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| - I am so disappointed with my experience yesterday 3/3/18 at The Devour Culinary Classic. This has been a beloved event of ours for years.
First of all, the selection of Desert Botanical Gardens as the new venue is a terrible decision. There is no one single large area there, so the event was broken up into small 'zones'. The event doesn't feel like a large gathering anymore, but rather a collection of smaller gatherings. The energy and vibe created by the event when it was at the Art Museum is gone.
After determining that a couple of the zones were better than the others, we basically just picked a zone. Additionally, one gets tired of walking the long distances between zones. So now we're just in one zone, which is maybe 20% as large as the singular space at Phoenix Art Museum.
Secondly, the food selections for the regular ticket holders were pathetic. There were maybe 2-3 food vendors in each zone, and usually just one vendor in that zone that was appealing. For Godsake, there was a kettle korn vendor and a place offering baskets of seasoned chiles. This is supposed to be a somewhat upscale culinary event. The lines for the places offering something with an actual protein were unreasonable and for good reason....there was little food to be had. It is now a majority drinking event, and make no mistake, we enjoyed many a beverage, but the food portion of this 'culinary' event is now non-existent.
What has happened that is new to 2018 is, the majority of decent food offerings have been pushed into the VIP area, forcing people to spend more. Huge mistake that will not work in the long term. If the regular ticket prices need an increase than do that instead, but offer all the food to everyone as was the format in all prior years.
I don't know what happens to all these events as they mature over time, I guess they just feel like they have to maximize revenue at the expense of a quality experience. The same has happened to Scottsdale Culinary Festival (used to be food and drink but now just a drinkfest, albeit a good one, with lots of fun music) and Tempe Oktoberfest (is now forcing the choice of VIP by their format, similar to Devoured).
Count us as a longtime Devoured fan that won't be coming back in future years unless a change in venue and food quality is made. Very very sad and disappointed at what has become of this beloved event.
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