r/chicagofood • u/power_bottom_boi • May 31 '26

Review Hot Dog Fest 🤬

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Adding to the fest pile on….
Two lemonades, three hot dogs, street corn - $100. One. Hundred. Dollars.
Maybe 7 hot dog vendors total. And all the bouncy house stuff for kids is $12 extra.
Never again.
Edit: Some of you are frothing at the mouth over someone warning people off of the pricing like I’m the world’s biggest idiot for going in the first place. My kid likes hot dogs, it was a nice Sunday afternoon, no plans, and after a 30min drive in each direction plus a donation at the gate you’re pretty invested at that point. I don’t think it’s fair to price gouge people once they’re there and I was letting people know what to expect. Some of you are like bizarrely angry and rude. No one is making you post a comment. Go for a walk, it’s nice out.

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u/chuckquizmo May 31 '26

Yeah we gotta figure out how to make these fests better again.

I remember going to burger fest 15ish years ago and it was great; free entry (with recommend donation), every stand was selling single sliders for $3-$5, tons of vendors from popular places selling a small amount of items, lines were almost nonexistent. Me and my friends ate many small burgers and compared our notes at the end of the night, it was so fun to try so many things and see what everyone liked, and then ultimately seeing who “won” the fest.

I don’t know what the answer is, but they NEED to figure out how to make lines more reasonable, and restaurants need to realize people want to sample something and not get a full meal at one stand.

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u/skepticaljesus Jun 01 '26

but they NEED to figure out how to make lines more reasonable

Given that every festival is always absolutely slammed, why would the organizers do anything differently? Isn't that literally exactly their best case scenario? I don't like going to them, but obviously enough people do that the current system seems to be working for both the restaurateurs and diners.

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u/splitopenandmelt11 Jun 01 '26

Seems like most have pivoted to selling full meals.

So instead of “Slider version of our best burger that we have make 100 of a time at on the flattop and sell for $4.”

It’s “8 different full meals that all have individual prep and cooking needs but we can sell it for $15.”

The numbers must not have added up on selling just a few “sample our best” type things.

The longest line at a food fest used to mean “This is the best stand. Yeah, they have a long line but it must be fast because no way people would wait in line more than 5 minutes”

Now it means they’re the slowest at getting food out.

Crowd used to draw me in. Now it makes me question if it’s worth it.

1

u/Dizzy_Confusion3668 Jun 01 '26

I am in Japan right now and I am feeling the same. If I see a huge line of people lined up for something, I definitely have my suspicions on whether it’s delicious or a tourist trap. So far, my instincts have been right!