Salt River Fields Balloon Spooktacular

Good time. We got there right when gates opened. Good thing since we got our kids on bounce houses before the lines started and wore them out. We didn’t buy food due to the cost and lines. i was smart and brought a lunch box full of snacks for us all. Good time. Way too packed and VERY pricey.

We love this event we try to bring more family members to this event hopefully next years ee can bring more family members and enjoy the great time with nice music great people and amazing views

I regret paying for this. The event is suppose to last from 5pm-​10pm but everything shuts down at around 8pm except for the stage and food. I didn’t even get to see the balloons because everyone decide to shut them down at 8pm. Funnel cakes and lemonade are over priced just like every other fair. The funnel cakes did taste good though so I don’t regret at $ 8 but I did regret the $ 10 admission fee because there was no reason for an admission fee at 8pm when everything I wanted to see is closed by 8pm.

NEVER AGAIN.
I took my 7 year old daughter to this event. It cost $ 35 for our family to get through the gate. We arrive at 8 p.m. because the event was advertised to go until 10 p.m., but they were already closing things down. You basically pay to get into an event with music and food vendors. We were so upset to see that it cost $ 2-​$ 4 to have your child go down a bouncy slide ONE time. This event was a complete waste of money. It was sad to see my daughter so disappointed. Don’t waste your time, unless you enjoy being disappointed and spending money on nothing.
(p.s. I want my money back!)

I want my money back! This event is a joke.
You pay admission for … what exactly? To see 8 tethered balloons, never lifting off the ground. The website promised over 20 balloons — so much for truth in advertising.
Just like others have said: the Chinese candy given out is just nasty. I have NEVER seen my daughter discard candy, but every piece she was handed (after waiting in lines, of course) was tasted and thrown.
Everything here was a near-​constant pay-​as-​you-​go experience:
Bottle of water: $ 3 + 10 mins wait in line.
Hot dog: $ 7 + 10 mins wait in line, followed by $ 10 mins waiting to get the food.
Jump houses: Between $ 1 and $ 4, all located in a dimly lit parking lot to the east.
Car wash to get all the parking lot dust off your car: $ 3+
This was a complete waste of time and money. Poorly executed, misleading advertising. What a rip-​off by the Salt River tribe.

Don’t waste your money, after the 40 minutes to park and 20 minutes to get to the entrance you’re already frustrated. Top that with having to pay such ridiculous prices to get in only to pay more for EVERYTHING inside… oh your kid wants to jump on this jump castle that’s completely empty? Go stand in that line over there for another hour to get tickets for what it seems like you already paid for. Never doing anything my friends want without checking Unilocal again… not 1 second of enjoyment for the $ 40 I spent.

Okay, there was seating this year. Tables and chairs down at one end of the main area.
We went when it opened at 5 on Friday as the grandkids were in town. The line to get into parking was about a 10 minute wait for no apparent reason other than the parking attendants didn’t know what they were doing. We had to walk about 200 yards to get to the main gate. However since we arrived early there were no lines to get in or to purchase tickets. OVERPRICED!!! $ 10 for each adult with no type of discount and $ 5 for our 4 yr old. Total of $ 35 to get in! For what? To watch some balloons getting blown up? We went to the face painting booth right away. Third in line and it took 15 minutes to get in. Paid another $ 10 for a face paint. The lady was good but seriously needed help as there were at least another 15 kids in line. Good luck with that. We found a couple of vendors giving candy out like tootsie rolls which was okay but no balloons giving out candy despite the people at the ticket booth telling my grandchild to be sure and get his candy at 5:45 when they were scheduled to start. So we went to the bouncy house area another 200 yard walk across gravel, etc. Each house required more tickets each costing $ 1 per ticket. Most required two tickets so I figured it was $ 2 for about 20 seconds worth of slide. A complete rip off! To keep our grandchild happy we bought $ 6 worth which occupied him for about 10 minutes including the decision time and time to move between the houses. We decided not to eat as most of the food Was in the $ 10 range like chicken fingers & fries. Drinks were another $ 3 – 4. We left at 6:45 and noticed one balloon giving out candy by that time but there must have been 200 kids in line. So for about 1 ½ hours of wandering around we spent $ 51 and got about 5 pieces of candy. So I’m not sure what the draw is except maybe later if they had entertainment for the older kids and adults as they had a huge stage set up. Bottom line, if you’re looking for a place to have you’re younger kids trick or treat and enjoy themselves look elsewhere. We sure as heck won’t ever go back.

Ugh… just got home from this event and it was a dud. The lines to get in were terrible. The main gate put you in the first field which had a few balloons and a couple to pay to ride in. By the time we figured out the «main» area was an entire field away we got there too late to be in the costume contest. My kids were seriously disappointed. We decided to go trick or treating at the balloons but again the lines were long. They needed several people to hand out candy instead of one or two at each balloon. And don’t get me started on the candy. It was the cheapest, nastiest candy. So not worth the money or the hassle even if the balloons were fun to see.

(** reading a few of these reviews talking about no seating (there wasn’t a lot but certainly some) or vendors running of candy (which we didn’t experience) or long lines (not really) surprised me. We stayed from about 5 to 7:30 and had no problems whatsoever.)
We got there as it opened, had no trouble parking and had an all around enjoyable time. The balloons were pretty cool, the food was as you’d expect, kids got to trick-​or-​treat among the vendors and balloons, and there were plenty of bouncies for the kids (my personal favorite were the large hamster ball thingies.)
My only complaint, really, was the costs. Admission was $ 30 (family of 4), $ 20 for tickets for the bouncies (which went FAST) and our last $ 10 got us a BBQ sandwich and water. Sixty bucks was a lot and we easily could’ve spent more. My suggestion would be for a $ 10 bracelet for unlimited turns on the slides and bounce houses.
Either way, I’m sure we will go back next year!

Well along with the others, I don’t have much good to say. Parking if course is crappy, but could be much worse. Not sure what we got for the admission. All the four was pretty overpriced along with drinks. All activities cost extra. We got there at 5:45 and every vendor our kids went up to were out of candy already. 4000 lbs, it says on the website??? Gone in an hour??? Hmm. Also very crowded and the damn people that think they need to bring a stroller the size of a SUV, can kiss my ass. I can’t count how many times I was run into. Made an amusement park on a holiday weekend look pleasant. Won’t be back.

I don’t know what people truly expect when they go to a fair like event, but for my family it was a nice experience. The ballons where pretty and if one had a long «line» for candy, you could easily go to two more with very short waits for candy. Some people also complain about it being cheap candy but get real what do you expect king size bars? Also the food was actually slightly cheaper than most fair prices. The rides were designed for small children and not that great, but then again this event is not advertised as an amusement park so there you go. I also did not see or pay any fee for parking. All in all, this is a nice family friendly event and would consider coming again next year.

It was horrible to park. There were way to many people. The lines to everything were long. Bring cash most vendors don’t take credit cards. $ 10 per person to get in and we left after 20 minutes due to too many people.

We had a rough night. One disclaimer, I’m not a girl who is much into roughing it. But wow, there is not a single comfort or luxury at this place.
It took us 45 minutes to park. We sat in a line in the street to get to the venue and then another for disabled parking for my dad who was with us and has mobility challenges. By the time we got to the disabled lot, we were informed that the lot was full and had to drive to the back of the complex (a dusty dirt lot full of rocks) to park, about 150 yards from the entrance.
By the time we arrived our kids were already melting down. Basically this event is a bunch of hot air balloons in a giant dirt lot.
The food we wound up getting was expensive ($ 8 BBQ sandwich and $ 6 fries, spent $ 23 for a side of Mac n Cheese and 4 bottles of water), and below average (even for a festival style event). There is also nowhere to sit, not a single table or chair in the entire place (especially rough on the disabled folks) so people just camp out on the (dirt) ground all over the place.
The kids are able to trick or treat at the hot air balloons, but the lines to get candy were very long and they give one piece of candy per child. Not that I was looking to make a candy killing, but after an hour of «trick or treating» the kids didn’t have much to show for it.
The port a potties could’ve used some attention and they were pitch black inside (no lighting in the area and grateful the kids didn’t have to go).
We finally persuaded the kids to get milkshakes and leave. We were there with cousins and spent $ 40 for 7 milkshakes. Yeah, do that math.
I feel so bad complaining so much. It’s a personal policy for me to mostly just reward great experiences with positive reviews rather than complain. But yeah, we’ll just wait for Halloween next year…

Pretty much echoing the same gripes as the other reviewers.
Parking was horrid. Getting in was alright as we got there before the festival opened. Getting out was another thing all together. I drive a tall SUV, so after sitting in a line for 10 minues, I decided to off-​road it to get out.
The balloons were all handing out cheap candy. And the ones that werent, or werent out of candy, had lines that were very long.
All in all, there wasnt a lot for kids to do — Radio Disney booth aside.
The only positives were — 1) a friend of ours had her vendor booth set up there. So we got to see her. 2) I purchased a Groupon for 2−4−1 admission. Thank goodness. I dont think that I would have been happy paying full price.
This year, I was going to buy another groupon/​living social deal. BUT they originally only had the deals for Friday. Then they opened up the option for Saturday for Groupon only, with ticket sales being limited. By the time i went to buy the saturday groupon, it was already sold out.
Guess we’ll be going to Howl-​O-​Ween at the Phx Zoo this year instead. I have a feeling our money will be money well spent at the zoo.

Wow, what an awful, awful experience. I thought it was going to be nicer than it was but man, probably one of the worst public events I’ve ever been to. Wish we didn’t have to pay for it.
Let’s see, there was candy at every balloon, but most handed out one piece of cheap 99-​cent store candy (think: Dubble Bubble, the tiny tootsie rolls, etc.). That would’ve been fine if this was a free event, but it was 10 bucks (plus fees) a person to get in! I don’t know if the Balloon folks buy their own candy or not (they shouldn’t), but someone should have provided them with better candy with the prices paid.
It was ridiculously crowded and just so poorly executed. Parking was a nightmare to get out… I think it took us about 45 minutes, with 30 of those minutes just sitting in one of the parking rows in line waiting to even enter the main exit lane.
Never again.

I won free tickets to Saturday’s event and still was disappointed. It took me nearly an hour to get into the parking. Once inside it was dark, only lighting from booths and balloons. There was no signage or handout as to where things were. Only a few balloons had candy left and none of the booths did. We quickly decided to leave but had gotten turned around as to where the exit was. It took at least 10 minutes of walking along the chain link fence before we found an exit. Heaven forbid if there was an emergency and we needed to leave.
The only good thing I can say was we enjoyed the fireworks but not from the event, we left went to Starbucks and then watched from a nearby parking lot!
Never again.

I agree with all of the reviews on here.
This «festival» is not worth attending and we will be skipping it next year.
The parking is atrocious. We ended up having to illegally exit the parking lot just to be able to get out of the parking lot within three hours, seriously!
Additionally, the whole festival is a lawsuit waiting to happen as these balloons are not secured and a good wind will send one of them coming down to the ground or crushing a kid.
There’s way more people in this place than it can hold safely and on top of that there is very little to no organization to the event.
Overall just a terrible experience.

4 pieces of generic candy… that’s what my son brought home! Horrible. If I could give negative stars, this would be the event to rate! We spent the night waiting in lines: to get off the freeway, to try and get to the parking lot (which my husband gave up on and parked close to McDonald’s), line to get in (after the horrific walk and they ended up just waving us in and didn’t even verify our tickets), lines to each balloon/​vendor to trick-​or-​treat, and lines for concessions (after we stood in line to pay, we had to stand in another line to actually get our drinks; which the vendor was hand making one drink at a time. The lemonade was absolutely delicious, but to make 1 drink at a time!?!).
This is the prime example of why I don’t like to go to public events around Phoenix. When there are events, the mass public attends, there is no limit for capacity, and then it is utter chaos. No one has fun. Both the kids and parents are miserable.

This event needs a total makeover if they are ever going to do it again. Horrible parking, badly organized, and not what was expected from a Halloween event. Where were the games? 5 – 6 things for kids under 5 to do.
Basically this was an event to see tethered balloons with some food. Not even worth the ½ price tickets. I feel bad for anyone who paid full price.

SOME People with strollers annoy me! Sorry. Ok, that’s out the way.
This festival could be more fun if #1 the vendors didn’t run out of candy and #2 the lines weren’t so long at the vendors/​ballons that had candy. #3 there were more events/​games than bouncy houses! It is Halloween… Fall… a Festival… how about games of some sort of skill (potato sack racing, obstacle courses, etc!!!), things you would expect at a Fall Harvest Festival.
We got there at about 5:10, so we did not experience all of the parking issues that others did. But I can imagine that it was awful considering we waited in line and there were about 15 cars in the area at the time when we were parking.
The KICKER? 1 Adult and 2 kids… $ 50 spent without any food, w/​o any real drinks!
Radio disney was a bright spot. Wow, the energy of the staff was awesome. I didn’t know that the radio Disney had a local staion on the AM band. I listen to satellite radio, but that is good info to know.
Tethered hot air balloon rides were nice.
I’m over this event. Sorry, I tried to like it, but just could not get past the fact that it is advertised as a place to trick or treat BUT the treats were in short supply. I wouldn’t go back to this again.