Dickens Christmas Festival

I wish they were still at the fair grounds. Or really anywhere that isn’t a convention center. The price is pretty steep for what you get. I think next year we’ll skip on the dickens festival.

I could sum our trip to the «Dickens’ Christmas Festival» up with his own words; «it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.» But, I just can’t leave it there — it wouldn’t be right. I NEED to take a moment and apologize to Charles, all of his ancestors, AND progenitors.
I am sure we all envisioned beautifully decorated Christmas trees, lovely caroling, a magical Father Christmas, and people in perfect period clothing selling things like handmade wooden toys & plum pudding…
Yet, amongst only decorations, was a dirty white wood sign covered in ornaments with holes to stick my head through for a photo. I was disappointed the sign didn’t read, «I got dicked over at the Dickens’ Festival.» The lack of décor was bearable until we realized FC was hiding in the dark, behind an entourage of carnies selling Tupperware, magical gels & plastic helicopters. Further secluded by his elves charging a grip to sit on his dirty coat from Zurchers. No feelings could be eaten, as the plum pudding was replaced by old cinnamon rolls and the goose by fried fish.
Yet, the most offensive part were the fiddlers & carolers being traded in for people dancing in inappropriate outfits to strange religious music on TWO different stages.
Charles, darling, I am sorry. I know you’re tired of rolling around in your grave; after all, this has miraculously been going on for 30 years. Just rest in peace. It surely can’t go on forever.. .

I come to the festival every year because it is a very nostalgic place to come. I don’t like to rate it so low, but in all honestly it just isn’t the same since they changed venues from the state fair park to the south town expo center. A lot of the charm was lost with the move of venues. It used to be walking from building to building with horse drawn carriages going around and fires lighting the way. Now it is in a convention center with exposed ductwork and partitions separating the isles. The only reason I didn’t give it 2 stars is because the venders seemed better than previous years. I really hope that it moves back downtown to the fair grounds next year.

I know that no one involved with Dickens Festival is going to care at all about these reviews. But for potential customers … BeWARE! This place is a total nightmare.
This year they moved to the South Town Expo Center and it seems to have made everything way worse.
The booths are set up in narrow, winding pathways. It’s packed. You can barely walk. It’s super dark, which I get is for ambiance. But good grief, at least give people a little more space to move around if you are going to keep it so dimly lit.
The stage areas are so cramped so its nearly impossible to watch a show.
The food areas are RIDICULOUS. Literally 4 tables set up near the food stations so prepare to eat your soup in a bread bowl while holding it, standing up.
But the absolute WORST part… was the Father Christmas set up. We went to the Dickens Festival this year because it was always a tradition in my family to visit Father Christmas at the Dickens Festival and I loved it as a kid. He is a GREAT Santa. So we wanted to get a picture of our kids with Father Christmas.
We showed up early in the afternoon, only to find out that you can’t visit Father Christmas unless you have an appointment. When we got there all appointments were «gone» so we had to wait until the next round of appointments. But first, Father Christmas had to go on break. So we essentially were told that we would need an appointment, but they would not be assigning appointments for another almost 2 hours. So we had to hang around for an hour, then get in line for an hour (or else we probably wouldn’t get an appointment at all), and then after waiting for 2 hours we would get an appointment time. THEN, we should come back during our scheduled appointment time to see Father Christmas. WHAT THE HELL.
We had already paid a ridiculous amount of money to get into the festival. So we were stuck either loosing our money and not seeing Santa, or just waiting. We are insane so we opted to wait. And WAIT WE DID.
We wandered around for an hour with our kids. Then I came back and stood in line for an hour while my husband wrangled our kids. Then I luckily got an appointment time that was not too far off. So then we waited for our appointment time. THen we waited in a line leading up to our appointment. Then we finally got a 4 minute visit with Father Christmas, got our pictures taken, paid $ 40 for that picture, and went home feeling like the biggest morons in the entire world. The picture was adorable. But I had to endure a lot of self loathing to get that picture.
At some point during my near-​infinite-​line-​waiting I saw the festival director walk by so I asked her why on earth they would subject people to this ridiculousness. She responded that it had something to do with the fire marshal and not being able to form a line inside the building and blah blah blah. She literally said that to me AS I WAS STANDING IN A LINE.
Perhaps even putting this Father Christmas information on a website? Or letting people sign up for these stupid Father Christmas appointments online to avoid waiting for hours and hours and hours? Or maybe even re-​thinking and re-​working this entire thing because it was an absolute joke.
So basically, here is my plea. GET YO SHIZ TOGETHER DICKENS FESTIVAL. I really want to come back. I want to enjoy it. I want my kids to get their picture with Father Christmas every year. But I can’t support this joke of a festival unless you GET IT TOGETHER.
The end.

Welcome Back, Dickens Festival! We have missed you. It is nice to see the vendors dress up and care about making it a good experience for all of the attendees. I really enjoyed the performances by the dancers and singers. They did an amazing job. I hope they stay a little longer next year. The food was delicious and the shops were great, but Santa was the best! He really brought it home for the kids.
Keep up the good work and can’t wait until next year.

My friend and I have attended the Dicken’s Faire in the past here and enjoyed ourselves immensely. This is a company based in St. George, and last time they were here (some 8 years ago?) they had a 3 weekend run. This time, only Thurs, Fri and Sat, 12/​9, 12/​10, ¹²⁄₁₁. My friend and I had a great time. Huge crowd on Saturday. Here’s the rundown.
Parking: Tough for a thrifty, ‘mature’ broad like myself with a bad skiers knee. Parking is always $ 5, so I found a space nearby and walked.
«Olde» Effect: Coming from the San Francisco Dicken’s Faire, summer Ren Faire, and Country Fair in Salem, Oregon, honestly, I’m spoiled. I want to walk into another timezone: this is what «makes» the experience for me. The SF Fair does this, with a constructed real-​wooden village, with street criers selling their wares from baskets, urchins that heckle you in Cockney accents, (so real that you get a little scared), and get lost in the twisty streets. Not so much, here. Booths were cardboard/​paper, but great art work (painting), admittedly. Nice costumes, a few accents.
Performers: Loved the chimney sweeps doing the ‘step in time dance’ brass group, harp guy, and the period ballroom dancers with amazing dresses, historically accurate and very cool. Father Christmas for the kids. ⁴⁄₅
Booths: Quite a variety of things to purchase. Unlike stricter faires, these booths were not focused only on «time period». You could buy a flying ufo and scentsy warmers as well as $ 5 necklaces. Same booths you see in most places around the Wasatch Front but all the sellers were costumed.
Staff/​Vendors: I spent some time in the ufo/​necklace guys booth because they were hilarious and loved demonstrating their wares. The other booth that really kept me busy was the totally period booth offering dresses and cloaks, all handmade and very nice. Top marks for the very friendly and helpful staff all the way around, even with huge crowds. ⁵⁄₅
Food: There’s your kettle corn, spiced almonds, fudge, fish & chips, soup in a bread bowl, missed the ribs. I only had a sticky bun yummy but they were doughy on the inside.
I skipped the free horse drawn carriage ride which looked great, but huge line. Loved the bonfires in front. All in all, I had a great time, I always do. I just wanted more of a realistic leap backwards in time.
Note: This event is completed, you missed it.