Upland Lemon Festival

I really wanted to come to the festival. It was fun. I want to come back and vend next year. We met some really friendly people and had some great lemonade. Parking was good and lots of booths.

Not much lemon going on here… I feel it’s just a name — a reason to eat food and drink alcohol. There were some great finds here. I had a chocolate covered banana rolled in Fruity Pebbles. Mother’s Donuts was here, oh man, the best! And I ended it with a Belgian waffle on a stick, smothered in berries and powdered sugar. It was a fun time. Not great, not a must on my list… It is a free event so it is extremely crowded which is a turn-​off for me. It’s also pretty dirty due to the crowds of people walking around and likely not properly disposing of their trash. But like I said, it is a free event and there are some yummy treats to be savored!

My husband loves lemon, so I was initially excited about going to a festival that I thought celebrated all things lemon. Hey, it’s a free event, so why not.
We went on Saturday night. Drove down the street along the RR tracks to park and ended up about ½ mile away.
One of the first booths we found was Sweet Dough Café, which sold cinnamon rolls and lemon cinnamon rolls (which weren’t that great).
As we walked along, there really wasn’t anything else that screamed «lemon» other than lemon flavored beer. Other Unilocalers were spot on by comparing this event as an extension of the LA County Fair.
On the plus side, there are at least 2 stages for bands to play. My husband and I walked the entire festival in an hour. One and done deal.

I was looking forward to this event thinking that I would see a lot of lemons! But all I saw was a few lemonade stands & a lot of beer stands. It should be a veer festival not a lemonade festival

This was the 1^st year I’ve attended the Upland Lemon Festival so I don’t have any past years to compare it to.
Parking: ³⁄₅
Food Variety: 3.5÷5
Lemon Theme: ³⁄₅
Family Friendly: 4.5÷5
Dog Friendly: 4.5÷5
Cost: ⁴⁄₅ (free admission, free parking, but food prices just ok, not cheap)
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3.75 Stars Overall
I actually tried to attend all 3 days, but only made it on Saturday and Sunday for a couple hours each day. I’m an old lady at heart, so my experiences were only in the MORNINGS BEFORE NOON. I’m sure it got a lot more crowded in the afternoon and evenings. If it was super crowded then I’m sure I wouldn’t have had such a great experience. LOL It’s also less likely that people would be drinking beer before noon, right?
Friday 7:00PM — No parking anywhere so we left. (younger crowd)
Saturday 10:30AM — Came with my husband, mom, sister, and brother-​in-​law.
Sunday 9:30AM — Came with my husband and 3 Shih Tzus so we walked around first while everyone was opening and stayed until 11:30AM
ADMISSION: Free
PARKING: Free (unless you want to pay $ 15 at some of the lots)
DOG FRIENDLY: Yes (if your dog doesn’t mind loud noises or people)
BRING CASH (some places are cash only and some will have a credit card fee)
You have to pay to go on the carnival rides, play games and do some other activities like the Butterfly Habitat exhibit which was $ 3. There were pop-​up ATM machines all over the place as well as porta-​potties.
My mom wanted to stop and watch some of the dancing on the stage. There were so many things to try (food wise), but I still didn’t get a chance to try everything I wanted to. I chatted with the vendors that I’ve been following on Instagram and met some great people.
Some of my favorites were:
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Sweet Dough Café (Lemon Cinnamon Rolls and Lemon Cream Short Bread Cookie sandwich. Note I took the cinnamon roll home and heated it.)
Sunshine Waffle Company (Belgian Waffle on a stick)
Chuck Wagon Old Fashion Soda (tried the Vanilla Cream and Black Cherry)
B Food International (delicious sausages and falafels)
Planet Cookies, Inc (banana bread, pumpkin bread, huge cookies)
Lolli Cakes (cake pops)
PRICES:
$ 4 for cinnamon roll, $ 5 for 2 cookies, $ 6 for 32-​oz soda with souvenir tin cup, $ 2 for one cake pop, $ 3 for small lemonade, $ 10 for sausage, $ 10 for falafel wrap, $ 8 – 9 for a giant pretzel
We also saw a Pretzel place and had Pizza Pretzels and also one place that served Filet Mignon Mac n’ cheese! What?! If I was not already full, I would have tried some.
Non-​Food related booths included Harley Davidson, Self-​Defense class, Fitness Centers, Forest Lawn, windows, mattresses, whole house fans, hot tubs, artificial turf etc. I just wanted to walk quickly past those so they don’t try to sell me something I don’t want or need LOL.
Overall, I had a really great time Saturday AND Sunday morning. I agree that there could have been more LEMON goodies, like lemon pies or lemon bars… mmmm or even some sort of lemon baking competition, but still happy with the choices I found. At the end of the day, my family, my dogs and I had a fun time and that’s what really counts!
I’m looking forward to the festival again next year.
⁴³⁄₁₀₀ Reviews for 2016

Pucker up, lemons are sweet and sour.
This is my first year attending this event. I went on Friday when they opened at 3pm. Parking was easy because I beat the rush. There were still many people there this early. The fair is wheelchair accessible and there was even a handicap portable restroom.
Many of the local businesses were open along with all the booths. All of the businesses and booths were decorated in lemon fashion. My favorite coffee shop, Rad coffee, had a special on lemon bars and «hard lemonade». There were many booths; crafts, art, food, alcohol, novelty items, health care, makeup, clothing, plants, gardening, gym, bikes, spas, and an area of «garage sale» type items. There was a craft area for kids and fair type rides and games. I did not play the games or go on the rides, but I watched people doing both and they were having fun.
There were plenty of event staff, police, security, firemen, and emergency personnel on hand. I felt very safe. The live entertainment was very enjoyable. They had two different stages on opposite ends of the fair.
I was disappointed with some of the food that I chose to purchase. The lemon cookies from the cookie booth were kinda dry for a $ 3 cookie. The cinnamon bun with lemon frosting tasted like they baked everything the day before and heated it up. The corn cob was great, but you can’t mess that up unless you burn the corn. I would have tried more, but I was ready pass out from too much sugar and walking.

Nice time at the Upland Lemon Festival! Had a refreshing lemony shaved ice with the most amazing ginormous fresh pretzel. The brick of curly fries was yummy as well — crispy and not at all greasy. My son had the jalapeño lemonade and it was very good. Till next year…

I found the fair to be quite good. The local talent was a nice change and I for one appreciate the not so famous talent. As far as lack of lemon products I saw many booths with lemon selections. Not every item has to have lemon in it.
I saw lemon donuts, lemon aide, lemon flavored beer, marinated chicken in fresh lemon juice.
From the looks of the many people in attendance I’d say this is a successful one.

Just another street booze fest… Goodbye are the days of an actual stand with Lemon something. Sad. I don’t think we will be back. Can we have one fair that is alcohol free please. This isn’t kid friendly when all they have to look at is cheap crap and drunk girls and boys

Its like most festivals in any town you’d visit. Lots of vendors with kitschy or county fair sort of items for sale. Nothing too exciting. Nice to just get out and walk around and get some exercise but not too entertaining. I came to see the Blues Festival on Sunday and it was a bit of a bust. Musicians with talent playing some pretty boring material. Weedily deedilies masquerading as the blues. Oh well. The Pomona Queen ale was good. The Route 66 BBQ not so much. Stale bun on pulverized pulled pork and the lemon sausage had a definite ‘been left way too long under a heat lamp’ kinda texture.

If I could have, I would have given zero stars. Shame on you Upland. No longer is this a quaint, small town «Lemon festival» now it is a magnet for the masses to drink beer. I only stayed for less than 15 minutes but it looks just like the carnival/​county fair in Pomona (which I see now is the organizer of this). I stopped attending the Pomona fair because it became gang-​infested. There is a vendor selling alcohol every few steps here. There was not one person from Upland in the area where we stood. People with a beer in each hand and outfitted with clothing reminiscent of the «hood». This isn’t anyplace I would bring my family. There wasn’t even a way to walk around. Boo

It’s called Lemon Festival. Hardly any lemons. :(
Otherwise, it’s a decent street fair.

This festival has greatly improved since the last time I was here (around 10 years ago). Metrolink drops you off right at the festival (use of $ 10 unlimited rides Metrolink weekend day-​pass works great). This time there were many more vendors selling Lemon oriented drinks and food creations (though there still should be more). There is no entrance fee for access to the street vendors. I just wish the food vendors would offer smaller portions of food for a sensible price. I’m tired of most all of the food vendors at fairs and festivals not offering smaller portions without having to pay a full-​portion price.

Fair was fun for the kids but the down side was that the ride operator tried to steal a phone. my brother left his phone on the bear ride and when we went back to ask if anyone found a phone there, the ride operate said no. HE SAID NO! we called the phone and we heard it ringing by his little stand. He looked at us and said” What kind of phone is it? Oh here it is” he said. He lied to our face and we caught him red handed! Dont trust those people.!!

This event has nothing to do with Limon History and or the city of Upland anymore, once they gave the event over to the Fairplex it went all down hill… its a LA County Fair fill and look with companies selling spa’s come one? Get back to the meaning of history of Upland!

Although I’ve been living nearby for many years, I finally went here one year, plus, I LOVE lemons. It’s so-​so. There’s not many vendors and the entertainment are local high school kids singing and/​or talking. It’s an OK way to spend an hour or two I guess if there’s absolutely nothing else to do and you’ve never been before.
For those used to much grander fairs and festivals, this just won’t do.

I think it’s a great event for local vendors to come together is a quaint old town neighborhood. There is a variety of foods, shops, booths, entertainment and rides aimed to target just about everyone.

It used to have lots of fresh produce and less expensive.
Now it’s mostly shitty carnival rides, expensive carts, and expensive small portioned food.
Lots of dingy rides with iver priced tickets with odd numbers of tickets in the bundle leaving you with leftovers.
Also brings out a lot of rowdy teens with no concern for anyone around them almost running over my children. The past years were more family oriented.
Also there is alcohol being sold and there were several people that had had too much

We had lots of fun. Decided try it out last minute. Parking was scarce, arrived after 1pm. Decided to pay $ 10 for the lot. I would call this a mini LA county fair. It was almost like they picked up a section of the Pomona fairplex and dropped it in downtown Upland. Junk food was plentiful, easily spent $ 100 on trying different things. I would just take bites and toss the rest of it, too many calories. The beer was great! I tried the Dale bros. Brewery, lemon pilsner, and the beer I do not taste and toss. I thought the beer was reasonable, $ 7. When I’m at the county fair it is usually $ 10 – 13. Couldn’t find the chicken wings, looked everywhere. FYI– lemons are not plentiful. There are a few things but nothing like the boysenberry festival. We will be back next year. Now it’s almost time for the local strawberry festivals, maybe try Oxnard. See you next year.

This was our first time attending the Lemon Festival and to tell you the truth apparently this first Impressive was not good, it was cold cloudy and it even started sprinkling no lie, there were a lot of vendors selling a lot of everything else and not that many lemon Items. I think a lot of the food was over priced, we eat at Route 66 BBQ, the food was just ok not good or great we had the lemon/​garlic pulled chicken sandwich $ 7.50 and the lemon chicken sausage sandwich $ 7.00 waffle fries $ 3.00, and at The Juicery organic lemonade /​watermelon sweetened with agave $ 13.00 for 2 8 oz. cups, Misfit Lighting Stand Jalapeño, Green Apple, and Lemonade $ 6.00 for 2 8 oz. cups… this drink was the highlight of this festival to me you taste the sweetness first then the hotness, we also sample turkey jerky plus lemon jelly, Oh most of the vendors had the mastercharge and visa logo out that you could use… but with a sub– charge from .50 to $ 1.00 some Item already high and they want more cash but not from me I got some green stuff baby!!!