Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Wild Western Festival - Glendale, Arizona


Worth It?  NO.  No, No, NO!

I came across the Wild Western Festival online.  It was supposed to be "Arizona's answer to a wild west Renaissance Festival," and it was close to our home, so I asked Adam if we could go.  It was located in the Sahuaro Ranch Park, and cost $10 per person to get in.  It ran Oct 15-17 and was open from 10-6.  We stopped by on Sunday, the last day, around 12:30pm.  The "cast" was definietly in character, though I'm pretty sure that they didn't have to do much to get into their roles.  There were 2 stages, one featuring a very poor "stunt" show, which was so boring and we couldn't stand to watch it for more than 2 minutes, and the other with a quartet playing country music. 

We moved on to the old-fashioned soda stand- the highlight of the festival.

We ordered one mug of the Sassafras soda for $6.  She accidently poured us two, so we ended up with a huge mug each.  The soda was good, but very sweet and neither of us could have more than a few sips.  The bees followed us around too with all of that sugar we were carrying around.

Stage 2 in the background, with Adam holding his soda-mug. 

They had very few food options, mostly "fair-type" food, including fry bread and other friend fares.  They also had a few vendors, maybe 15, that had tents set up.  There was one belt-buckle maker that was cool to watch and tied in with the theme of the festival, but most of the vendors had nothing to do with the theme (i.e. tye-dye at a Western Festival?).

The other "attractions" included a few photos and paintings you could buy, which they labeled "Stars of the West."  If there were any stars over there, we couldn't tell who they were.  They also had a few kids rides, including a spiderman bouncy house.  The train was kind of cute, and they had the "sheriff" ride around in a small car and arrest kids, putting them in a little cart with rails so it looks kinda like a jail cell.

After about 30 minutes, we decided to admit to ourselves that we'd just wasted $26 and at least hope to save the rest of the day.  As we were walking out, the lady that took our tickets on the way in said, "Do I even need to ask if you're coming back?"  Nope. 

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