On Saturday, September 23, cheesesteak lovers poured into Citizen’s Bank Park for Philadelphia’s third annual Cheesesteak Festival.

  In the area parking lot and park gates near third base, the festival included 41 different cheesesteak and Philadelphian food vendors for attendees to taste, from Pat’s King of Steaks to Grubaholics. With various forms of cheesesteaks, water ice, and pulled pork sandwiches, vendors gave out samples while competing with other vendors to show off their food.

    This year’s festival included carnival games, a cheesesteak eating competition to benefit pediatric cancer research, and a beer garden for adults.

   The location of this year’s festival also added the opportunity for attendees to run the bases on the Phillies baseball field.

  The festival sold three types of tickets for the event: general admission, premium, and VIP.  General admission permitted access to the event, but attendees had to purchase their own sample vouchers to try the different food. Premium tickets included 10 vouchers while VIP included 15 vouchers and a 90 minute early entry into the festival. The latter two ticket options also came with vouchers for Phillies tickets for the 2017 baseball season.

  Each vendor gave out samples of different sizes. Many, like Pat’s and Philip’s, gave out pieces that were about the size of half a cheesesteak, while other vendors gave out bite size pieces. There was no standardization of size, though each sample, large or small, cost the same voucher.

  Many different vendors experimented with their samples, such as with cheesesteak dumplings or the Devault’s Flatliner (a new sandwich made to promote to new movie of the same name).

  Overall, the festival boasted some well-known vendors, but no-name grub trucks dominated the lot.

  I, a long time cheesesteak fanatic, attended this year’s festival after enjoying the first annual cheesesteak festival in 2015.

  The 2015 festival was held at the Lincoln Financial Field. Tickets sold out quickly, as it was the first ever cheesesteak-centric food festival in history. (Not to mention Philadelphians are known for their love of cheesesteaks.)

  As many events as when they first launch, the first annual fest was riddled with disorganization. Although the experience was beyond incredible, timing was key that first year. I got there before the gates opened and was able to enter before the other thousands who bought tickets. I used up my vouchers, proceeded to buy more vouchers, used those up, then left the festival without many problems. For most late comers, however, lines for samples spilled into half hours to hours, discouraging vendors from returning, as well as attendees.

  This happening could be seen at this year’s festival, as many vendors from the first festival did not return. I surmise that this was the sole reason for the name change – it went from the Philadelphia Cheesesteak Festival to the Philadelphia Cheesesteak and Food Fest to now include water ice and other desserts to offset the low level of cheesesteak vendor participation.

  This disorganization also bled into management of promotion for the festival. In June, the website offered a deal – one could purchase a ticket on June 8 and receive a festival shirt for each ticket bought. After sending a half dozen unanswered emails questioning the employee who said he sent my shirts in the mail, I found out on the day of the festival that they were not sent, but rather were in an employee’s car.

   Furthermore, the website listed as a feature of VIP ticket purchases the availability of a free commemorative baseball cap – a feature left on the website that could be seen the day of the event. It was a promotion from the second annual festival that had not been removed, and when I questioned an employee (the fiancée of the man who created the website), I was met by snarkiness and confounding ignorance on her part. Refusing to do anything to compensate for false advertising, she left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

  In comparison to the first festival year, the vendors were lacking, the non-food vendors (like t-shirt sales) were practically nonexistent, and the parking lot was spread thin.

  However, as a stand alone, the event was incredibly worthwhile, despite its organizational problems and occasional sharp employee.

 The choice to incorporate other foods into the festival, especially water ice, provided refreshment that broke up the repetitive consumption of cheesesteak.

  The VIP time slot allowed for crowd management and broke up the lines so that I was not waiting behind more than 5 people per sample. Although lines increased after the VIP timeslot closed, the lines were still controlled.

  This year’s festival put a larger focus on entertainment, with live music performances and games. The addition of tables were definitely a positive for those meandering through the lot.

  Overall, although the event had some kinks, it was a successful gathering of cheesesteak vendors for cheesesteak lovers. When taken for what it was – a food festival – its success comes down to the food. This year’s vendors provided attendees with a great variety of cheesesteaks, cannolis, ice, and ice cream, among other things.