oatmeal spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. The rest of the food booths were not related to bananas at all like the boba smoothie booth... oh wait, they did offer banana chips and fried bananas (or something similar). My daughters had face painting done and bought a few trinkets at the non-food tents. As for me and my hubby we ended up spending a lot of time at the Diamond Resort International tent w/ Vince (marketing)... and eventually bought a vacay deal.... agghhh! why can't I just say "NO!!!" and another representative caught me just standing there (I was waiting for my hubby) and offered me insurance advice... ugh! leave me alone, please. For the little kiddies they had train rides, pony rides and rock climbing. We didn't stay to watch any stage shows because there was another event happening at the Buddhist Church 2015 Japanese Food & Cultural Bazaar. 3 Stars because the girls had a nice time and it was somewhat fun and festive for them once we actually got there, our three daughters broke off from us and I guess they found some interesting stuff for them to do or check out (can't say the same for the stage entertainment, sorry). If it weren't for our daughters, though, we would've left sooner. We left after a few hours. It was a little difficult leaving the park because we had to go against the crowd coming in. Entrance and Exit are one in the same gate. Hopefully next year they are able to accommodate parking for the crowd.Review #0326

Well this day turn out to be a pleasant day, except for finding good parking, everything went well. My wife got a living social deal for today's banana festival. We all got a treat. We took all the girls with us and they had a lot of fun.., from face painting and some good food. My daughter , being a banana freak, bought her custom with her, so she look like a full blown banana. I saw different vendors with different ideas of making banana food, dessert etc. There were other vendors that sponsored our veterans, and I got suckered into buying a vacay package... Not a bad deal , I just need to book it. There were shows on the main stage , as we arrived there, there was a group that did a Brazilian drumming, songs and chants..... A little later, there was a (I think a 3 generation band compose of granpa, dad and son) 3 man group that played a lot of some good blues and rock. I was pretty intrigue with this because granpa was the drummer and the grandson was the bass player dad did the lead guitar and sang. Pretty neat I think . We had a lot of fun, especially the girls,

I love the Banana Festival. There is always great Banana food to enjoy and entertainment. We take the kids to enjoy the jumpers, games, competitions, and other fun activities. Last year our son won 2nd place in the Big Chess Competition. It was great seeing the youth playing chess. They host a Banana Pageant for the youth and Talent show. Each year is something better. I can't wait until this weekend to attend this year. There will be a pancake breakfast at 9am and parade at 11am Saturday. It's a great festival for the entire family! You can buy items from vendors such as clothing, jewelry, and much more. If you love popcorn, Art of Popcorn is there too. They have the best caramel popcorn.

This was my first and last year at the banana festival. My friend and I found a deal on Living Social for 2 tickets for $10 and they both came with banana s'mores! Holla! We drove around Land Park looking for the event and if we blinked we would have missed it. We lucked out and found street parking almost immediately. The event opened at 10 and we arrived shortly thereafter. It was so disorganized right from the start. We could have just walked in for free as we practically had to wave someone down to look at our e-ticket. Once inside there were several rows of promotional booths sprinkled with a craft booths. The gates were lined with bounce houses. We did see a face painter guy who was slouched in his chair texting away on his phone. We were ready to leave within 5 minutes of arriving. Where are the bananas?? Where are the food booths?? Oh the 6 booths they had were tucked away in a corner. We walked around and around looking for the booth where we could get our s'mores that came with our ticket. Finally, we asked and a girl let us know where they "might" be. We got to the tent that had them and all of the workers were sitting around while a few guys tried to put bamboo up around the tent. This was the festivals MAIN food booth tent. At 11 AM, they were STILL not open and we overheard one of the workers say they were running 2 hours behind. We left empty handed. No s'mores in hand. Banana fest sounded like a brilliant idea, but it was the lamest festival that i have ever been to.

The festival didn't really focus on bananas. Like 50% of the festival was insurance vendor things and the other 50% were food truck that barely had anything with bananas.

August 18, 2024This will be review number, Maestro or Maestra a few notes on the piano if you please, Number Twenty Nine of this Festival! Read of this event from a Sacramento publication. Not their newspaper, but some kind publication! Someone emailed me volunteer information! Instead electronic mail, one has to do word SCAN for the volunteer application, then the Waiver form also by this SCAN! The SCAN one person help with that, okay, no problem! The Waiver form, took least five people to help with that part! Okay so August 18, 2024 my working shift is nine oh clock a.m. to three oh clock p.m.! Event opens ten oh clock a.m.! I was doing the Children Activity area, no problem, I used to working with children! Other reviews say so Very Loud, hardly any banana food theme! Last person before me from UTAH, his was August 22, 2023! Food trucks yes, but only two with Banana theme! That of banana split, cost is twenty dollars before tax, ouch ah ouch! I had chicken and waffles, has three small waffles and three drum sticks! Yes indeed was so Very Loud, the children area, some the songs (TO ME) not seemed appropriate for children! One of let go bear hunting, one band member holds up picture of a gun! Next picture is a Mother Bear and Cub! Two other band members dress in bear masks, I guess to be Mother Bear and to be Cub! That is too scary for children! If banana theme, why many the Food Trucks have their own variety food, such hamburger, quesadilla (spelling), fries, sea food! The sea food, not want be biased, their squid is not squid, is call something else on menu, way he described, just onion ring version, no head, legs, tentacles! I not even like onion rings, I say thank you, walk away, I not paying sixteen dollars before tax for just tough tasting onion rings! I not think will be worth to try volunteer in 2025, Year Of The Snake!