Lodi Grape & Wine Pavillion

I visited this past weekend for Beer Fest, upon the suggestion of a friend affiliated with River Rock Brewery out of Galt, of which I am a big fan. My friend and fellow yelper, with the patient assistance from our DD, came through to taste of the wares for a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon. Tickets were $30 a pop for all you can reasonably drink/taste. Thankfully, the weather was kind, and it was not too hot out. There were also plenty of choices inside the main air-conditioned building, and underneath tents and shade outside too. Direct sunlight was easily avoided for me. Win!Having never been to a beer festival of any kind, I had zero idea what to expect. Line management to get in was kinda eh, but once we had our IDs checked, our wrists banded, our DD settled in, and were corralled into the pen we had ourselves quite a time sampling and re sampling. There was free water everywhere, which was great! BBQ Championship foods were also available, and we tried some nachos and ribs that were excellent. Breweries near and far came, so it wasn't just immediately local beer. We had Oregon and Colorado repping, along with California choices from all up and down the coast and valley. Each brewery booth had anywhere from 3-6 choices. Idol, Five Window, Lodi Beer Co., High Water (where us Campfire Stout fans had pre-gamed beforehand), and Dancing Fox were the ones I tasted from Lodi that I can remember off the top of my head. There were also a few cider (Hemly!) and hard seltzerish (White Claw!) booths. The cover band was pretty good, too. I didn't find the line situation too bad once inside. I never had to wait longer than five minutes per taste. One could go nuts if they wanted, but I like to think I tried to behave myself lol. The indoor plumbing situation was a hot mess, but in a way was nostalgic, reminding me both of the county fair of my youth and also the overflowing Oakland Coliseum bathrooms. Although there were multiple bathroom areas inside, functional plumbing at the time of need was not guaranteed. Closed-toe shoes would have been a good idea, as a mental note to myself for next time. Porta Potties were also available outside, but I did not use these. There was not anything of substance that we could locate for vegans to eat other than beer and stray chips uncovered by meat or dairy. I would come here again for Beer Fest, or perhaps to try out the Grape Festival.Parking was ??? gravel lot and side streets maybe, maybe bring someone from Lodi like we did.

The place needs a facelift or an update! The bathrooms are old and smelly needing a good bleach scrubbing. Other than that the building the show was being held in was clean & cool. Maybe it's because it's a fairground but some attention is needed. Will be back again in couple weeks for the beer fest.

They get 5 stars for having very clean out houses for the Lodi Beer Festival on April 22, 2017! They also deserve 5 starts for putting on a great event! I won't deduct any starts for the lack of food vendors because I know they were up against the asparagus festival in Stockton that day so I'm sure the vendor selection was limited. I would have liked to have seen food trucks there though so hopefully next year! I'm also looking forward to going to next years wine & food festival in the beginning of April.

Some things never change, And one of those things is the Lodi Grape Pavilion. It's a great place to hold parks and rec basketball. Though the facility is outdated, it works.

Went there for a high school FB game. Young kids throwing the ball around near the snack bar. Went to throw a ball to a kid and an older man running the facility starting yelling at the kids about throwing a football . Became overly dramatic about a football being thrown to little kids. Complete Jerk. I apologized and he kept going on and on. Won't be donating to the grape bowl or supporting the snack bar ever again. I have a lot of respect for our senior citizens. Understand people can get cranky but complete a$$ is the only way to describe his behavior. Kept going on and on long after the apology. Perhaps grape bowl management can find another person and he can stay home.