Monterey Bay Bacon, Blues and Brews Festival

This was so bad, I’d give zero stars if I could.
$ 15 entry fee to get in. No re-​entry allowed, no tags. That fee literally gets you nothing but to get in the door once.
From here you have to buy overpriced bacon food at a bunch of stands.
Bacon Ice cream? No, it was vanilla ice cream with bacon bits on top. Plenty of other trends like this. Bacon chowder? No its seafood chowder plus bacon bits.
Went to the Hops N Barley beer festival in Scotts Valley the day before, and it was KILLER. $ 40 entry fee but free beer all day, and 50+ breweries were present. Live music, dogs, california apparel.
Bacon Fest is a total joke, I’ll never be back.

Long line to get in a 11:00 am and $ 15.00 tickets at the door. The fair was little. Not much bacon was offered outside of a few windows selling very expensive bacon ice cream. Some vendors ran out of pig candy by 11:30 and turned many away after being told it would be 30 minutes before they had more available. Most of the booths had nothing to do with bacon or didn’t have samples to hand out. There was very little creativity with this festival. They just invited many fair vendors you would find any country fair. Very disappointed!

Very disappointed! Prepaid on line for 2 adults $ 10 each with a $ 2 service charge each since they published (on-​line) the gate rate would be $ 15. When we got there Sunday at noon I was told that they were charging $ 10 each at the gate. We bought a VIP parking pass for $ 20 with a service charge of $ 5. Total rip off! Unknowingly, the VIP parking is at the opposite end of the fairgrounds in a super dusty gravel lot. As we walked to the main entrance there were plenty of free parking spots on the main road and other properties along the way had lower parking rates. I will be fair and agree that there were uniformed attendants at the lot which might be a little safer for the vehicles. But now my ride needs a wash from all the dust. We should have used our handicap placard and parked closer.
As far as the focus of bacon… Yep there were a few different bacon offerings and the live music was just OK for the two hours we were there. The portion sizes were not consistent of the food coming out of the Tarpeys food service and I thought it was a tad expensive even for festival prices. Beer selections from Firestone Brewery were good, bacon condiment bloody marys and margaritas with bacon salt and bacon sprig were $ 7 each which was a fair and tasty value. The beverage station further away from the music had less of a waiting line.
I would have thought it would have been fun to have a actor dressed up like a piece of bacon for a photo op as you enter. Also the stage could have used a bacon fest back drop. Just my professional opinion. More typical non bacon vendors selling jewelry, hats than I thought would be present for this themed festival.
There was also a organized play area with multiple jump houses for the kids.
I would NOT go back unless the entry rates were half of what they charged.

I was SHOCKED when I was asked to pour out all my families water bottles onto the ground at the entry gate today — do the people who run this event know there is a drought going on? And two pieces of chocolate bacon for $ 8.00 — a little overpriced! Prices were also inconsistent, long lines and not a lot of vendors…
However, the music was good and the crowd was friendly — but not sure if I would go again unless some changes are made.

I will give this festival the benefit of the doubt in seeing that it was only the 2^nd year of its existence. It was quite unorganized and the people that had prepaid for their tickets had to wait in a ridiculously long line. Usually you should get in pretty quick if you already have your ticket and it’s paid for. As we had VIP tickets, you were supposed to get a gift when you entered… They were completely out of them within 15 minutes of being opened. That was quite disappointing for the price that they charge for this festival. There was a lot of confusion when it first opened and it didn’t seem like anyone knew what was really going on.
The best part of the entire thing happened within the first 30 minutes of us actually being there. This was the case because there weren’t a lot of people there yet. We were able to experience all (There were only a handful of tents) of the tastings before the lines were 100 people deep. Also, when trying to get a beer, there was a huge line and there was only 1 place to get it from.
The positive for the festival, which gave me some promise and I would come back again because it can only get better (I Hope…), was the food is really good. All the different items that were made with bacon tasted absolutely delicious. But then again, what doesn’t taste better with bacon?! It was a nice festival with various arts & crafts and it was a gorgeous day in Monterey.
I would like to go again and give it another try, but there are some serious issues that need to be worked out. If you are paying that amount of money, for any event, it should be a much more satisfying experience. But, because I love beer and bacon, I would give it another shot…

I want a refund. This was the most unorganized event I ever went to. We waited an hour just to get it and then we waited in more lines was we were there. I had to pay full price, $ 100 for me and my date. Now I had to pay for beer which was a half-​hour long line. It wasn’t what I expected. It should have been more spread out. It was terribly organized and I’m extremely disappointed as was my date. $ 100 to get in and wait in line to try 8 tiny samples? Are you serious? We left ealry. There wasn’t much to stay for. I would like a full refund from the festival. Please contact me by email. My name is Sean Ellis. My email is

I’m standing in line as we speak. One long line for one food tent with 8 samples of bacon dishes. The beer is not included in the price of the ticket. This is definitely not even worth the price of my discounted ticket I bought on goldstar. I’d be pissed if i had paid full price. I understand that this was the first year but I would deem this a fail. Everyone here is grumbling. Better luck next time I guess.

I paid $ 90 dollors for 4 people and drove from San Jose; we were excited! Unfortunate, that this was organized poorly. Long very long lines for the free bacon sampling, there was only one tent that offered food to purchase and they took about 20 – 30 minutes to make the bacon hotdog meal because they ran out of stock, soda tent served warm drinks, one beer tent — lines long, maybe about 6 vendors selling things and no attractions except the live bands which was nice. Tried to make the most of it, but even to buy beer took more than 30 minutes to get.
We left w/​in 2 hours and most of that was waiting in lines. So to salvage this family day, I took them to the Wharf which we had a blast!

I just came across this and it looks so awesome. BACON & BEER!!! YES they have merged and someone decided to do a festival on it. I love it. So excited about my bacon coma that is coming