#321 Go to Chocolate Fest

I was told that Chocolate Fest in Burlington was a waste of time and money, that I should remove this from the bucket list and replace it something more worth while. Despite the warnings, I wanted to check it out myself and form my own opinion.

Chocolate Fest lived up to it's warnings...it's not THAT exciting. Maybe if it wasn't pouring rain and there were actual shows going on MAYBE it would have been slightly more entertaining. I have ridden enough carnival rides that I didn't have a desire to blow my entire budget on rides that I can ride at Bay Beach for a fraction of the cost. Even with not going on the rides, it was still a pricey afternoon. $8 ($7 in advance online) just to get on to the grounds and then another $8 to sample the chocolate in the Chocolate Experience Tent. That's $16 dollars a person for a sub-par festival... Not to mention the $5 to park in the dump.

The Chocolate Experience Tent wasn't all that bad. For $8 we got 12 samples of chocolates from different booths. It actually comes out to $0.75 a sample but to charge me for a sample seems a bit ridiculous. Most of the samples were sizes that actually made the $0.75 worth it. There was at least 1 piece that was not much much bigger than a nickle. We did get some good gelato, a mini chocolate covered pretzel rod, a chocolate covered marshmallow, and some really tasty fudge. You could get a Nestle Tollhouse Cookie for free but you were limited to only one as they stamped your hand.

Besides chocolate samples and chocolate shopping, there were several demonstration areas. We caught the end of a cooking demonstration where there was cinnamon on pork. Earlier in the day, I believe there was chocolate demonstrations. There also were chocolate carvings including a Star Wars one. If you had kids, they could try to find treasure in chocolate. That one looked like fun. Kids were given chisels and nails to try to break open chocolate to find treasure. Many of the kids we saw weren't too successful. We got there in time to see the start of the chocolate eating contest. Just what every parent wants...their toddler to eat 5 mini candy bars.

We did wander into the vendor tent and sampled some dips. Other than that there wasn't much happening. There were some interesting activities it appeared in the family area like a lumberjack show and a puppet show. Maybe this is more a family event but at the price, I'm thinking the county fair is cheaper.

Chocolate Fest is now officially off the bucket list. I have no desire to go back unless someone gives me free tickets and Pat McCurdy is playing. It's one of those been there, done that, don't need to go back experiences.