This Saturday was the very first Toronto Cider Fest. When we first arrived at the event we saw a big sign that said ‘Tickets Sold Out!’ which I must say for a first event is a hell of an accomplishment.

We covered the festival a bit in our preview post found here.

This post will cover our experience at the event itself.

First lets go over the positives:

• The event itself was sold out as I said and yet when in there you didn’t feel claustrophobic. There was plenty of space to move around.
• The cups they give for samples were absolutely adorable. Just check out that photo, they will have a permanent place in our glass drawer for sure.
• There were plenty of Ontario cider producers and we had a chance to try many we hadn’t tried before (which can be challenging since we have A LOT of cider.
• The general ambiance of the place in terms of decorations and the like was fun and enjoyable.

Now some of the negatives: 

• The music was very club like. Not sure what audience they were expecting but the general consensus when walking around was that the music did not fit the event at all.
• Long lineups. While there was space to walk around once you got your cider you spent most of your time in incredibly long lineups. This could be helped by having more booths and giving out larger samples, which brings us to:
• Tiny samples. The cups themselves were adorable but also tiny. They couldn’t hold more than 3 ounces which means a sip or two was all you got.
• The sponsored stuff was a bit over the top. They went a little overboard for the sponsors… Can’t really blame them on this one though, Yonge and Dundas is an expensive venue.

In the end I would call this event a success. We had a great time and will certainly be attending next year. There were a few minor hiccups but for a very first event this went very smoothly. Keep up the great work guys!

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Kole McRae

Founder of Toronto Booze Hound. He can be seen drinking almost anything in the wild from beer to rum. Try not to startle him, he may use humour as a self defence method.

Email: [email protected]

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