Chipotle Cultivate Festival

If you visit all their stations, you can get a free burrito coupon! There will be crowds though. Try to get here earlier

Great festival, albeit crowded – but you can definitely walk through it. The food honestly isn’t too expensive, and there are a few free samples that were really great. I love that the music and chef talks last all day, alternatingly. The lineup is very solid for a free festival. And Golden Gate Park is an amazing venue since you can go explore the park when you’re ready for a break!

Good times to be had out at Hellman Hollows for the Cultivate Festival. The live acts were great and the food was standard Chipotle fare. Neon Trees were the draw and they played well.

GO EARLY! As in before 1130am. That is all.

A festival to check out at least once or to give it a go! It is a yearly festival, so if you have time and in the city, you mind as well don’t want to miss it!
It is Chipotle themed and I was digging the Chipotle beer while strolling around the park! Whether it is to grab food, sample some sponsored booths or to get your stamps on, the lines are reasonably long and it was at least moving for each booth!
Grab some company and go on to venture out some exhibits! Collect 4 stamps from each exhibit and you get a free Chipotle burrito — redeemable at any Chipotle store and not at the festival itself!
The music was pleasant and they had Neon Trees performing for the evening at 6ish!

This is my first Cultivate Festival experience and it was AMAZING!
First it started off with a great quick drive into GGP from Marin and was easy to find parking. We got in line at 10:30 and were allowed right in at 11. We easily got all our stamps in 30 minutes for the free burrito, and participated in just about everything. The chef demos were especially cool and Graham Elliot stayed for photos, so I got my pic with him! And props to SFPD and the Park Rangers for how they handled the protestors and our line for Graham.
Although the festival got crowded I never felt like it was TOO crowded and overwhelming. I didn’t smell a ton of weed (gives me headaches). Getting to try ShopHouse was really cool too.
Neon Trees sounded great. I’m knocking off a star because they really needed more bathrooms and the breweries featured didn’t have their own employees there and the contractors knew nothing of their product.
Overall, it was pretty fun, especially since it was mostly free, and i hope they come back next year!

I think they highly underestimated the amount of people that would show up to a free event. I was lucky enough to get in quickly but I heard the line went INSANE after about an hour I got in. They had ONE person checking people at the gate for over 1000 people coming in. Did someone seriously think that was ok? All of the food and drink lines took over 20 minutes to get something. This was BEFORE most people got in too. All in all, it wasn’t really well done. They need to be more prepared for the large amount of people showing up to this.

Located in SF, so the expectation was crowds and long lines ofcourse.
Overall, it was a good free event. I got to hear LP, Walk the Moon, and Mayer Hawthorne performed; which was the highlight of my time there. Maybe it will get better next time with crowd/​traffic control.

What a let down. Very poor pedestrian flow on the grounds. No dynamic interactive learning with the educational booths because the lines of people getting samples and passport stamps for a free burrito coupon. The chefs tent was too small for the presentations and standing room alongside the barricades put you in the middle of traffic or food lines. Why didn’t they use the concourse next to the de Young Museum? Low affect for what was advertised.
Suggestions: Get screens to project chef presentations across the grounds. Create better traffic aisles to avoid bottlenecks and confusion in navigating the grounds. Open up the space. Bring more variety in the education and make it more alluring than just showing up for a passport stamp.
Kudos: Great music line up. Great new Chipotle menu debuts (not clear yet). Superb promotion of the chef lineup and excellent group of chefs supporting the event.

Not a bad festival. I think some people had a bad experience, but for what we came for, it was a pretty nice free event.
Highlights
–Animal activists crashing Nate Appleman’s demo and Nate Appleman handling it with as much grace as possible.
–Unlimited access to guacamole
–4505’s Chicharones and Sausage for which there was almost no line
–Really great selection of beer with full pours and tasting samples
–Bands playing all day but alternating with the demos
Lowlights
–Overpriced espresso shot
–I wanted to bring my water bottle in but they made me pour it out. That is really unsustainable
–Overrated big gay ice cream line that took an hour and a half
–Ugh June Gloom
I didn’t get any of the Chipotle food, but I hope Shophouse makes its way to the Bay Area.

I went to the FREE Cultivate Festival because I wanted to try Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. They have trucks & a store in NYC, read they got a truck from LA & drove up to SF to serve their ice cream.
I got there late because I couldn’t find the festival for the longest time, it’s the old Speedway Meadow on the park map, there’s only 1 sign for Hellaman Hollow when you’re right on it, NOT on park map. Got there around 12noon & it was already very crowded.
Got the Stamp card in the booklet you get in the Info Booth. Got in the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck line because it was already long, I think I waited over 30 min for a $ 5 soft serve Salty Pimp — it was ok, nothing really special.
Heard a little bit of the music, I didn’t know any of the acts so didn’t care about that.
Guac Mashup line — too long
Avocado Line — long line, but stood in it. They gave out free plastic avocado cutter. Got stamp.
Tacos — 2 for $ 5 I think, I didn’t get it. Looked pretty good.
Fresh vs Processed — line was kinda long, but it moved. looked quickly got a stamp.
Dogs shouldn’t be allowed because it’s so crowded. Got my 4 stamps & the coupon gotta use before 6÷22÷13.
Went to eat in on Irving near ²²⁄₂₃^rd. That was way better.

I went to this festival with a friend, expecting good free food, decent music, and a generally enjoyable time. However, I found none of these. The food was rather expensive, given the quantities of food given, and the lines were prohibitively long. My friend and I decided to leave after waiting multiple hours to purchase miniscule empeñadas — these were very good, but I could have easily found a decent restaurant and had a meal in the time it took to wait in line.