Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I just attended the Great American Food and Music Fiasco (oops! was that supposed to be Festival?) at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. It was such a disappointment to attend an event that I had looked forward to for weeks only to be totally inconvenienced by the lack of planning and shoddy execution.

As we were walking from our car to the venue in mid-afternoon, patrons walking back to their cars were warning us not go. They said that lines for food were hours long and some food was running low or gone altogether. I should have listened and turned around because not only were the lines ridiculously long and some food running low, there were way more people than I had ever anticipated. It was pretty much shoulder to shoulder. No wonder there was a problem getting food to everyone. I did see Guy Fieri's first demo (which was well done) squinting through at least a hundred heads.

We decided we needed to use our "free" food coupon somehow and found that the PB&J line was quite small. What the heck. I love PB&J. But what I got was dense bread covered in a oily paste that had a vague hint of peanuts coupled with strawberry slime. After one bite, my husband and both tossed what was left in the garbage. What a waste of food, my money and my time.

After such experiences we decided to leave because it wasn't comfortable or inviting enough to stay for the remainder of the day's events. It wasn't until I was back in the parking lot that I found out from another attendee that refunds were being given. If there had been any information about that back at the venue I definitely would have asked to be refunded my $70.00.