NYC Kids Food Festival recap
is a 2-day weekend event focusing on educating families about making balanced food choices through fun and flavorful activities. With several kid-focused food brands and tons of kid classes and activities throughout the day, the girls and I decided to check out all the food-filled fun in Bryant Park.
We arrived on a chilly morning at the opening of the 2nd day of the festival . I was hoping to get there in time for the 10am crepe class but we got there a bit late. Located north of the ice skating rink where the celsius restuarant/bar is located we checked in - it was free for general admission.
After sampling everything from cheese to tuna to tiramisu wafers we tried everything we could. Then Winter decorated her own chef coat at the craft station. How stylish!
To work off all the treats, we headed to the mainstage to jam with DJ Natalie of
where she sang and demonstrated to us the basics of djing. Winter jumped right in to demonstrate the basics of cue-ing and mixing in. I had heard about
and was curious to see how you break it down for the infant/toddler set and appreciated making the fundamentals kid-friendly and incorporating different genres of music (liked EDM and jungle) into her original songs.
Honest tea hosted a scavenger hunt which got you a ridiculously jam-packed goodie bag if you met with vendors like Plum Organics, Horizon Organics (expanding past milk products into the snack scene) and more. To get the goodie bag you needed to get your program plate stamped.
Our take: though its more of an all-ages festival, activity-wise the value jumps in probably around 4 years and up when you can take advantage of the classes (and its not just parent "helping" toddler). Crowdwise - I think we lucked out coming right around 10am on the 2nd day. You can breeze through all the stations. By 11, it was already starting to get hectic but was still on the "empty" side so i can just imagine mid/late afternoon on both days - especially saturday.
I went solo with an infant and a toddler so I definitely had my hands full and somewhat glad i had the umbrella stroller (leave the double at home and/or bjorn the infant!) Foodwise - definitely a thumbs up for parents looking to learn and sample new offerings from well-known brands as well as newcomers to the baby/kid food scene.
And I mean, this gift bag... c'mon! that alone will have me reserving my tickets next year.
I'm also curious to read about the family date night event that was on saturday night. If you went to the festival or attended the family date night please share your experience in the comments below!