Hayward Zucchini Festival

Sorry to say it-​This festival needs help ASAP! Expensive-​ish entry fee ($ 20 for entry for 2 and VIP parking so I guess it was OK), not many real or actual zucchini vendors, lack of vendors overall, boring booths that have nothing to offer. I was in and out within 40 minutes. That includes drinking a $ 6 coors light, eating some fried zucchini (one of few zucchini products sold), and buying zucchini bread. Nothing noteworthy and I won’t be back.

Use to be a big ordeal every time it came around, sadly the festival has died down to barely being more than a flea market.
The last three years I have attended have just left me empty and upset. Expecting lots of rides and great food and other vendors, only to find it seems to have just turned into a garage sale for the community. While it use to take up the whole park and almost be busting out of the fences, now there is only about three small rows of vendors selling nothing but dream catchers.
My friends and I use to try and sneak in here to enjoy ourselves and now I regret just walking up to the gate. Completely downhill and lame. :(

I am a fan of this festival because of the music. Straight up the music was what really made this festive too me.
They have two areas of music.
Both stages rock.
I definitly got my money’s worth and then some when it comes to the music.
I don’t really get why its the zucchini festival tho cuz I’ve gotta be honest they didn’t have much in the way of zucchini.
Parking is actually pretty great and that doesn’t mean it was dead.
There was a good amount of people here.
The food here was meh alright, the beer selection is great, margaritas are 5 bucks and soda’s one buck.
The other booths were okay, some of the crafts were decent.
If you like tea and lemonade there’s booths that sell it for 15 dollars with unlimited refills.
Yeah Idk the music, thats what did it for me.
I can’t say too much about much else maybe they did there best but it sure wasn’t much of a zucchini fest .
Not any zucchini ice cream in sight.
I“ll be back tho because I was very impressed by the music.
One thing that automatically makes this fun is its at Kennedy park so just naturally you’re gonna have rides, games, and a petting zoo which is really cool.
There’s even puppet shows.
Its a very very kid friendly place.
I passed on the hermit crab game, I am pretty good at that game but the odds didn’t look very good for this one.
There weren’t enough bowls to throw my ball into
They have a mini train you can ride on too which is pretty cool.

Not a lot of zuchini to eat. Typical fair fast food fare. Shopping is not so great though they did have parasols and hats at the back entrance across from Target. They had smoothies which was nice but we never found cotton candy or candied apples. The fudge booth was disgusting. We found two booths with olive oil. Some lotions, purses and skinny shirts and oddly perfume. Mikes Hard Lemonade was nice alternative to wine for those that don’t like beer. They also had margaritas on the rocks. They needed to combine smoothies with the margaritas. Shaved ice cones for the kids seemed to be a big hit. My husband said the beer was warm. Over all it was more like a flea market with bar bands and not so much of a festival. I didnt even see a dancing zuchini or zuchini balloons. We never did see any cooking demonstrations or belly dancing. Saturday is the better of the two days to go. The Gilroy garlic festival was sub par compared to years past and so was the Hayward zuchini festival and it was already small scale to start with. Good news is it is family friendly with a few shaded area among the trees and lots of picnic tables, tables with umbrellas and chairs. There is no homeless groups begging or drunks puking or fighting and no drug addicts to pick your pocket. There was a lot of hired security. Felt safe for sure.
Bad news is there are no baby changing stations, no sinks to wash your hands or your child’s face. All bathrooms were marked out of order and locked. Strange? They had plenty of porta-​potties and buckets to was your hands but no soap. We each had a beer, a bag of kettle corn, 2 corn dogs, a smoothie shared and a bottle of olive oil and spent $ 56. Would have been $ 76 if we had bought our tix but we got 2 complimentary tix from one of the vendors. Tix were $ 10 per person.

Here’s my updated review of the Hayward Zucchini Festival
If your hoping for some zucchini at this festival You are not going to find much. On the other hand this place is awesome for kids so 4 stars for the kids section and the hermit crab throw game lol?
My aunt and I went to this festival, it was 10 dollars to get in but I brought a can of non perishable food and paid 9 bucks to get in, I also get a ticket which doubled as a coupon for a Mexican restaurant
Here are some of the negatives, minus two stars… parking was horrendous! And they didn’t have anyone come up to direct you to the parking section behind the festival in that middle school lot. I mean come on man,
Parking at Target is a no no because they will tow your car, and I had to tell my aunt no matter what not to park at the handicap at Target
The admission price was a joke, and I couldn’t believe how much admission was at that place. The food was expensive and sucked, I paid four dollars for a soda and a water, and I could have gotten water free.
I played the hermit crab game which was fun and won two hermit crabs, They then gave me a ghetto package to carry them in which was a Styrofoam box that was filled with maybe playsand? and the guy squirted water and sprayed all over my crabs,
We did eat a zucchini muffin which was delicious, and then proceeded to Wendy’s for lunch…
Oh yeah and the craft booths could have been better, and unfortunately no car show. The ponies at the pony ride looked miserable though

The Zucchini Festival has been in held in Hayward for awhile, this was the 33^rd festival. I had never been to it before, or even heard about it for that matter. Last week I saw a full page ad and then I saw it on Unilocal events. When I read that Rick Stevens, a former Tower of Power lead singer, was going to be the main musical attraction on Saturday I knew that it would be the ideal Saturday date day for S and me. Rick is an old friend of S’s and I knew he would enjoy the show.
This seems like a great festival for the whole family: There were a lot of kid rides. There were games and lot of food booths. I saw a lot of happy people. I did not see any craft booths that I thought were part of the show. We might have missed them. We came for the music and we were not disappointed. Sunday they have a different musical lineup that includes one popular sixties/​seventies group.
As far as I could see there wasn’t much zucchini, which was fine with me. It is just about on the top of food I dislike.

Just Okay
My wife and I went to the festival yesterday for the first time.
The overall rating of 3 stars is appropriate.
:
I was kind of a rebel.
I walked in without paying because I was lazy and had a bad attitude (I didn’t feel like walking to one of the official entrances, and I ignored this girl who tried to stop me– «Okay…»).
My wife couldn’t follow me in (she got blocked off by some guy), and so she paid $ 8 to enter (her purse was searched– the only thing lethal I had on me was my bad sense of humor).
The tickets double as coupons for The Mexican, a restaurant that’s just across the street («20% Off your next on premise visit only»).
Anyway, I’m glad that I didn’t pay (the Fremont Festival of the Arts is much larger, and admission is free).
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The cashier was quite friendly.
The guy grilling the food was a bit curt, but I only had to wait a minute for my hot dog.
It would have been nice if there was a wider selection of drinks.
In terms of the napkins, there were probably some around, but it wasn’t obvious.
There are about 5 good art booths.
In general, though, we weren’t interested in buying anything but food (there are a decent number of promotional booths, and we didn’t check any of them out).
:
The Kaye Bohler Band rocked the Main Stage (the Bohannon Stage is on the other side of the park– it’s part of the kids area). Kaye has a powerful and bluesy voice.
At the end of the show, she announced that customers who bought 2 CD’s for $ 30 would be placed on the mailing list.
The Rock Bottom Boys perform this afternoon.
They’re a fun and wonderful group (we saw them perform at the Alameda County Fair).
As another reviewer mentions, zucchini isn’t as prevalent as you would think. You can buy zucchini bread (for $ 4) and fried zucchini (for $ 6). That’s about it.
On the plus side, the zucchini bread is supposed to be great.
We didn’t look at them, but souvenirs are sold here.
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I was going to order from the other BBQ booth, but I noticed that their menu was more limited.
:
I’m anal when it comes to writing. On the menu, Link Sandwich should be Hot Link Sandwich, and Pull Pork should be Pulled Pork.
Anyway, I would have asked for the sauce on the side if I knew that my hot link was going to be drenched with it. The main issue, though, is that it just wasn’t that flavorful. It would have been fine if I got no sauce at all.
The cashier struck me as being a bit crazy (he kept shouting and repeating himself). He and the others worked well together, though, and I only had to wait a minute for my hot link sandwich.
Rib Meal: $ 11.
Slab: $ 24.
If possible (even a big eater like me can only eat so much), I would have bought a Rib Meal and also a Philly Cheesesteak (at least 3 booths sell them).
At one point, we had to search for someplace to sit, but there’s plenty of seating (I didn’t know if these women in front of us were mother and daughter or lesbian lovers).
At some spots, the ground is a bit uneven, so be careful while you’re walking.
We were here for over an hour.
It was a good experience overall.
It’s worth going to the festival for the food and music.
Kids should also have fun.
I can’t say, though, that it’s worth $ 8 to enter.

OK, so this isn’t the premier event it used to be, if it ever could be called that. At least in the beginning, it was filled with booths featuring hand crafted items and local municipal services info booths. Now, it’s mostly imported goods, although the garbage company and local services and lots of chiropractors are represented. There used to be a car show, but that has disappeared. Food is your usual assortment of large food trucks (nothing like Off the Grid) mostly ON the grid hot dogs and fried zucchini. Still, I can’t give up on the Zuke Fest. It’s my local festival and I will go every year until it is no more. I feel obliged to partronize it and even support it with donations. If we can’t pull this off, what does that say about the community?

Cool food vendors, but it seamed as though all of them sold almost the same thing. When you say, «Zucchini Festival» I am expecting EVERYTHING to be zucchini. I’m expecting people to make & do all kinds of things with it. Honestly, this festival was just an out door festival, not specifically a «Zucchini» Festival. So I gave it 3 stars and not lower than that, because its a cool event, just not about zucchini’s AT ALL. They had vendors, smoothies, out door play ground for children and a live band, which was cool. Another reason why this doesn’t get more stars is cuz I was paying $ 7 for this event to EXPECT Zucchini’s, so it was a waste, not seeing people be creative with it. So, its your choice if you want to go, but I’m telling you, if your expecting Zucchini’s everywhere, don’t count on it.

this is my 5^th year at the zucchini festival and this was there best year yet! More seating, better live entertainment, and the food is always on point!

I love my kids. I love a festival. I love zucchini. I was quite excited to bring all my loves together at the Hayward Zucchini Festival.
1. I had to search high and low to find me a zucchini. The website made this festival sound like the zucchini equivalent of the Gilroy garlic festival. And all I could find was one booth of medium zucchini on display, another booth selling festival memorabilia (shot glasses, aprons, cookbooks) and a few loaves of zucchini bread. And a few food booths selling fried zucchini. Really??!
2. We really liked the host park. Lil’ Guy almost hung himself on the caution tape on the play structure, but I rescued him in time. (WTF, Hayward?) The kids loved the petting zoo and the merry go round.
3. Turns out the festival is right by Target. So after you wear yourself out by a near hanging, an hour with goats, and trying to find a zucchini to eat, you can stock up on your back to school supplies.

I’ve lived in Hayward forever and had never gone to the Zucchini Festival, until this year. Worst $ 6 ever spent. This festival has absolutely nothing going for it, at all. We walked around looking for zucchini but only a few booths had it and it didn’t look appetizing at all. We decided to get gyros instead ($ 8). Not even the gyros were good, the chicken had virtually no seasoning and tasted bland. We got a couple of beers and walked around the selling area. It looked like a run down flea market, kinda sad. Take my advice and don’t waste your time coming here.

WORST FESTIVAL EVER !!! The 1 star goes to the fried zucchinis only, the rest of the place deserves no stars, u have to pay 6 $ to get in, I felt like I was in some flea market place, they had some 510 clothing stand, it was pretty much big red & black shirts with big bold red letters saying (HAYWARD & 510) talk about ghetto, the whole place was ghetto, it look like every ganstah lol, that got released from a juvenile hall & Santa Rita jail, decided 2 meet here :-/​there was nothing exciting about this place. They should really think about doing it in a better location. & getting better stands. I seriously would have been happier paying to get into a flea market & I don’t care for flea markets.

I was born and raised in Hayward and have never attended the Zucchini Festival so this year was my first and unfortunately last visit. Bummers: You have to pay to get in, parking is terrible, vendor booths are just OK nothing special. What I liked: Music was OK, food — typical festival food — OK. Wine and beer prices were not too expensive that was a plus. Tip for the vendors selling the Zucchini bread — leave out a small sample plate — most people including myself will not buy something edible at a fair or festival as you don’t know what you are getting unless you can at least taste a sample.

$ 6 admissions and parking isn’t too bad (I arrived around 2pm). The food is alright. I had some fried zucchinis, queso pupusa, & some fried artichokes. I was a little bummed they were out of the queso y loroco pupusa. My favorite was the fried artichoke hearts. I don’t have very high standards for event/​fair food. Kennedy park is pretty big and the petting zoo smells terrible, poor animals. :(We were able to walk around the whole park in about an hour it was pretty similar to what they had @ the Garlic Festival just smaller. The zucchini bread is pretty good, try it!

Went to this festival today. Unless you’re 55 and older or 12 and under, there’s not much for you here, unless you spend your money on the arts, crafts and food booths. A lot of rides for the kids, and the musical performances were geared towards the older crowd (which would have been fine if not for the sound equipment issues). Overall it was just okay.

I’m mixed. I grew up in Hayward and always want to help in it’s growth. .but I have not been to the Zuchinni Festival in years b/​c there is nothing enticing about it!
It’s SO expensive to be a vendor there also, that no wonder the folks charge so much to sell their items!

I went for my 1^st time in 2010 & really enjoyed it. Unlike most Unilocal reviewers I didn’t have a previous memory to compare it to. My toddler had a blast! We met alot of our friends there & it was nice for all of our kids to run around together. My son loved the bounce house, the bubble gun we bought him, the big playground & the animals. A friend of mine let her daughter fly through the air like an acrobat & she loved it. We all ate lunch there & with the huge variety of offerings we all found something we liked. The beer battered zucchini was delicious (& caloric!) I will definitely make it a point to go every year now that I am local.

Awwww, I have many memories about this festival when I was in the dancing school. Had to perform all around the Hayward, and San Leandro area! =)
Anywho, about the festival… it was really great for the kids, but not really for the adults. Not that much to do… only eat, eat, and eat! LOL!
The prices for the admission sucks and the food vendors prices is ridiculous too! =p
The Chef’s did an amazing job on cooking, frying, freezing the zucchinis! Very delicious!
Going there back in the days was the BEST, but not anymore! =(

Out of the 3 festivals I went to this year, the Zucchini one was my least favorite. Why? Because…
1. The $ 8 food plate I got wasn’t worth the money… the food was greasy and not very good.
2. The only Zucchini I ate was not memorable… although I didn’t buy the Zucchinni bread everyone was raving about.
3. ‘Though it was local and cheap, it wasn’t very exciting for adults. They did have lots of fun rides for the kiddies, but I could only go down the big slide once.
4. The vendors couldn’t possibly sell the idea of Zucchini other than food items, so a lot of the booths coulda been up at any other festival.