- 2017 was Taste of Calgary’s 20th Year
- Located at Eau Claire’s Plaza
- Runs for four days, Thursday – Sunday, 11am – 9pm
- https://www.tasteofcalgary.com/
- Google Pics: Link
- Watch this page for updates as we get closer to the 2018 Taste of Calgary
Taste of Calgary is an outdoor food festival where you can enjoy samplings from a variety of Calgary’s unique restaurants. Not limited to just food, there are also many participants from Calgary’s local craft beers. While enjoying a variety of food and drinks you can enjoy musical entertainment from the stage.
Admission to the festival grounds is free and includes access to the main stage. The only cost is for tickets, at one dollar each. Food costs are then set by the vendors, this is anywhere from 2-5 tickets.
I hadn’t been to Taste of Calgary in many years, I’d enjoyed it before but somehow hadn’t made it back. This summer we changed that, with family in town we thought it would be a great outing.
We parked only a few blocks away from Eau Claire, which after 6pm is free in the area. The area was really busy but not to the point of uncomfortable congestion. There were several ticket booths and we waited very briefly in line to get our own. Ticket sales are CASH ONLY, no debit or credit.
This helps keep costs down for the organizers, however given the number of years the festival’s been running, and the organization of everything I was really expecting to be able to pay with debit. There were ATM’s on site, but with all booths only taking tickets what would the point be in taking out cash for a single point of purchase.
With a map/guide from the ticket booth you could plan what you want to try or just wander around and see what grabs your attention. The festival was laid out well, and easy to get around. There were lots of garbage and recycling areas. We were there on the first night and there were some gaps where it appeared participants hadn’t set up yet. No worries however as there were still lots of options.
While we were there “Matt Blais” was playing on the stage. This is entirely subjective but I thought he was excellent, and just the right approachable rock for such an event.
I’ve read a bunch of people’s opinions from Facebook and Google. The mixed opinions seem to be about the variety of participants, quality of food, and price, essentially everything.
Well price, is it cheap? No I don’t think it is. But you can be choosy where you spend your tickets, because there are deals to be had. However I don’t feel you go to an event like this expecting things to be cheap. I wandered around and picked what I wanted to eat, not what was cheap. The average price was 4-5 tickets for an item, and for some thing 5 tickets was a lot for what you got. However for some 5 tickets got you a lot, and there were items for 3 tickets. Most drinks were 2 tickets, while on the beer sampling side it ranged from 2-3 tickets each. If it’s a major concern they do list the full menu and prices on the website. You could easily look it over and plan in advance. Understand these are samplings, think finger food appetizers, some are larger but the general idea is “a taste”.
Quality of the food? Everything I had was excellent, my food was hot and tasty. This is a dynamic environment and if things weren’t hot I’d be inclined to forgive it. However quality, to me means freshness and quality cuts of meat. Everything I had was great.
Variety? I can’t entertain a criticism of this, there is a great variety. You can have something entirely pedestrian or go out outside the regular with Taste of Calgary.
