The night before the Fest, I checked out the weather forecast:
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will become overcast in the afternoon. A stray afternoon thunderstorm is possible. High near 85F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. - Tomorrow night: Scattered thunderstorms, especially in the evening. Low 64F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Not horrible, but not great. Umbrellas are on the Gillette Stadium's prohibited items list, and a raincoat doesn't sound like a great idea for a hot and humid and a maybe rain day, so, what to do?
Anyhow, I also took a look-see at the official website of the festival, and discovered that while the menu was now up (yay!), that Melinda Doolittle (Season 6 American Idol Finalist) had disappeared from her 4:30-5:30 time slot (boo!).
It turns out the cancellation of Ms. Doolittle was only the tip of the iceberg...
When we arrived at Gillette Stadium shortly after the noon start time and walked out onto the covered football field, I quickly realized several things:
1) The crowd was sparse, with the only decent line for food being in front of Jim's Steaks.
2) There was a band playing on the stage at the far end of the field... but where's the 2nd advertised stage?
3) I counted 10 food tents on the field along with the stadium's drink stands... missing were Anchor Bar, Neely's, Southside Market & BBQ, Tony Luke's Philly Steaks, Turtle Alley, and Willie Mae's Scotch House... and found Junior's Cheesecake and Ted Drewes Frozen Custard up a level where the larger bathrooms were, along with the surprise make your own sundae bar with Rancatore's ice cream.
4) The "Front Room" (duck confit, goat cheese, grilled onion jam grilled cheese on brioche) $10 was sadly missing from the menu at Harding Lee Smith.
5) The Fest staff knew only of the one single stage, but had no idea what the show schedule was.
Well, we were already there, so we began grazing:1) All Star Sandwich Bar's Fried Scallop Po'Boy (Lettuce, Tomatoes, Sweet Corn/Mango Remoulade on Ciabatta) $11 had perhaps 5 fat tender fried scallops on a chewy crusty ciabatta2) Hell's Kitchen's Mega Beef Rib $12 - an impressive meaty rib about a foot long reminiscent of the Disney park turkey leg3) Ted Drewes Frozen Custard $6 - I preferred the Oreo & Cream Concrete over the Strawberry, both of which were at a perfectly creamy consistency4) Junior's Cheesecake $5 for a slice of the nice smooth and creamy Original with a thin cake layer for the crust5) Jim's Steak's Cheese Steak $8 with peppers for 50 cents - unfortunately it got soggy in the wrapping before we had the chance to eat them, and besides, the add ins were slapped onto the cooked beef rather than cooked together, and I don't remember tasting any actual cheese6) Goldie's Churros with Cinnamon Sugar $6 - the lady coating the churros heard me ask for a fresher batch, and brought them right over; they were so light inside the crispy outer shell!
The performances finally began at 2:30pm (a half hour late?) with TV Diner's Billy Costa introducing the Ace of Cakes' Duff Goldman and his crew. Duff revealed that for every minute of the show 400 minutes are taped, so you can imagine how slow their 45 minutes of live cake decorating was for folks used to watching the Food Network show on their tv's. But they tried to keep us entertained with chit-chat and Q&A. This was followed after by an EepyBird live Diet Coke & Mentos show up at Level 100 which drenched the folks downwind (hey, can't say they weren't warned!).With only a single stage, we faced periods of non-entertainment or of piped in music inbetween performances where we snacked or napped in the shade up in the stands.Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes were later than their 4:15pm starting time, but I enjoyed that they had a neat little brass section. Buckwheat Zydeco, however, got some folks moving to the music.
The draw, however, turned out to be Paula Dean, who was scheduled to finish at 8pm so that she could make it to her 9pm flight which was an hour away, but she kept asking for more minutes and so didn't finish till nearly 8:15pm... her poor transportation coordinator (whom she introduced during the Q&A)! Also, while entertaining, Paula didn't do any of the cooking - that was the task of her lady-helper (didn't catch her name), her husband, and a child volunteer. At the end of her show, the bulk of the remaining audience headed out the door, while we stayed to watch a 2nd EepyBird demo from a different point of view.
We left as they announced that Tom Colicchio had taken sick (I found it tough to believe this after everything else that had changed) and that Duff Goldman would handle a Q&A in his place from 8:45 - 9pm. The Stompers were scheduled to go on at 9:30-10:30pm, but I seriously doubted that there'd be much of an audience left by then. In fact, I read afterwards that the remaining people were asked to leave at around 9:30pm...
Definitely not as advertised. I kind of felt sorry for the organizers though since they seem to be caught in a downward spiral - too many attendees with too few food stands and trouble with the cashless system out in CA in 2009, which may have resulted in fewer attendees in NJ 2010 who weren't happy with the parking charges nor with the standstill caused by the rain, which may have resulted in the cancellation of food vendors and performances at Gillette 2010 which definitely caused disappointment among those who attended this festival.
My suggestions other than fully committed vendors and performers would be for more shaded areas and more (and more solid) chairs (or to allow attendees to bring their own seats), a better informed staff (ie. what's the schedule?, you mean there's an elevator to the upper level?), and to forget about the cashless system.
