San Gennaro Feast San Diego

It was worth the Groupon price. The food was hit or miss. The games were expensive but no worse then Del Mar Fair prices. The weather was garbage, I hope they plan another one next year.

Seemed like a money grab for the mob, and yes i am being serious, being Italian it was a gigantic let down and waste of time, have a little bit more pride next year, yeah?

$ 9 to get in? It was just not worth it

Get the $ 4 entry coupons! Food was great, A Philly Cheese Steak to die for! About 3 pounds of steak for 9 bucks! The rides were not all that, but the Ferris Wheel was fun if you hadn’t been on one for a while. The games were the worst, went to play the hoops & the guy with an attitude was changing the rules to just shoot a couple hoops to win a $ 2 prize. I asked for my money back & he had the nerve to argue with me with my family. NOT COOL! DO NOT PLAY THE GAMES! RIP OFF! Better off going to Dave & Busters. The live performance on the other hand was great! They even had ELVIS on closing night, preformed very well with a sense of humor!

After having been to the SD fair once, this one is not even close to be alike. No wonder people were leaving as soon as they came in.
9 bucks entrance, 5 bucks parking and everything is totally overpriced. Everything.
The elderly italian guys band was ok, the grandma jumping around at the stage as if she’s 15, wasn’t a pleasure.
Rides are 3 – 5 bucsk a person. Now if you have to go with the small child, they charge the adult too. C-​mon! 8 bucks to have the kid ride two rounds on the train is too much!
Getting your family on a few rides equals out to a legoland day pass. Having a membership there, never felt so good before.
The pizza and the burrito were lousy. The yogurt pineapple was nice but 10 $ a piece?

Wife and I took the kids, who saw the feast from where we live overlooking Qualcomm stadium.
There was tons of food, games, and rides to be done. The rides were ok, but as we have a 2yr old our options were limited… which is fine. What sort of sucked was that we wanted to go on the ferris wheel as a family, but could not due to our 2yr old being too small. So I took my daughter instead and we enjoyed it. Not as much as if it were more family oriented as it typically is a family-​type ride.
We did find some rides for him and my daughter to ride together, which they really enjoyed.
The people who ran the games were nice. One of the guys who ran the milk jug game let my daughter try multiple times to knock the bottles down. She failed, but it was nice he tripled her chances. In fact that was a common theme across the board for most game hosts.
Overall, a really nice experience. I would’ve happily given 5 stars had the ferris wheel been a family safe ride for young ones.

Completely mediocre event designed only to shake down your wallet.
$ 7 to enter with a coupon is really steep for a fair of such small size, especially that everything inside is at least 50% overpriced.
So, the food you PAY to experience, the so called «italian» food — veerrry pedestrian. With the amount of italian flags waving everywhere, you’d think that «italian pride» vendors would want to actually represent with some good stuff italian cooking. Nooope. It’s gross, greasy, mass-​produced, fast-​food style of food. Spaghetti and meatballs — sauce was bland and watery, clearly from a can. Calamari — gross, greasy and bland. Handful of food trucks present jacked up their prices by at least $ 3 – 4 dollars per item, from their regular menu.
A very special shoutout to the bakery tent –because I got to — are you kidding me?! Normal sized cheese danishes and chocolate croissants — $ 5/​each. A loaf of bread… are you sitting down… $ 11! Haaaaa! To my dismay, the girl at the tent says: «it’s a french bakery!» LOL Ok, and?! Was it literally baked in France, hand crafted by some super-​duper pastry master in a white baker’s hat who was muttering something very french and twisting his mustache, and then, flown on a super fast Concorde jet to this sad little festival? That is the only scenario to warrant me paying $ 5 for a danish.
Handful of carnival rides were cool. Went on two rides, $ 5 each. Mishmash of entertainment: some cheesy-​greesy old man was singing for background noise, a handful of swap meet vendors hopelessly and sadly trying to pawn their crap wares noone needs, some man and his abused monkey with very sad eyes taking dollar bills from squealing in delight masses.
Overall, cool (I guess?) once, won’t do it again.

What a let down. When I saw that this even was coming to San Diego I knew it would never be able to compete with the feast in Chicago I attend as a child… but this was a flat out disaster. Not even close to a good arts and crafts fair.
The food was like out of can spaghetti and sauce… and the sausage sandwich which was $ 9 was not worth the bread it came on.
The event seemed to be run by one major company who had the market on the psuedo-​Italian food… and Greek food… and Mexican food… along with various stands selling trandition Fair food… corn dogs, funnel cake !!! Come on, this was supposed to be a major Italian Feast.
I went, I spent and I’m done. Never again, and I’m advising anyone reading this to pass on this event if it comes to your area. If you are in San Diego, go to Little Italy on India Street and any one of those restaurants puts out some of the best Italian food around. The Columbus Day Celebration kicks the tar out of the San Gennaro Feast I attended this past weekend.

Overall this festival was like any other festival. The food stands were good. And there is of course an assortment of food to be had.
The festival offered the typical entertainment of rides, games and vendors. There was a petting zoo and pony rides. Zip lining and human water hamster balls for those looking for a little zest. There was even a snake exhibit.
A few spots even included booths about Italian culture. I wish that there would have been a few more.
I liked that there. seemed to be a fair amount of seating areas tonsit and eat.
Overall, it was a good experience and I would check it out again.

Just got back. The festa was awesome! You must go!

My experience was mixed. I agree with the complaints about the high cover charge, as I do not think it is necessary at any type of events like this one, since the venue is making money on the parking fee and sponsors of the event and the sponsors are making money already from the vendors and apparently a pretty hefty charge.
While the food was decent but not great, the prices too seemed a bit exaggerated.
The music was great and it brought back lots of memories, though they could have designed the stage area a bit better to have an actual dance floor.
What I did not care for is seeing ‘other’ types of ethnic foods at an Italian Festivity as I expected more Italian food, especially a good espresso bar, which they did not have.
The worst part is that most of the food vendors did not post their prices. You had to ask!!! That is absurd. Prices should be clearly posted for one to be able to better and more quicker shop around. The Little Italy Festa Siciliana had more reasonable prices and they all clearly posted them. Some charged you sales tax, while others did not. One particular vendor, the one with the lobster rolls was rude. The first purchased did not have the sales tax tagged on. The last one did. When inquired about it, the guy got really rude!!! Yeah, that is the way to make business and keep you customers happy paesano!!!
What I really did not care for at all, is seeing the donkey ride going on passed 10, with very tired donkeys going round and round against their will. The three that were resting on the outside of the wheel, were totally asleep and only shared a bucket of water in the middle, too far away from the other two!!! Animals should be treated better than that and in this day and age these people should be careful as there could be ramifications.
Lastly, but not least, a giant snake display!!! This is not a fricken circus and why would they allow that at such an event, a feast honoring a saint? Some people are snake phonic and they do not go to these events expecting such a display.
I know they need to make money, but stick to the theme next time, will you?

Wow, what a lame excuse for a community carnival. This should be called a «The Really Expensive Flea Market» with c-​list wedding singers. Considered getting an authentic Italian «Philly Cheese Steak» but opted for a gyro with feta cheese instead. Not sure what Italy has to do with this lame event. Fail.

My foodie friend wanted to check this place out on Friday, so we went. She knows where to park for free, so we only had to pay $ 14 for 2 to enter. It looked bigger on their website and from looking in, but it’s like a mini SD fair with mostly Italian food and vendors. There were also carnival rides and games, but the place was pretty empty. This lady was pressuring me to buy what she was selling, telling me to just pay for it first before we walked around… We tried the calamari since it was fresh for $ 8 and it was very bland. Another customer had a hair in theirs! While walking around, we saw some spices that we used for the calamari, which made it taste a LITTLE better. I had to try their Dole pineapple dessert. It came in a pineapple and had pineapple juice, pineapple rings, and Dole yogurt on top– complete with a cherry and tiny umbrella. The guy sold it to us for $ 10, when it’s normally $ 13. :P

We went today, which I think is the last day for this festival. Parking was a breeze. It was only 5 dollars and there was plenty of space to park and since it was small, the walk to the entrance wasnt far. We found a coupon online for two admissions for $ 14 (regular price is $ 9 per person). The fair itself is a bit small but it was definitely a fun atmosphere and a bit of a del mar fair tease.
All the food is fairly overpriced. We did a walkthrough in the food court which took us about 10 minutes. We wanted to try everything, like a kid in a candy store. Our first stop was for sausage and peppers sandwhich from a vendor called Anthony’s World Famous. It was awful. The bun was cold and hard. The sausage was dry and stale tasting. We paid $ 8 for the thing! Even mustard and ketchup couldnt salvage it. Our next stop was for a lobster roll with avocado. For a heavy price of $ 14 it was well worth it. The bun was nice and toasted covered with the taste of melted butter. The lobster itself was a reasonable amount, nice and buttery with a spritz of lemon. I still want more! Then finally our last stop was for corn. We bought corn for $ 4 from this one vendor who provided a plethora of spices and seasonings. My boyfriend didn’t like spicy so we added garlic powder, onion powder, parmesan cheese, seasoning salt, and a spray of lemon juice. OH MY GOODNESS. it was sooo delicious. That is how I want to make my corn from now on.
We listened to live music, a cute old italian man singing italian songs. We walked around the games and rides area and my boyfriend got suckered into trying to win me a stuffed animal twice the size of me. Sadly he didn’t win it :(We walked around and saw some cool stuff. They had a petting zoo, and some activities like a big bubble walking and a small ziplining. We didn’t really try anything else. We definitely had fun here, but of course the Del Mar fair is going to be 10 x better.
Suggestions:
Print the coupon online 2 for $ 14. You save 4 bucks!
Do not order the sausage and peppers from the Anthony’s World Famous vendor
Do try the lobsta rolls. UH-​MAZ-​ING!

I am a big fan of the San Gennaro Feast here in San Diego. I hope they bring it back next year. My family preferred the smaller more personal version than the San Diego County Fair. For one, the location was perfectly centrally located. Parking was a breeze and cheap. There were no long lines for the rides. The Food was very tasty and plentiful. My kids had a BLAST! I recommend getting the unlimited ride wrist bands. It saved us a lot of time and money. They had something for everyone, including my two year old. Bravo!

My friends and i were driving to Ikea and noticed that there was a fair going on in the parking lot of Qualcomm Stadium. Since we didn’t really have any plans that afternoon, we decided to drop by.
Parking was $ 5 bucks, and admissions is a whopping $ 9 a person! The fair was decent sized. Nothing special. I’d rather have gone to a farmers market for free. They have very typical vendors (i.e. sun glasses, lotion, t-​shirts), and a bunch of Italian food vendors which I could find in little Italy. The rides were unimpressive carnival rides. There weren’t that many people there, and for obvious reasons, it’s WAYY too expensive for what it is. I’d like to see the admission go down to $ 3 per head.

**DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY**
Great intentions, not so great execution. This was just a mini version of the SD County Fair with a handful of Italian food vendors. That’s it.
Vendors selling random crap, Spanish singers, Greek food, Mexican food, and random food trucks. It didn’t feel the least bit Italian. I guess they really needed the money and opened it up to anyone and everyone wanting to rent a space.
I paid:
— $ 5 for trolley ride
— $ 14 to enter the ‘Italian Feast’ (i paid for two people)
— $ 10 for spaghetti with 2 meatballs and watery sauce, which clearly came out of a can.
— $ 5 for a loaf of bread I was told it was rye; it wasn’t rye and it was clearly old. We left it at the trolley stop for the homeless.
Total: $ 34 to go to Qualcomm for ghetto spaghetti and stale bread
Saw one vendor trying to sell a quart of cajun shrimp for $ 40. Really?
The helicopter rides until midnight were just fantastic for those of us living around the stadium. Thanks for the heads up! (yes, that was sarcasm)
Best part? Seeing sheeples attaching dollar bills to a bust of a religious figure. Priceless.

I went with a big group including a bunch of kids under 10 on Friday night. It is like the San Diego Fair, but about ¹⁄₁₀^th of the size and definitely not as fun. We downloaded a coupon from the website for 2/​$ 14 admission.
This event is made up of 4 attractions — a lot of food vendors, swap-​meet like vendors, a stage with live music (Vegas lounge-​type bands/singers…the kids loved dancing and the music sounded pretty good), and a carnival (rides and midway games). The food ran the gamut from Italian, to a perogi food truck, to Asian. There were multiple stands for fresh squeezed lemonade, funnel cakes, and cheesesteaks. We figured that since we were at an «Italian» event, we should eat Italian. My sister had the lasagna. Watch out… those vendors will try to get you. The server first told my sister the lasagna was $ 10. When my sister ordered it 5 minutes later, she tried to charge her $ 12!
All in all, we had a good time, but I wouldn’t pay admission again. Next year, I’ll wait a week until the San Diego Fair is in town.

Considered buying the Groupon but then read the Unilocal reviews for Las Vegas