Comments on: The Great American Food & Music Festival

By: Stephanie Im

Stephanie Im — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:13:00 +0000

congrats, Stephanie!! i can only imagine the headlines if you had gone into labor right on that katz’s line. hoooray magic baby-birthing pastrami! it’s a good omen for the little guy :)

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:55:19 +0000

While I recognize this event was a complete disaster, somehow me and a friend still had our own fun. Even when nine months pregnant and literal hours away from going into labor.

Now I can tell my son that a magical Katz pastrami sandwich brought him into this world 12 days ahead of schedule. It’s a perfect birth story for a foodie-led life.

http://www.grubreport.com/blueplatespecial/gaff.html
http://grubreport.com/blueplatespecial/gaff2.html

By: Cat

Cat — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:11:48 +0000

Ah, it wasn’t that bad. It mellowed out
after 4 pm. Technological screw ups happen.
I’m sure next year they’ll have
worked out the kinks.
I showed up later in the afternoon
and had a great time.
Although, they ran out of ice cream!

By: Amanda, San Francisco Photographer

Amanda, San Francisco Photographer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:39:06 +0000

I really wanted to go. I guess I didn’t miss much. I remember the very first food fest. I went to was that way and I haven’t given another one a try yet. ~Amanda

By: David Mahler

David Mahler — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:55:22 +0000

Perhaps this will finally keep Ed Levine from opening his underinformed but constantly yapping and criticizing mouth for awhile. It’s not as easy as it looks, is it Ed?

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:40:38 +0000

My husband is a huge cooking & cooking channel fan and I love music, so I thought the festival sounded like great fun for both of us. Yes, it was incrdibly disorganized and the lines for food were outrageous. We got around it by getting there early; now I understand there was a long wait just to get into the dang thing. We got around the long lines by grabbing a pastrami sandwich immediately for me, a peanut butter & jelly a little later for him; not much wait there. Forget getting a cheeseburger, filled up on cheesecake; again-not a bad line, til later in the evening, then finally after the line went away got our cheeseburgers & french fries around 6 ot 7 PM. Whew-but that took stategy! And it shouldn’t have!
And-thought the music was great and well-selected for the general age group there. But, there again, by the time Little Feat came on stage, most everyone had gone home by then. They were and are incredible musicians so that was kinda pathetic that virtually no one was there to see & hear them. The upshot, we got to move down from our cheap seats to 4th row from the stage!
Hope they do a better job organizing next year. Example, there were some people, a very few, who appeared to be looking at an agenda they got somewhere (where???), but the majority of us had no idea of when the cooking shows or musical group’s times were, until they yelled it out on stage, like 30 minutes until VooDoo Devils.
Maybe the organizers should look at food fests like Taste of Chicago-theyv’e been feeding thousands of happy Chicagoans for years now.
Guess we’ll never know if they get better at it next year, ’cause I don’t think we’d go back,…

By: steve sando

steve sando — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:57:53 +0000

What a contrast to the Cochon 555 event! That event was well run, the crowd was VERY well-fed and it was incredibly fun.
Serving a lot of people good food well seems to be impossible, especially with an ambitious menu. Even Slow Food was heavily criticized for their techniques in delivering the goods. Maybe smaller events, like smaller food production, are what deliver.

I also wonder why no one has questioned the wisdom of East Coasters coming here and telling us what good food is. I have been to New York and I look forward to deli food and maybe even a a cheesecake but I would be fine without them ever again. But take my padron pepper? My Zuni chicken? My taco truck? That would be a problem.

By: homegrownfilms

homegrownfilms — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:16:16 +0000

Oh come on! I guess the media DID have a completely different experience than the rest of us. For more on the truth of this failed event, check out these rants.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/06/the-great-american-food-and-music-fest-is-today-june-13.html

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:09:34 +0000

EPIC DISASTER!!! For the media to present the food like that is to rub all attendees noses in it. Once again, NOBODY GOT ANY FOOD!!! Instead, you paid money for the great experience of California “fun in the sun” day to see how long one could tollerate hunger before breaking down and giving in. It’s a food fest. There is a reason why everyone comes hungry…to go home full! I was there for a total of 6 hrs but gave into hunger. At least I got my money back. Count me OUT next year!

By: tim

tim — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:24:11 +0000

It was a mess. I waited in line for 2:15 and was still 1 hour away from the window when I gave up. I too was looking forward to this event and the Shoreline is hardly an amatuer at these things. The facility is not made to have 15,000 in the food areas at one time. One rumor was they expected 5,000 and did not plan for 15,000. They fail on many levels and will have to prove a great deal before I would go again.