AZ Bao & Dumpling Festival!

 

Food festivals are such a fun way to try new foods, new food trucks & sometimes find some wonderful local vendors to purchase from as well. We recently attended the Arizona Bao & Dumpling festival and had a fantastic day together. The festival was held in the parking lot of the Martin auto museum so certain ticket levels also came with admission to the museum, prices on the tickets ranged. Children ages 12& under were free for both the festival and the museum, which is awesome for families that have multiple children. VIP tickets allowed you early access into the event + use of the indoor bathrooms instead of the portable bathrooms outside. We arrived shortly before they opened at 10:30AM & the line was already huge, plus there was only about a row of parking left in the parking lot so we are glad we got there early. The line to get in could have moved a little smoother, but once we were past the gates everything was smooth sailing. 

I think they did a great job with how they had the food vendors line up & the placement of both the vendor rows along with seating for dinning. I also liked that we were able to bring our own water bottles inside so that we didn't have to spend that extra cost while at the event. Everything smelled so good & most of the lines moved along fairly quickly. We tried a few new things we hadn't had the chance to before which was exciting & we found a new favorite or two. When we ordered we each had a little bit of whatever it was that we ordered so that we could try out several food trucks instead of just picking one or two. We plan on visiting some of the food vendors we tried at the festival in the future, we look forward to ordering from them again. 

The food vendors that had signed up for the event had a nice assortment of dishes to offer, there were so many amazing smells that you could let your nose lead you to the food item you wanted to try. I also like that they had plenty of trash cans around the event, it is always nice when you do not have to hunt down a trash can. Everyone at the event seemed to be having a great time! There were tons of families, couples, and even quite a few dogs who were walking around taking in the event. It was very family friendly & we would love to visit another one of their events in the future. 

Prior to arriving I would try to figure out a budget you'd like to stick with especially if you only have a certain amount to spend in the first place. Food, Drinks & Desserts can range in price from $3.50-$20+ per order. Since there were four of us we tried to stick with dishes that were more affordable or looked like they came with a dish we could all try together. We tried out four different food vendors & look forward to trying more the next time we visit a festival like this. Out of the foods we tried we loved almost everything! There were only two items that at least one of us didn't like (the rest of us did) so I would say we did a pretty great job at picking out dishes to try. I wanted to try out one of the hot bun vendors as well, but by the time we reached their spot there was a huge line & it was slightly hot out so we will catch them another time. There are also a lot of vendors to browse & shop from.

Browsing vendor booths is always a great way to spend sometime together, & this festival had a lot of fantastic local vendors offering anime merchandise, candles & more. We found several shops we loved and ended up buying products from. As with the food prices range there were shops that had items for as low as $1 up to $50+, many were offering packages or bundles you could purchase while at the festival. Everyone we spoke with was friendly & happy to answer any questions. All of the lines for food trucks and vendors flowed nicely due to how everything was set up. In total between the food trucks and products from the vendors I spent about $120 (my daughter also spent an extra $12) so we averaged about $30 per person which I don't think it too bad and I stuck pretty close to the budget I had set for the festival, only going over a little. When we were finished checking out the food trucks & vendors we were ready to cool down a little & look at some old cars so we headed into the car museum to see what they had to offer. I will be doing a review on the museum soon as well so keep an eye out for that. 

Above you can see all of the goodies we picked up from a few of the vendor booths we stopped by. There were three other small stickers we grabbed as well however I forgot to include them in the photo. The group that put together this event has two other upcoming events the North Phoenix Asian food festival & the Arizona Nom Nom Noodles festival both of which are within the next month. Information on both can be found on their website Phoenix Food Festivals. 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" (Click here or locate it on the right-hand side of my page) section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. 

Disclaimer- Phoenix Food Festivals / AZ Bao & Dumpling Festival provided tickets for us for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.