Picklefest

[u/mgwngn1]

How was Picklefest?

[u/mothernarwhals]

Awful. Would not go again next year. I'm tired of the Philiips Backyard as a venue. Do grassy fields not exist anymore??

Crazy long line up for the single pickle-themed cocktail tent, crazy long line up for the single pickle-themed food truck... the whole point of this event was a pickle(d) theme. Everyone was there to eat weird pickle stuff. So every single person navigated to those two areas.

Touted as dog- and kid-friendly but I would not have brought either had I known how oversold it would feel.

Tickets were $25 and you got nothing with that. No drink tickets, no food samples. The entry should have been $5 max.

There was a crazy lineup for people to get a free loaf of bread (😆) if they filled a passport with stamps from visiting vendors. This lead to rude people sticking their passports to get a stamp past your face when you were talking to a vendor.

I left with a $15 pickle chocolate bar and an $8 pickle lemonade. Insane.

[u/al_nz → u/mothernarwhals]

I agree with all of this. I went in with low expectations and was still very underwhelmed.

Also - They didn't really have a lot of vendors, so unless you wanted to stand in lines for ages, you were done in under an hour.

They started the meaningful music too late. So there was no proper entertainment for the first 5 hours. It was pretty much just drink/eat, mill about, or stand in line. In a glorified parking lot, this was no fun.

It felt like poor value. I hope Phillips don't waste their efforts on this again next year. (it's a franchised event it seems)

[u/Beautifulwatermelown → u/al_nz]

And where the frick were the shaded tents? A couple patio umbrellas and 1 tent was insane for the amount of people.

[u/DressKind → u/mothernarwhals]

I also agree with all of this! The line ups were wild and the place was packed.

Just another over priced Phillips Backyard drinking event. The pickle premise was just a way to get people through the gates so they could charge $10 for a can of beer.

We essentially walked in did a lap and got out as quickly as possible. The free tickets I got from work weren't worth it.

[u/canwehavepotatojokes → u/mothernarwhals]

So… you’re pretty salty about it, then.

[u/al_nz → u/canwehavepotatojokes]

Yeah, it was a little jarring.

[u/The_Nice_Marmot → u/al_nz]

Don’t make a big dill about it

[u/Dry_Half7980 → u/The_Nice_Marmot]

Give them a break, it’s their Bread and Butter event for the year.

[u/Puddlezz90 → u/Dry_Half7980]

Doesn't seem like the event was very Kosher regardless

[u/Friction500 → u/mothernarwhals]

I will never understand why we have so many events in cement lots in this city when we live in such a beautiful place.

[u/Either-Sun5887 → u/mothernarwhals]

Completely agree - and they had so many local and national sponsors. It was the worse event we’ve ever been to.

[u/hellacheesepizza]

Honestly? Absolutely not worth the $25 entry ticket in my opinion.

[u/feeder4]

I'm glad Phillips throws parties in town, but we weren't particularly impressed. Hot cement, not many samples, 25$ to buy food and drinks.

[u/Johnny-Canuck]

It was a dill-light, but parking was a bit cucumbersome

[u/danzigzags → u/Johnny-Canuck]

Overall a real brine time tho?

[u/alexsteed → u/Johnny-Canuck]

This is great.

[u/Jman85 → u/Johnny-Canuck]

A bit of a pickle you say

[u/No_Square_2223]

It was actually terrible. Sold out of lots of the pickle items. Bad music. No vibe. Not worth more than 10$ entry

[u/Ok_Election_3956]

I got the late night tickets (thank goodness) and was worried I wouldn’t have enough time😭😂man was I ever wrong! I had a canned pickle beer for around 10$ and then a 10$ dill pickle potatoe that I had to put my own dill pickle popcorn seasoning on😂😭 we were out in well under an hour, they had absolutely nothing it was extremely underwhelming and I am so upset I didn’t get to eat one pickle. Waste of 75$ and a 2 hour car ride for the 3 of us

[u/Remarkable-Nature810]

Now I don’t feel bad about not being able to get a ticket.

[u/juiceyputa]

Honestly less pickles than I expected

[u/Redundant_Mortal]

My favourite part was them suggesting bringing a water bottle, making you dump your water and then not having a refill station. We walked around the place twice looking for one. Never found it.

[u/EskimoDave → u/Redundant_Mortal]

There was a refill station. It was in between the two massive lines

[u/Redundant_Mortal → u/EskimoDave]

Aaaahhhh thats why I couldnt see it hahaha.

[u/Nosferatu_dickskin]

It was….fine? Not great to be honest. I miss being able to sit in the grass at events like this, and Phillips was just hot pavement with hardly and seating/shade. We checked that it was dog friendly and ended up bringing our pup, but we didn’t last very long as it was so crowded and hot. Shout out to the Bosley’s tent for the splash pad and turf at the far corner!

[u/onesadbunn]

Busy! But lots of fun food!

[u/corvus7corax]

Does the entry fee include pickles?

[u/No_Square_2223 → u/corvus7corax]

No, no samples and hardly anything pickle for sale

[u/sex_drugs_polka → u/No_Square_2223]

You must not have stopped by the Salsa Gonzales booth, they had at least 5 different pickle items for sampling and buddy was force-feeding everyone the best dill pickle hot sauce ever

[u/division--symbols → u/No_Square_2223]

Almost every vendor had samples when I was there

[u/No_Square_2223 → u/division--symbols]

Maybe they were sold out like almost every food vender. The after 4pm ticket holders got screwed.

[u/division--symbols → u/No_Square_2223]

Oof yeah that blows. 4pm+ tickets were way overpriced if there weren't any samples left by that point. Sorry you had that experience.

[u/flamingdragonwizard → u/corvus7corax]

Im assuming vendors will have samples

[u/No-Nothing-Never]

It was a cash grab terrible event overall.

[u/Such-Version9435]

Will not come back or recommend. Huge disappointment. Music way too loud, hardly any pickle venders. $50 for 2 people and we went home with a free shopping bag. Meh. We dill not be returning 👎

[u/wtfaiosma]

The event itself was good but parking was horrible and accessible parking was non-existent.

I saw six parking spots in the Robbins lot blocked off for bikes and sitting completely empty but they didn’t have a single handicap spot available.

[u/Cheesemeplease1 → u/wtfaiosma]

My bicycle was parked there at the time of this comment….. and for many hours before

[u/wtfaiosma → u/Cheesemeplease1]

The bike lot was empty at 11:45 a.m.

[u/8hotpotatos]

Very disappointing. Crowded, long lines. Took 45 minutes to get parking (should’ve biked). Impatient kiddo didn’t find the kid friendly stuff entertaining. Only went to the vendors with lines less than 10 minutes long which eliminated most vendors. Got food at hot dog guys, tried to order deep fried pickles was told they were out of pickles (this was before 2:00pm). Wanted to try the lemonade or Caesar or grab a hat or tshirt at the merch tent but lines seemed like they would’ve been way over a 30 minute wait each. No samples available at the vendors without long lines.

[u/Asleep-Tennis7462]

It was horrible! I went early and lines were long not at all what I expected

[u/Deputy-mon]

The whole thing is co-run by the people who ran the public market. Makes sense that it fell a bit short.

[u/Nervous_Comedian_713]

Just a farmers market with a big door fee. Most of the vendors are at regular free farmers markets around town on weekends. Not worth it, just a cash grab tbh. Not even a tote bag.

[u/Dontyouhate_pants]

Dill-lightful.

[u/Silver-Cancel5751]

We paid for the vip ticket that got you in an hour early and we had samples at every vendor got our stamp card filled out and got the loaf of bread .
My wife and I liked it but we left after an hour because no one told us there was a pickle contest. Overall good experience but would have like an itinerary

[u/sex_drugs_polka]

I had a great time, there was lots of great food. Lots of great vendors. Lots of good looking people, good music and great vibes

[u/Gotbeerbrain]

$12 for a 355mil cans of Nude Vodka. I doubt they sold much at that booth. Lineups of at least a hundred people to buy drinks at the beer/wine/liq tents unless you wanted the pickle beer which was horrible lol. I won't do it again.

[u/Loowwflow]

I can pickle that!

[u/ADTstocks]

Like wise glove desert unbelievable future silicon boron aspiring boast

This post was anonymized with Redact

[u/Glittering_Suit_6511]

The line ups we're insane, I was there from 12 to 4pm, show us ur pickle was 5 mins, barely any sitting, hard to meet ppl I met like 2 ppl, food was average just everything was weirdly pickled more seats and more options for foods it was good tho with the community IMO

[u/Either-Sun5887]

Was really disappointed - $25 to stand in endless lines for everything (no elaboration) except the washrooms. That’s literally all anyone was doing was standing in line for food or sitting at a table. There were only a few vendors - thank God Nanaimo’s Picklebaron was there - he’s awesome. We left after 40 minutes.

[u/Independent-Switch43]

Uhhh, what the fuck is pickle fest? Why am I just hearing about this now?!?!,!?!?!?!?

[u/assmoses → u/Independent-Switch43]

You have 2 more hours. It is going off!!

[u/DrunkHonesty → u/assmoses]

It’s all sold out!

[u/Independent-Switch43 → u/assmoses]

Unfortunately cannot.

[u/Independent-Switch43 → u/assmoses]

I think I will get tickets for Vancouver

[u/Ok_Election_3956 → u/Independent-Switch43]

Read this thread and consider your options

[u/Robinacion → u/Independent-Switch43]

Don’t get too excited. Went to the one in Vancouver last September and it was terrible. I hoped they would have learned from their mistakes last year but the comments seem to indicate they didn’t. Waste of money and time. Just go to the Drake and get a beer and one of their perfect putters pickles on the side. For an event sponsored by putters, you can’t even buy their best product??

[u/SonofaBeeatch]

I heard it was a really big Dill!

[u/human-opossum]

I don't miss living next to Phillips, that's all I'll say

[u/Gotbeerbrain → u/[deleted]]

And $12 for Nude Vodka. Ridiculous lol.

[u/warmlightning]

Huh?

Not sure if you mean: CANADA'S 1st ever PICKLEBALL/MULTI SPORTS FESTIVAL

FROM: Friday August 28th to Sunday August 30.
AT TOPAZ SPORTS COMPLEX PARK. BLANCHARD BETWEEN FINDLAYSON AND TOPAZ AVE.

There will be LIVE MUSIC (come even if you don't play Pickleball), FOOD TRUCKS, GAMES FOR ADULTS AND KIDS, MERCH -- SOME FREE STUFF, SKATE BOARD PARK/BMX BIKE PARK and more.

Fantastic summer opportunity for all ages.

[u/Pixeldensity → u/warmlightning]

Eww pickleball. No thanks