Burlington Chocolate Fest

Each year, the city of Burlington throws its four-day Chocolate Fest over Memorial Day weekend. Besides chocolate tastings, chocolate-eating contests and cooking demonstrations, there's live music and a full carnival.

Admission is $7 at the door, $6 in advance, though you can only buy tickets in Burlington. Parking is $5, or you can parking several blocks away and walk, though I would not suggest it.

As you walk in the entrance, you are handed a map and schedule of events, along with some fun-size Crunch bars (Nestle has a chocolate plant in Burlington).

For the carnival and live music itself, it's worth attending the festival, but it's unfortunately lacking in its main attraction: chocolate. There is one tent dedicated to chocolate, and that's it.

Inside is where you can watch (and participate) in the chocolate eating contest (how many fun-size Crunch bars can you eat in two minutes), watch some food demonstrations and buy chocolate from various vendors. You can also buy a $2 tasting ticket that gets you five different samples. On Saturday night there is a wine and chocolate tasting, limited to 200 participants.

I really felt these events could have been scattered throughout the fair grounds (e.g. put the chocolate eating contest on a stage in front of a large crowd), and that there should have been more events. For example, have a Miss Chocolate Fest contest. Or, have some carnival games with chocolate as the prizes.

Another suggestion: The theme this year was "Pirates of the Chocolate-Be'an," but this was not repeated in any way throughout the festival. More pirate-themed activities, etc., would have been nice.

Still, the event was not overly crowded (I went on Saturday), and the beer was not overly expensive ($3.50 for a Miller Lite). Nice time for all ages.

More info at www.chocolatefest.com.