12 Best Food Festivals in Maryland for Families
Food festivals are spread across Maryland all year round and are a great place to spend time together as a family. Because there are so many amazing ones to choose from, here is your guide on finding the best Maryland food festivals for families! These have plenty of fun activities and family-friendly food to enjoy together.
12 Best Maryland food festivals to check out!
1. Apple Festival
Every year, Darlington puts on an incredible Apple Festival. It is one of our favorite fall festivals in Maryland to try to attend each year. You can enjoy some of the best apple pie you will ever taste at this food festival, along with plenty of fun games, activities, and even some competitions like the cornhole tournament.
Enter an apple pie baking contest or create your design for the apple festival t-shirt! There are plenty of vendors so that you can shop all day long. There will be every type of apple you can think of, so everyone will be happy.
If your kids love apples, you can plan to go apple picking with them, here are some great apple picking spots in Maryland.
2. Maryland Chicken Wing Festival
Are you a chicken wing lover? Then, your family will love the Maryland Chicken Wing Festival! This festival has a few kid areas so the entire family can come and have some fun. You can enjoy a plethora of chicken wings and other delicious food. Children under 12 are free, making this a more budget-friendly food festival!
This festival is held at the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds sometime in April. Families can also enjoy live music from local bands playing live all day.
3. Annual Berlin Peach Festival
The Annual Berlin Peach Festival is a free food festival held at the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum in Berlin. Grab some delicious, fresh peaches and enjoy some other fun activities. This festival takes place in August.
There will be a variety of local peaches to choose from, along with plenty of peach-flavored dishes that are super tasty. Enter the peach pie baking contest if you are great at making pie! Just want to eat the pies? Enter the pie-eating contests!
4. Strawberry Festivals
There are so many fun strawberry festivals all year long in Maryland! Here are a few of our favorites.
Weber’s Farm has its annual strawberry festival every June. Kids will love the farm animals, play structures, and balloon animals, while the entire family will absolutely love all the delicious, fresh strawberry treats!
This is one of the best food festivals for the whole family! Weber’s farm is on the list of some of the best places to go strawberry picking in Maryland.
The Messiah Lutheran Church’s strawberry festival is located at the Gamber Volunteer Fire Department Carnival Grounds and is held in June. Enjoy crafts, pony rides, hayrides, a vendors market, and strawberries galore! This church has put on this festival for over 30 years now.
Ridgely Lions Club also holds an annual strawberry festival, which includes a 5k strawberry run, parade, activities, and plenty of delicious strawberry desserts! This is one of the club’s fundraisers full of events throughout the day worth attending.
The Sandy Spring Museum holds its annual strawberry festival in June. Eat tasty strawberry shortcakes while enjoying live music and activities all day long.
This festival has been going on for 40 years now and is one of the most significant events in the museum.
The Somerset Strawberry Festival is a Maryland food festival sponsored by the Somerset County Arts Council. It features a ton of great experiences which include but are not limited to Phil Rayfield Memorial Walk / Run, singing performances from schools, the Junior Miss Strawberry Pageant, the Little Miss and Mr. Strawberry Pageant, a Marion history exhibit, art vendors, food and craft vendors, activities for kids, etc.
5. Maryland Seafood Festival
At the end of September, enjoy some incredible seafood together as a family at the Maryland Seafood Festival in Annapolis. Choose from a variety of delicious seafood vendors all along the Chesapeake Bay. There will also be fun children’s games and activities to enjoy while there. Of course, everyone loves the steamed crabs from here. For seafood lovers, OCMD has some great seafood restaurants to try out!
You will also find many competitions here, including a crab cake eating contest and a crab soup cook-off. At night, you can enjoy a nice fireworks display here too!
6. Interstate Food Truck Festival
In Boonsboro, head over to the Interstate Food Truck Festival! Enjoy a variety of food from different food trucks featuring dishes from all over the world. There is also a fun kid zone, and all children under 12 years old get in for free! It used to be known as the interstate BBQ Festival but got reinvented into the Food truck festival.
In addition to all the yummy food, there will also be live music and plenty of other fun activities to enjoy. This food festival will be held at the Washington County Agricultural Education Center.
7. Annapolis Chocolate Binge Festival
This is one of the favorite food festivals because who wouldn’t love going to eat and celebrate chocolate? Here you will find just about any and every chocolate you could desire!
There is something for everyone, from bonbons to caramels, cookies, fudge, truffles, cakes, candies, etc. They even have plenty of gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO, and kosher options!
The Annapolis Chocolate Binge Festival takes place on the first Sunday of December, and it is one you do not want to miss. Here you will find a huge gingerbread house your kids can play in too! Santa makes a special appearance sometimes too!
8. Maryland Foodie Fest
The Maryland Foodie Fest is a family-friendly event with tons of delicious food from restaurants all over the state. In addition, kids can enjoy playing in the inflatable play structures, hitting in the batting cages, or getting their faces painted!
Besides food, you can jam out to some live music and shop from local artists and vendors. Here you also have the opportunity to participate in the crab cake eating contest! The Restaurant Association of Maryland puts on this event.
9. Bethesda’s Premier World Environment Day
This is considered a food, music, and fun festival put on by Planet Bethesda to celebrate World Environment Day.
Here you will find tons of incredible plant-based foods, live music, a kid’s corner full of activities, and so much more! There is even a plant-based pie-eating contest!
10. Tacos ‘N Taps
Do you love tacos? Head over to Tacos ‘N Taps located at the Central Plaza at Harbor Point. There will be over ten different Mexican restaurants and taco trucks to eat all the tacos your heart desires.
Each food truck will include at least one $3 taco option, which is very affordable for the entire family! There will also be lawn games while you are not eating to enjoy this food festival.
11. Chesapeake Seafood Festival
This festival takes place in Baltimore for all seafood lovers. It offers crabcakes, crabs, scallops, shrimps, and other seafood varieties.
12. Beer Bourbon and BBQ
Beer Bourbon and BBQ is more for adults and not kids, but it’s a great food festival. It takes place in several states in the US. It is two full days loaded up with beers, bourbons, and barbecue.
The admission tickets get you a sampling glass where you can enjoy All You Care To Taste sampling of beer and bourbon. Plus, guests get to enjoy some live rock and blues music and Bluegrass on the stage.
Final thoughts on Maryland food festivals
Going to a food festival is a great family tradition that the entire family will love. These are just some of the best food festivals in Maryland for families to enjoy, but there are countless others. A food festival will make a lasting memory in each of your children’s lives.
