Certified Local First Fall Festival

This is one of my favorite events to attend. I stumbled across it on accident 3 years ago and have been back ever since. Food samples are a dollar each and drink samples are two dollars. I love that it’s free to attend and that you get a pretty decent sized samples for a dollar, it really doesn’t get much better than that! There are also some local shops and services represented as well, but let’s be honest, I’m only there for the food. If you’re just getting food, I would start with 10 tickets. Get there early as food does tend to run out towards the end of the event. Can’t wait for next year’s!

Great AZ Festival to kick off Fall. I love attending this festival every year and I am amazed how big the event is each year. This is the place to check out local restaurants and shops. Samples are offered at $ 1 a ticket. Food trucks are available to offer other food options. So glad the local distilleries were available to offer samples. I want to personally thank Arrogant Butcher for the Salted Carmel Pudding. So delicious!
Be sure to check out the Festival and enjoy the many local establishments that make Phoenix a great city.

It was a perfect fall day in downtown Phoenix for this festival. The crowd was eager to enter and I’m glad I showed up 30 minutes early to get in line. Those promised swag bags were 10 pounds of local publications and merchandise, and all rather interesting. I bought $ 10 worth of sample tickets and that was just the right amount. I started it right with a taco from Joyride. But then a funny thing happened. I started burning through my tickets and not paying attention to who was serving them. So while I ate ten bucks of awesome food, I cannot recall which restaurants were serving.
Some non-​food related highlights from my morning:
* Running into Amy D and her mom!
* Getting a water bottle with an infuser, in which they put frozen raspberries and fresh lemon slices. So refreshing.
* Winning a business card holder from a credit union. I think I’ll put this up at work, which would be hysterical because I work for a bank.
* Spinning to win a cup with a lid from one of my bank’s customers.
* Being asked if a vegetarian would like my «It’s All Good» t-​shirt with the image of a pig butchering guide on it. I said, «Yes.»
* Bought some soap from a cute guy who told me he’s also a butcher. Grrr!!!
Overall, this was an amazing festival and, quite frankly, I love the concept of promoting local business. Can’t wait for next year’s event!

What a cute festival! I have been to the Local First Fall Fest the last 3 years, and each year has been fun. The first year I went, the food samples were free, which was ridiculously awesome… now, obviously that didn’t last… but at 1 $ per sample, you can get pretty full for a decent price. This year I dined on delicious pumpkin soup from St Francis, a yummy taco from Joyride, an ice cream sandwich from Churn, amazing salted caramel pudding from Arrogant Butcher, and treats from LGO (amongst many other things… I was so full). There were many cute items for sale, I scored an adorable necklace. The festival isn’t overly large and isn’t a full day activity by any means, but that’s ok. Overall, I think this is a fun free (entry anyway) activity that’s worth going to year after year.

This was my first year attending this event. However, i have many friends that go every year. I really have to say i have been to much better fall festivals than this in AZ. There was not many food trucks, nor food vendors. Hardly any vendors could you find a drink from. I believe there were maybe three places you could purchase soda/​water/​lemonade at, but couldn’t use your tickets had to pay cash. Made the best of it and still was a fun way to spend the afternoon with friends!

2014 Certified Local Festival… I love the venue, which is walking distance from my house, dog-​friendly, and on the light rail line. The assortment of vendors was interesting. However, I brought my dog, as did a lot of other people, which made it challenging for me to eat any of the offerings from local vendors, because one hand was dedicated to controlling my pup. There were picnic tables in the beer and wine garden area, but I would recommend for future festivals that seating should be a priority throughout the festival. There were
lots of people who had their dogs with them, and it was a wonderful opportunity to socialize my dog. And I think they probably had the same issue with trying to eat food samples while leashing a dog that I had. Other than the lack of seating, however, this was a first-​class event.

Being that this Festival happens annually right outside my front doorstep, it should come as no surprise that I’ve been coming to this event annually. And Kimber Lanning’s group puts on a great showcase of locally based Phoenix area businesses that run the gambit. From restaurants to boutiques to tire shops to social clubs, the LFA Fall Festival has a great variety of businesses eager to show you what they bring to the table.
The event is typically held in early November along the grass boulevard on Portland Street between Central and 3^rd Avenues. Theres also some overflow space on the sides where you’ll find food trucks, a beer garden, a live music stage, extra seating, and other miscellaneous stuff (this year it was Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton getting dunk tanked). You buy tickets at the entry points for $ 1 per ticket. Each individual ticket is good for one free sample of whatever product a vendor is showcasing. So it could be good for a sample of food, a drink, a little bar of soap, a piece of jewelry or whatever. Typically I grab $ 20 worth of tickets so I can sample all the food vendors as well as grab a few brews at the beer garden.
A couple of pointers. Do not do not do not try to drive to this festival and park as parking is few and far between. If you must drive, park at the Burton Barr Library parking lot and walk three blocks. Otherwise, take the light rail as it stops right on Central and Roosevelt which is just steps away from the main entrance. Also, bring cash if you plan on getting more than samples. Some vendors take credit card payments via Square, but not all do. Otherwise, have fun, enjoy a nice stroll on Portland and support some great local businesses!

What a fun way to get to know Phoenix! I just moved here a few weeks ago and my friend bookmarked this a must on my pretty extensive to-​do list. It was like speed dating, but better because there were coupons and good food.
We got there kind of early so were lucky to beat the early afternoon rush. There were plenty of vendors with lots of good food, product samples and coupons. It was really family friendly with bounce houses, face painting and even samples for dogs. Vendors weren’t stingy with portion sizes either-​I got a really great sample of some short rib chili from Arrogant Butcher and it was one of the last things I ate before I realized I’d gone past the edge of stuffing myself.
Overall the layout was great and everything flowed really well. I liked that the event was free and the ticket system was hassle-​free and straightforward. I bought 20 tickets and had some leftover (even after the beer garden) to buy some raffle tickets.
I signed up to become a volunteer with Local First-​as a newcomer, it’s great to see a central force that supports and advocates for local businesses.
Looking forward to next year already!

Are you a Localist? This event has been going on for a while and the new location is awesome especially when the weather is amazing. There are still a lot of people that don’t know about this event, which is surprising to me!
Lead by Local First, many local businesses come out for the day for a unique fall festival. Many food trucks are now apart of the festival, and provide samples and yummy entrees for attendees. Tickets are available for purchase to try samples from these food trucks and other local restaurants. This is an event where us, Phoencians can learn about our local businesses and support them.
Only suggestion: An area for kids needs to be considered. More adult oriented than family friendly.

I love local businesses and this was such a great way to get out and support. We tried almost every sample and even got free water. Some businesses were giving out free samples as well.
They had local bands playing at the event and also had an area just for the food trucks. Loved all the crafty businesses, too– some very unique and beatiful items to look at and buy. My favorite was the organic soap business. Those soaps not only looked and smelled amazing but were also made from organic ingredients.
All in all, everyone was very friendly and professional and I had a great time.

Awesome event! Fun for the whole family. Get involved and support your local businesses

I really enjoyed the Certified Local First Fall Festival. With about 30 + local vendors, restaurants, and shops you can feel good about spending your money with someone who lives just down the road from you. I always love to see local business doing well — and that’s what I call ‘Winning’.
We sampled foods from Urban Cookies, Nami /​Green, Culinary Dropout, Spinatos pizza, a few other random food stops of which I can’t remember. Many samples were $ 1, some were $ 2, some spots even handed you a coupon or discount to come check out their full menu or local shop.
I can’t wait to join in the fun next year to see more locals doing what they do best, providing great service and personality to our local community!
Happy Unilocaling Phoenix!

This was alot of fun at the downtown location this year. There were a ton of local vendors and eateries. We purchased $ 10 worth of tickets (for the sampling) and my husband, 5 year old and I left with full bellies.
Places I ate at were Spinatos, America’s Taco Shop, Culinary Dropout (touting a new CenPho location soon), Nami (holy cow on the vegetarian «chicken» wings!), Urban Bakery, and two other places I can’t remember the names. One had a delicious pumpkin soup… ah, so good. I really enjoyed and can’t wait till next year!

After learning of this locals only fest via Unilocal,I bundled up the family on this semi-​chilly day and headed downtown. Okay, so the parking was a bit of a mess, but hey– it’s downtown right? We ended up landing a pretty decent spot not more than 4 blocks away from the event so we lucked out (and the space was Free!). After finding our way to the grounds, first impression was CROWDED, holy cow. After reading some of the previous year reviews I guess I was expecting a crowd but this place seems to have outgrown its space?! Maybe the organizers (Kimber?) need to plot out somewhere larger next time to accomodate more vendors and more patrons. The crowd was a good mix of hipsters, families, snowbirds, and townies. For the most part, everyone was friendly, although we witnessed a lot of line cutting and folks just taking samples without handing over the appropriate number of tickets.
For $ 10 we purchased 10 tickets, which basically equated to 10 samples from some really awesome local vendors. We had Culinary Dropout, Spinatos, Bruce Brown Catering, Green, St. Francis, Churn, and Windsor. My wife and I have frequented pretty much all of these spots and were happy to see the buzz and support being thrown their way. Boy, the caramel popcorn pudding from Culinary Dropout was yummy– and so was the white bean chili from Windsor. It hit the spot on a windy, chilly day!
I will say it was relatively difficult navigating our baby’s stroller around the event. There were quite a few other parents with small kids and strollers there as well and they seemed to be struggling too. Not any fault of the event– it’s just the way things were setup. There seemed to be a «track» shaped like a large U that you could walk to visit vendor booths, chat with owners and locals, and sample their goodies. It was really cool to see all of the different local businesses «showing off” — my wife and I try hard to stay away from the mega chains and give our money to locally owned shops and restaurants.
Overall, the event seemed to be a success. I’m not sure this was really the perfect event for a family, but we had a nice time (weather permitting), spent little to no cash and left feeling like we supported local business. Next year maybe we’ll leave the kiddo at home and head over as a couple and experience it that way.
Thanks Unilocal for the recommendation and heads up!

New location not free anymore. Each taste was a very reasonable dollar or two. No bottles of free water. No hand cleaning stations. Parking was a little harder. Still a labor of love of the community. lots of all kinds of local vender’s. Lots of local restaurants, food trucks and caterers. Activities for children. This year they had an optional wine and beer garden. Most but not all of the food samples were high carb or sweets.
I was frighten by one woman who was pushing people waiting in a line including a baby in a stroller. A few men started yelling at her but other than that everyone was cool.

This was my kind of festival!
Samples were most commonly only $ 1, which made it very affordable for us.
For four adults and one kid, we spent about $ 45: $ 20 in samples, $ 10 (something) on a full sized meal for Papa and $ 15 on a kid’s glitter tattoo kit. Not bad for an entire afternoon out!
As a family, we tried samples from several places including Culinary Dropout (pretzels and popcorn for the little one), America’s Taco Shop ($ 2 taco samples here and a YUCK rating, according to my parents), Green (buffalo «chicken» wings — always delish) and Nami (Vegan cupcakes), Spinato’s Pizza (my mom loved the spinach pizza), Pita Jungle (hummus and pita that somehow failed short of what they serve in the restaurant) and some place selling my parents’ fav — the shrimp creole (I will find out the name shortly).
Papa ended up getting some food from Jamburritos, but the rest of us were filled to the brim on samples.
I bid on WAY too many things in the Silent Auction. Let’s hope I won some of them — probably not since I have yet to hear ANYTHING!
This was a great festival. It would be made better only by having more outdoor seating, more vendors serving Vegetarian and Vegan fare and more parking nearby.
One highlight of the afternoon was running into an old neighbor from our old digs on 3^rd Ave and Portland!
I definitely look forward to the next Local First festival!

Great Great Event! Who doesn’t like friendly people, local businesses that actually care about their customers, and great food. Oh ya live music and the beer garden… duh! Four Peaks took great care of us! I saw everything from Premium Sunglasses
to Zia Records to tons of Food Vendors. It was packed but in a good way people were out and about having a great time. I will go again next year 4 sure!

I love this Festival, we look forward to it every year. I move my schedule around so nothing interferes with me being able to make it. This year again, we had a great time. We had pizza from Spinatto’s and tacos from America’s Taco Shop. I had a piece of bruschetta from Postino, of course the fig, apple, brie one. YUM. After several attempts, finally the twins had cheese pizza, of course then they wanted more, they ended up having 3 pieces each, face full of tomato sauce and stains all over their superhero outfits. Bruce Brown catering was handing out very generous portions of Jambalaya, and it was really tasty, with enough of a kick to it. Kidstop had a great craft activity for the kids. This event is so AWESOME!

What a fabulous day. We arrived at the start to avoid parking chaos, long food lines and of course to get first dibs on the goodies. So much fun stuff! Terrific samples from Humble Pie, Postino, St. Francis, Pizza People and Green. It was like free lunch! Washed it down with a lovely taste of Souvia Tea while listening to live music in the sunshine. Terrific afternoon.
I came home with a whole boat load of soap from Strawberry Hedgehog, free samples for my pooch including about 6 packets of dog food and 9 different treats, plus many more coupons in the free tote to dole out during post-​Fall Festival holiday shopping. This felt like such a warm and friendly community gathering. It’s like Phoenix is bucking up and generating a real local scene! Love it and can’t wait for next year’s festival.

If only there was a festival like this every weekend! The Local First Fall Festival is truly a treat for the Phoenix community. What is it you ask? Well, it’s currently celebrating its 7^th year and hosted by Local First AZ. It’s a festival in the parking lot of Duck ‘n Decanter and focused entirely around supporting and celebrating local businesses… and it’s free to the public to attend! I went to this year’s festival and was happy to see how many people and vendors were there! It’s a perfect combination of food vendors including Spinatos, The Parlor, America’s Taco Shop, The Grind & Souvia Tea and then local businesses such as Practical Art, Frances, Lost Our Home Pet Foundation, Smelly Dog & several others.
Each vendor had samples of their products for sale and information on their businesses. Restaurants offered samples of their delicious food and businesses offered things such as 5-​minute massages. They also had plenty of family-​fun activities such as rock climbing, face painting and live music. Local First did an amazing job creating an organized, fun and activity-​filled event that celebrates just how amazing our local businesses in Phoenix are! If you are around next fall and looking for a great festival, the Local First Fall Festival is definitely worth visiting. Live and love local!