It was with trepidation that I greeted the news that I had won a pair of general admission tickets to the Great American Food and Music Fest, "a one-day event celebrating the rich traditions of classic American fare and music" that will be held at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough on Saturday, June 26, 2010.
I had done some searching on the web in the meantime, and had discovered how poorly run and unfortunate the first Fest had been out in California last year, with massive lines of folk waiting hours (yes, that plural "s" was intentional) before the limited number of food purveyors, while the wristband payment system crashed, and food supplies dwindled much too fast.
Not to mention that the VIP All Access Tickets (the only tickets for the 2010 East Coast event that was inclusive of food) cost $1,200. Yes, that is no typo - this was the price noted on both the Fest's own webpage (www.greatamericanfoodandmusicfest.com/) and at their TicketMaster webpage (www.ticketmaster.com/event/010044A70C86B329). So my freebie tickets (valued at $32.50 (supposedly), $42.50 (Advance), or $52.50 (Day of Show) depending on how you look at it) did not actually include any food at this food and music fest. Yeah, I was sort of bummed.
What I had won was:
Admission to the Fest including all performances, demos and seminars and entertainment (except Grand Tasting & All Access areas) - Parking Included.
Restaurants participating (listed alphabetically) are:
All Star Sandwich Bar - Cambridge, MA
Al's Beef - Chicago, IL
Goldie's Churros - Los Angeles, CA
Hell's Kitchen - Minneapolis, MN
Jim's Steaks - Philadelphia, PA
Johnson's Boucaniere - Lafayette, LA
Junior's Cheesecake - Brooklyn, NY
Maine Diner - Wells, ME
Neely's BBQ - Memphis, TN
Southside Market BBQ - Elgin, TX
Ted Drewes Custard - St. Louis, MO
Tony Lukes - Philadelphia, PA
Tucson Tamale Company - Tucson, AZ
Turtle Alley - Gloucester, MA
UNO Chicago Grill - Chicago, IL
Willie Mae's Scotch House - New Orleans, LA
Windy City Eats - East Weymouth, MA
Zoe's Cupcake Cafe - Teaneck, NJ
Performers as currently scheduled:
Tom Colicchio - Top Chef, Bravo
Buckwheat Zydeco
Paula Deen - Food Network
Melinda Doolittle - Season 6 American Idol Finalist
EepyBird - Diet Coke™ & Mentos™ geyser
Duff Goldman - Ace of Cakes, Food Network
Tony Luke -Tony Luke's, Phildelphia, PA
Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes
The Neelys - Food Network
The Stompers
Michael & Jane Stern - RoadFood.com
Gary Vaynerchuk - WineLibrary.com
To go or not to go? Well, it is a bit early to decide, after all it is a month away, and I still have to wait for the tickets to come in the mail first...
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Hello Vivian,
ReplyDeleteI read your comments regarding last year's test event and I wanted to encourage yout to COME! There were a host of reasons things went wrong @ Shoreline including the payment system. What you didn't read was that our show took responsibility for everything. We gave everyone a refund who asked...including parking which was money we didn't even get. Regardless of the fact that everything really did get to "normal" after the first 2-hours of the show.
There was a promoter and food service company between our guests and us in 2009. We were supposed to get 220 points of sale and ended up with 135. No gas to our purveyors until 1-hour prior to doors, missing cash, cash registers, paid for volunteer staff, changing our site plan one-week prior to the show...you name it. Not enough parking attendants, ticket takers, and security when the doors opened...all promoter and building's responsibility.
I never said any of the above to anyone. Just said I'm sorry and gave people whatever they wanted. I went on the radio on the following Monday during evening drive time and apologized, gave my email address to anyone who wanted to write me, etc. That radio station (#1 in SF) wants to present our show in the fall again. They were there and saw everything that happened
I'm a very proud person. I didn't go bankrupt...didn't blame someone else, and didn't change the name of my festival to try and hide from my past mistakes. Yes we had operational issues @ Shoreline. That's why we did a test event. If you go to my company website, you will see a host of events (some you have probably been to) that have not had these problems. http://www.jimlewievent.com
As for our prices, priced our tickets to be as low as we possibly could. I went to see Paula Deen perform at the Chicago Theatre and tickets were $85. You can see Paula perform twice at our show. Cheapest ticket to Guy Fieri's road show, $55. Guy played twice at our show last year. There are only 100 tickets out of 25,000 priced at $1200. You get to meet all the celebrities, backstage catering and wait service and all your food and drinks. It cost $1200 for a Britney Spears VIP ticket and you don't get to meet Briteny...or eat.
Sorry for the long post. I feel compelled to write when seeing negative things said about something we are working so hard to make great.
If there is any question I can answer for you, please let me know. jim@jimlewievents.com
Thanks!
Jim Lewi
Producer, GAF&MF