Great Park Artisan Food & Arts Festival

great selection of services and foods and VEGGIES (concept right) its worth it if your in the area or need a break from a local store.

Wonderful first annual event, but would like to see more artisan food vendors instead of restaurants. More shade canopies for the demonstration areas as it was way too hot and sunny to sit outside and watch demos.
I expected to see more artisan vendors actually having their products available for sale, but the restaurants represented, did offer items for purchase. Vendors like OC Produce were on hand, giving the festival a fun, farmers’ market atmosphere.
Wonderful Crispy Chicken Skin Tacos from Taco Maria and huge top sirloin steak on fries from Barcelona on the Go.
At the end of the day, each guest received a goodie bag of samples on the way out: a 4-​pack of Samazon Acai Berry Lo-​Cal Energy Drink, Shave Secret (shave cream/​lotion replacement), Planters Creamy Peanut Butter, SunRype Wildberry 100% Fruit Strip, Zeasorb Antifungal Treatment, $ 500 gift card for RedStar Worldwide, and Pretzel Crisps. What a great way to end an educational and entertaining day. Hopefully, next year, even more artisan food vendors will be at the Artisan Food and Arts Festival!

This was the first annual event at the Orange County Great Park. There were plenty of demonstration, live music and what Unilocalers care most about … FOOD!
There were signs directing us to parking for the event (there were multiple events going on this day), parked and walked to the entrance. Dogs were welcome at this event, so Chief was leading the way. At the entrance, you are greeted, given a schedule of events with locations on a map and some free samples.
Inside the hangar, on a stage near the farm lab, and at the farm lab itself there were cook and food demonstrations including: Cheese Making, Bread Making, Soda Making, Salad Making, Jam Making, Refrigerator Pickling, Aquaponics, Composting, Backyard Chicken and Eggs, Vegetables Farm to Fork, Backyard Bees, Raw Food Cuisine, Chocolate and more. We had the opportunity to watch the Chocolate, Cheese and Salad Making demonstrations. Samples were provided during these demonstrations. The only problem with these events were the outside ones could have used some more seating in the shade, it was a nice sunny day and a little hot. On the good side, there were some locations with free water and the water was nice and cold. We took advantage of the free water, especially for Chief.
The arts activities included: Taste of Art, Palm Tree Cozy, Lyricism and Virtuosity, What Makes it Great and Marks on the Land. We didn’t visit any of these activities because we had Chief in tow, it would have been a little difficult, but the kids looked like they were enjoying these activities.
Now for the food! The list of restaurants and food trunks included: Duke’s of Huntington Beach, 118 Degrees, Xanh Bistro, Haven Gastropub, Taco Asylum, Clay Oven, Kogi BBQ Seabirds, Lime Truck, Organic Oasis, Lola’s Ice Cream, Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine and more!
I started off by getting a Beef Short Rib Taco and Strawberry Cantaloupe drink from Taco Asylum. This was a reasonable $ 7 total. My wife wasn’t a fan of the drink, but I found it refreshing and delicious. The taco was good, it would have been better if I could have used some of the sauces available, but I was sharing and the wife and Chief can’t handle the heat. My wife selected the ¼ rotisserie chicken and roasted garlic potatoes. For $ 6, this was the best deal at the festival. The chicken was tender and juicy and the potatoes had just the right amount garlic and the were cooked perfectly. We next hit the Lime Truck for an Ultimate Taco and a Yum Yum Lamb Sammie. The Ultimate Taco had slow roasted pulled pork, guacamole, slaw and fried wanton strips. The Lamb Sammie was a take on the Gyro, the only difference was a red sauce added for a kick. I also bought a Strawberry/​Apricot Lime-​aid. It was a total of $ 15 and well worth it! Everything was great! We devoured the food and guzzled the drink. What is an event like this without dessert? Duke’s was the only place offering free samples so after trying a few items we settled on some chocolate for the wife and a pineapple coconut bar for me. I loved the bar! I also bought 2 Vanilla Custard Cream Puffs from Mochilato Dessert Boutique. The puffs are filled right before your eyes, so you know the custard isn’t sitting around. Outstanding!
I think the event organizers will make some adjustments for next year (more shade and seating) and it will become a really good annual event. Chief loved being out and about, getting attention and sampling food. The funniest part came when some girls were petting Chief, fur was coming off (it is shedding season) and one of the workers told my wife to leave the fur for the birds. They use it to build their nests.
A really fun event and will get better in the future!

The first Great Park Artisan Food & Arts Festival, hopefully not the last! This was fun and informative and hopefully becomes a regular yearly event. The weather was cooperative and was a beautiful sun-​shiney Ca day. We brought pup with us so we really didn’t get to see any of the «arts» section, but hopefully others enjoyed that. The staff at OC Great Park were friendly and helpful and Chief was welcomed everywhere.
Upon arriving you are greeted, given a program with schedule of events and where they are at, and a goodie bag that had some food samples (peanut butter, fruit strip, pretzel crisps, body cream and an entire 4 pack of Sambazon acai berry energy drink). Inside the Hangar, there were numerous demonstrations from various chefs, seating was provided and there were tables with chairs to sit at and eat items from all the various vendors, food trucks and restaurants that were on hand. We got a ¼ broasted chicken with garlic roasted potatoes for $ 6 and relaxed and ate in the coolness of the Hangar, which Chief appreciated. Not sure of the name of the place, but that chicken and the potatoes was not only delicious, but incredibly cheap for the quality and how much you got. The chicken was so tender and flavorful. While we were eating and relaxing, we caught the tail end of a salad making demonstration and it was interesting.
Outside the Hangar there were food trucks to the right and vendors and restaurants to the left. At the end of the big grassy area the Artisan Stage had various demonstrations and we saw the chocolate making and the cheese making. Interesting, but I think I’ll leave that to the professionals. :) Samples were passed around, I don’t believe they were prepared for the crowds, as there was definitely not enough. Hubby and I both got to try raw chocolate before it is made/​processed, including the cocoa bean, that was a first. We didn’t get to try the cheese and we missed the bread making demonstration.
Outside the Hangar and to the left of Artisan Stage was the Farm and Food Lab Stage and they actually had a tent blocking out the heat of the sun, great idea! That was very crowded and had numerous demonstrations of jams/​jellies from your garden, bee keeping, cooking from he garden, chickens and eggs in the morning and a presentation of Aquaponics, future of farming.
For the food trucks, at least 5 – 6 of them and we finally got to try The Lime Truck, awesomeness!
The restaurants: Duke’s Huntington Beach, 118 Degrees, *Xanh Bistro, Haven Gastropub, Taco Asylum and Clay Oven, and others. Duke’s was smart (in my opinion) and was walking around passing out samples! Take note other restaurants, people love free stuff! Because we got to try a free sample, we ended up buying 2 dessert items on our way out to take home for later.
My husband also bought freshly filled vanilla custard cream puffs from Mochilato dessert boutique, and they had 10% off cards for future use and were working in conjunction with Koba tofu grill and korean bbq, who also had 10% off coupons for future visits. Looking forward to going there.
All in all a fun-​filled, sun-​filled, food-​filled great day! Chief loved the food, loved the walking, loved the shade and really loved all the attention he got, especially from some young girls who wouldn’t leave him alone.