Kings Island Food & Wine Festival Reviews

[IndyGuy4KI]

Let's use this thread to post Food and Wine Festival reviews! 

[IndyGuy4KI]

Here is the Charcuterie for Two at the Food & Wine Festival.  The honey sauce pairs very well with the meats, cheeses, & fruits. I like this event being hosted in Tower Gardens. 

[Timchat2]

Impressed by the scope of the decor. It's a bit like a localized Grand Carnivale.

Also, there is different music playing on International Street presumably for the festival. 

[brenthodge]

Looks great, but it’s more like a Wine and snack mini festival. I think calling it a “food festival “ is a bit of a stretch. The entertainment seems great and the decor looks very well done. It reducing the days results in a stronger event I’m all for it. I’d even be ok with Carnivale only on weekends if it wasn’t as thin and lane as last year. 

[Tr0y]

Some really cool landscaping done for this event!

[IndyGuy4KI]

See the opening of the event!

 

 

[BoddaH1994]

On 6/7/2024 at 10:42 PM, brenthodge said:

Looks great, but it’s more like a Wine and snack mini festival. I think calling it a “food festival “ is a bit of a stretch. The entertainment seems great and the decor looks very well done. It reducing the days results in a stronger event I’m all for it. I’d even be ok with Carnivale only on weekends if it wasn’t as thin and lane as last year. 

Carnivale went from:

- Opening ceremony, parade, walk around characters and entertainment around the park with several countries represented

to

- Opening ceremony, parade, walk around characters and entertainment on the bandstand

to 

- Opening ceremony quickly followed by the parade 

If this event returns, I’d imagine it’ll follow the same tract. 

[brenthodge]

50 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Carnivale went from:

- Opening ceremony, parade, walk around characters and entertainment around the park with several countries represented

to

- Opening ceremony, parade, walk around characters and entertainment on the bandstand

to 

- Opening ceremony quickly followed by the parade 

If this event returns, I’d imagine it’ll follow the same tract. 

In “fairness” I had conversation with Koontz last year  during Carnivale expressing my appreciation, yet disappointment with the state of the event. He said it’s a conversation they’ve had many times with corporate live entertainment where they come out of the gate with all the bells and whistles, throw it all out there to see what sticks, and have way more than will be sustainable in the long run when it becomes the individual park’s responsibility to run the event with a positive ROI in the future years. KI being one of the first “test” parks you really feel the cuts more than those that come on line in later years with nothing to compare it to. 

[Timchat2]

While I enjoy RetroSpect, having the Royal Rhythms during Grand Carnivale made the event feel all the more special since you got an entirely different Bandstand show for a couple weeks.

A big part of what made Grand Carnivale great in its best years was the interaction with all of the GC characters throughout the evening. You would meet them at the opening ceremony, take pictures with them around the park, dance and sing with them during the parade and then they would all gather at the Bandstand for the big goodbye of the finale. In 2023 (and presumably 2024) with the performers still doing their daytime shows during the event it doesn't leave them much time to be the characters for Grand Carnivale. The opportunity for those special guest connections are lost.

[BoddaH1994]

14 hours ago, brenthodge said:

In “fairness” I had conversation with Koontz last year  during Carnivale expressing my appreciation, yet disappointment with the state of the event. He said it’s a conversation they’ve had many times with corporate live entertainment where they come out of the gate with all the bells and whistles, throw it all out there to see what sticks, and have way more than will be sustainable in the long run when it becomes the individual park’s responsibility to run the event with a positive ROI in the future years. KI being one of the first “test” parks you really feel the cuts more than those that come on line in later years with nothing to compare it to. 

Yeah, I remember you posting about that. While I do understand the sequence of events, I still don’t think it makes much sense from a guest perspective. From the eyes of the lay person, all of Kings Island’s events get a little less spectacular every year. It’s going to make sustainability much harder as time goes on. This is especially true for a season pass-heavy park like KI where their goal is to promote spending within the park during these events. My fear would be the mentality of, “we did the tasting card last year. We don’t need to do it this year.” since things, especially the food, have been stagnant at best in a lot of ways. 

[brenthodge]

5 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Yeah, I remember you posting about that. While I do understand the sequence of events, I still don’t think it makes much sense from a guest perspective. From the eyes of the lay person, all of Kings Island’s events get a little less spectacular every year. It’s going to make sustainability much harder as time goes on. This is especially true for a season pass-heavy park like KI where their goal is to promote spending within the park during these events. My fear would be the mentality of, “we did the tasting card last year. We don’t need to do it this year.” since things, especially the food, have been stagnant at best in a lot of ways. 

Oh. I’m not defending it (realize it came off that way a bit) there’s no real excuse other than money. You cut a bit… people come… you cut a bit more, sone complain but different people come, you cut even more, both groups start noticing and attendance drops. Park cancels event says “ it’s run its course and the public isn’t really interested” you launch new event with even less offerings to “make up” for the event…. Or, you are Dollywood. Just providing perspective as to why year one is amazing and it quickly drops off. As you said, they need to be careful since KI has WAY more repeat visitors. Year one of Carnivale I didn’t have a pass and paid full (after 5) price and felt like I got WAY more than my moneys worth. Last year even with a pass, I barely cared (as it was obvious they didn’t either) 

[brenthodge]

And wasn’t the tasting card cut last year? Or was that for tricks and treats?  

[BoddaH1994]

8 minutes ago, brenthodge said:

And wasn’t the tasting card cut last year? Or was that for tricks and treats?  

They had it for Grand Carnivale. They had special food for Tricks and Treats but a lot was on the meal plan. The last year they had it for T&T it was astonishingly expensive. 

[Tr0y]

8 minutes ago, brenthodge said:

And wasn’t the tasting card cut last year? Or was that for tricks and treats?  

They had the food card last season for Grand Carnivale.

[brenthodge]

4 hours ago, Tr0y said:

They had the food card last season for Grand Carnivale.

I guess I just didn’t care any more. That’s the problem with uninspiring selections. Peopke don bite anymore. 

[Tr0y]

The Charcuterie

On 6/7/2024 at 3:13 PM, IndyGuy4KI said:

Here is the Charcuterie for Two at the Food & Wine Festival.  The honey sauce pairs very well with the meats, cheeses, & fruits. I like this event being hosted in Tower Gardens. 

They should really consider putting the charcuterie for two on one of those square paper plates from Coney BBQ. Here is display example below from French Corner of Charcuterie on a square plate. It looks better in my opinion:

[IndyGuy4KI]

21 hours ago, Tr0y said:

The Charcuterie

They should really consider putting the charcuterie for two on one of those square paper plates from Coney BBQ. Here is display example below from French Corner of Charcuterie on a square plate. It looks better in my opinion:

I agree, the presentation definitely should look a little better. I think that would go a long way with selling the product. 

[brenthodge]

Personally I wish at this point they’d invest in 3-4 semi permanent food kiosks in TowerGardens. Make them more like EPCOT food festival booths, that have more of a purpose built look. Redress them for each Festival ;CARNIVALE, Food and Wine, BBQ and BREWS, Winterfest) and then have better food options for each, since they could have a more permanent “kitchen” in each. If they could continue to monetize Tower gardens, they might continue to invest like they have for this. I’d be cool with it -along with the Oktoberfest bar- being more of a Festival Center. Move food and Wine weekends to the spring before daily ops, CARNIVALE early summer, BREWS &Qs late summer, then the fall/ winter fests. Really tie Coney BBQ, VIP, and Tower Gardens together into one “destination” Also, build more of a permanent stage by FestHaus with a wooden pergola cover that could double as raised extra seating when not in use. Give that whole area a more cohesive look and tear-round festival feel. 

[BB1]

To be honest I really didn't get the whole event. The wine selection was subpar, almost akin to a very cheap wine tasting experience at a wine bar, which is saying something about the quality control. Give me a solid Riesling, Bordeaux etc from regions that produce amazing wines unlike the menagerie that we got. 

Leave the food and wine fest to the pros, give us a solid local ran Oktoberfest with regional craft breweries and then we could maybe entertain a food and whine about it later fest.

[Orion-XL200]

I never made it to the park during the event. Not that I was really dying to go to the park, but if I was able to, it wasn't during the weekend when the event happened. 

Nothing about the event though, truly made me want to go see it. I absolutely love wine and haven't really found a wine I don't like. 

I think it would have been done better if it were during the late summer, during the week as well and with a focus on more local (Ohio) wines and the like. If they do it again, I'd suggest the above.

[Hawaiian Coasters 325]

I personally hope that if they do decide to bring it back they hold it in like late April/May instead of June. Most parks that do these Food/Wine Festivals do them in the spring time as it feels more like a spring time event than a summer event. I liked the concept of it, but thought it could've been executed better and it felt more like a last minute thrown together event. Hopefully instead of just axing this event altogether, they take some time and see what worked and what didn't work and see how they can improve the event in the years to come.