Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival - Winchester, California

Victor Reyes

THE WORST MUSIC FESTIVE I'VE EVER ATTENDED!!! Extremely unorganized one road in and one road out. It took us 2 hours to travel 15 miles from our hotel to the venue. We missed two of the acts we paid to see. Ten minutes of waiting in line for drink tickets, plus another ten minutes of the staff trying to run my card due to little to no cell reception. No cell reception to call a ride share service. Here's a random suggestion, Cell Tower? Save your time, money and sanity. I can't believe that with so many bad reviews nothing has been done about being able to get to the event in timely manner. I will never return to this poor excuse for a festival. If only I had the option to give negative stars. Shame on the people in charge of organizing this horrible experience.

Joyce Schiavo

REALLY 1 WAY into the venue for thousands of people ?
Seems like a safety hazard in the event of evacuation.
If there is only 1 way into the park, pick a different location or build another entrance with the money you have made over the years?
We left Carlsbad at 3pm, reached our parking spot at 6:30pm, 2 of those hours were used waiting in the 4 mile long backup(SINGLE FILE)to arrive at the ticket booths which need to be atleast 10 not a just a few.
AT PURCHASE advise people they MUST have a ticket that does not rely on the internet to be visible.
The event sent an email at 6:30pm asking people to please print your ticket or put it in your cell wallet to speed processing at entrance! (BIT LATE)
Seriously this was not your 1st rodeo, ? WHY were you not prepared?
Then to add insult to annoyance
$12 for a drink? after paying $60 entrance fee PLUS $35 for parking.
Finally as we were ready to leave at 9:30pm the balloon glow began, it was pretty. The vendors were great!

I went to an Arizona balloon fest years ago which was incredible, this was a joke but no one was laughing.

Hannah Langley

Absolutely terrible experience for the price. First of all, it took 2 hours to go 15 miles from our hotel to the event. They had only one road open to the event. We missed the music we were going for because it took so long to get in, so already a waste of money. Second, their WiFi that fuels their credit card machine was cutting in and out. It took 20 minutes for our card to go through while there’s 20+ people in line. Third, there’s extremely limited cell reception. We did the responsible thing and took an Uber since we knew we’d be drinking, but we could not get an Uber home for the life of us and someone waiting for one said they had been waiting for over an hour.

All in all, it was a joke of a festival for the amount of money. If we would’ve known, we would’ve skipped the festival and just did some wine tasting at the wineries.

The festival has been going on since 1983, you’d think they would have their act together by now.

Eric Brummell

Please do not support this event. Not a single vendor has been paid by the event for 2024. If you support local business, do not support TVBWF. Crooked and careless

Michael Cushman

To much money to get in , to spend to much money while in. Dusty parking area that is over packed. You go in the gate to stand in line to get checked for ID, then stand in very long lines and spend a lot if money for some very " over priced " wine. You can get most of these wines at the Albertson's down the street for about 25 percent cheaper. Some would say, " but it is the experience ", not a very good one !! If you want a " real wine festival", go to the Napa or Sonoma winery's. Much better wine and a nicer setting. I guess if you have to have a median type of wine, with people shoulder to shoulder and want to spend a lot of money for a very "lack luster" experience then this would be your event. Look at the ratings that this event gets; pretty low. They make a killing on people that must not have very high expectations. I visited only once; 1 time to many !! They have it every year and the people that live and work at Lake Skinner always say that they are glad that it is over on Monday. You can also see it in their faces as they talk about it; they seem traumatized.

Dustin Gaspard

Do you want to spend a bunch of money drinking mid wine, eating overcooked Bar B Q around some people who were probably at Jan 6? Well have I got a festival for you! In all seriousness just go to Trader Joe’s and get the cheapest bottle of wine they have. Drink it on a parking lot with someone you hate and then light $200 on fire and voila youve recreated the experience. Seriously just go to one of the beaches in San Diego and you’ll have a much better time in every way

Beth Coombs

I had a wonderful time going to the festival but there were no balloons. That was a bummer. It was my first time there so I did enjoy going anyway and the vendors were all wonderful. Still very disappointed about no balloons.

D K

What a ripoff. It used to be a cool festival but now they’re just greedy. Camping and admission have doubled in the last 2 years! This isn’t Stagecoach guys, it’s basically a street fair with stadium prices for food and drinks. Save your money and just go wine tasting down the road.