Boston Local Food Festival

Totally chaotic, but very yummy. A great way to spend a sunny warm day.

Wasn’t sure what to expect but I was overall happy with the variety of local booths. Loved the free tomato box! Samples otherwise were pretty slim and not worth the overcrowded area unless you were seriously interested in learning more about the products or looking to purchase something. The concept is really great, though, and I especially liked that there were volunteers standing by each garbage can and recycling bin making sure everyone properly sorted their waste. I think next year it should definitely move to a bigger space so the casual afternoon doesn’t turn into a fight scene over two bites of a granola bar sample…

I thought there would be more free things… but Unilocal was there and I got a bag! Wooo.
Lots of great stands and friendly happy people working them, happy to show their goods. Too many items just for sale though – when there’s a bunch of things that are similar you have to try before you buy!
People need to learn how to Q though… My friend was almost knocked over!

Went to this year’s Food Festival expecting to spend the whole day there, however, between how over crowded the place was and how expensive everything was, that just wasn’t going to happen. I expected more of the vendors to have free samples, not little tastings for $ 3-​$ 10 each. I think the only free thing I got was a quarter of a baby tomato at one of the stands… I did make out with some homemade Bloody Mary mix from one of the vendors which was to die for.
Loved the speakers at one of the tents, the activism vibes were a nice touch to the local food fest. I’d love to see more advocacy in the future.
Maybe moving the location to somewhere more spread out would be better in the future. Or even over the whole weekend.

I had a really fantastic time! The only issue is that the walkways were too tight for the crowd to navigate. Other than that, it was a great time. Good food, vendors, etc. I would’ve like to see some more produce stands, personally, but it wasn’t a big issue.

This festival is always so crowded & should be on Sat & Sun in the future. It’s too bad it doesn’t get spread out more. I was hoping to see some food tricks there but no such luck. There aren’t enough food vendors & that’s the whole purpose of it.

I just got back from this and was pretty disappointed. My mistake was in thinking this was a farmers market, when in reality its a food FESTIVAL. There were absolutely no fresh vegetables for sale, which was really what I went for. There were farmers giving out samples of tomatoes, but not selling them. Weird, I know. Most of what you can find here are small meals you can buy, or jarred items. I did see one booth selling raw meats.
It was also jam packed and I didn’t even get close to sampling, purchasing, or even seeing what most of the items there were due to the crowds. I know Boston is a small city, but if this is advertised as the «largest farmers market» then maybe they should be able to accommodate the large crowds.
Overall, I feel like I got cheated out of what has potential to be a great event. I kept hearing the same complaints as I shuffled through the crowd, so I’m not alone in my disappointment.

Only giving three stars because it is a fabulous concept but needs to be in a larger venue. The Rose Kennedy Greenway is a beautiful space yet it’s too narrow for rows of vendor tables dispensing samples, meals and other resources. Got there around 1230ish and it was jam packed! Some vendors had nothing left and others had lines that were ridiculously long. Need an open venue with stanchions to create orderly lines. Also vendors should bring a ample samples. Not sure what type of materials vendors receive in advance but that message should definitely be included! If vendors are out of samples they should vacate the space not hang out chatting amongst themselves ignoring potential customers.
Finally the use of the word FREE. Many vendors had NO samples but were simply charging customers exorbitant prices for food that was served on cocktail plates or in salad dressing cups. Not cool. Very disappointed that there weren’t more freebies. Prices ranges from $ 1-​$ 12. Please make sure that next year this is made clear to your audience.
Lastly I went to the Unilocal table, checked in, spun the Unilocal wheel and won a nail file. Really? Get better prizes Unilocal!Tap into those businesses that have the most favorable reviews for goods. More creativity. Nail files and cup warmers are whacked!

First time here and had no expectations… and it was pretty great! The only problem was I came toward the end of the day (3 pm) and some of the stuff was sold out. Nonetheless Susie Albert and I had fresh shucked oysters and really good ice cream. And I bought some local brewed soy sauce, a marinade, and 4 cupcakes for later.
See you next year, y’all!

i had a blast at the festival but was hoping to see more. maybe my expectations were too high. it rained all day that day but still i had fun. the samples are always yummy. i’ll be going to the next one, for sure.

I’m glad this wasn’t canceled by the rain, but I was disappointed in the number and variety of vendors. It seemed to be more of a farmers market than anything else, and I didn’t have as much fun as I remember having in previous years.

I’ve been to a lot of food festivals, and although this one was supposed to be the largest in the country, I have to say the variety was bleak, the vendors were unfriendly, and there weren’t as many samples as expected. Many of the vendors there lacked the business acumen of being friendly, nice and helpful. Example: Although many had «prize wheels» to engage passerbys, they were very strict in which prize you got at the end. I didn’t want a button, I wanted a spoon. They were all free and giveaways, so I asked if I could please have a spoon instead. The vendor rudely said no. Result? I won’t be within 10 feet of their product, and I will encourage others to NOT purchase. The prize wheel is just a marketing tactic. Everyone needs to relax and be friendly. For a bunch of hippies, these ones at the Boston Local Food Festival need a little more namaste in their life if you know what I mean!

I wasn’t impressed with the Boston Local Food Festival this year.
I was happy that it wasn’t canceled by rain (as I feared it might be as I walked to the Greenway).
It was basically a large farmers market. Which is cool, but I wanted to get some of the «dishes from talented chefs, all including locally sourced ingredients and priced at $ 6 or less» as advertised on the Boston Local Food Festival website, but I didn’t see any meals available at that price point, so I ended up buying lunch elsewhere.
Thanks to Olivia’s Organics for the delicious free Spring Mix sample!
It was also nice to see Unilocal there and spin their wheel for a prize after showing I’d checked in.

How lucky for us to be in Boston to experience your Local Food Festival!
Coming from Vancouver, BC which is filled to the rafters with locavores and has an initiative underway to become the greenest city in the world by 2020, the whole local food festival concept isn’t something that I haven’t experienced regularly but it was sure nice to see what Boston has to offer.
First of all, don’t eat before you come! All of the vendors were very generous with their samples and there were some terrific eats to be had. Some of our particular favorites were: Quinn Popcorn (Parmesan & Rosemary flavored), High Lawn Farm (Best. Chocolate. Milk. Ever.), Hearth Artisan Bread (Cranberry Orange Ginger bread) and Cookie Lady Treats.
There appeared to be several demos being offered at all times throughout the festival — we saw one guy showing how to butcher a whole pig. Ewwww, I did not need to see that. And no, I don’t eat them so I am not being a hypocrite.
I was happy to spot Boston’s Unilocal booth and to check in and say hello!
A really nice event and at a nice new location near the aquarium. Easy T access.

This was my second visit to the Boston Local Food Festival. Last year was a big success and I had a great time. Not only did I discover some great new products/​restaurants/​food, but I also learned a few fun things like how to make butter at home and about composting.
This year was also a great time, but it was PACKED when we got there. I think it might be time to expand to 2 days! There were definitely more restaurants cooking up their goodies and I was happy to check them out. This year I also bought tickets to the 2^nd session of the brew tasting. What a great time! In addition to saw awesome breweries there was also some mead and wine. I was pleased that it was croweded but not so much that they ran out of beer or I had to wait long. I’d love to see more breweries join this event next year!
My only complaint and suggestion for next year… those white tents where vendors set up are completely too small. It gets so crowded in there that its almost impossible to stop and check out each vendor. This bottleneck happened in the tents last year and it was brutal then. This year there were even more people and I felt like I was being squished.
Overall, a great time and a wonderful way to support the local food community!

I went to the first (I think?) Boston Local Food Fest in 2010 for the purpose of going to the craft brew tasting. I bought tickets far in advance because I really wanted to attend. I don’t attend events @ Seaport lightly because living in Brighton it takes over an hour to get there.
When my +1 and I got to the event, we found out that somebody had royally f-​ed up and decided to give tickets to EVERYONE who wanted to drink the craft beer, instead of stopping at the obvious limit of the event’s capacity. That means I spent approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes traveling to seaport, being told that my tickets that I bought at least a month prior were useless because random people who didn’t plan in advance got in before me, and that I could get a refund.
I got my refund, but what the hell? The rest of the food festival was sort of pointless from a vegan perspective, and I’m not a fan of elbowing people in the guts and fighting to the death to try out a tiny chunk of soy protein at the one vegan booth I did find.
So basically I spent 2.5 hours so I could hear somebody say «we screwed up, we’ll give you a refund.» But how can you refund my afternoon?
I wrote them an e-​mail to their customer service department (or whatever they have that resembles such) and got no response.