What’s the scoop? Eighth Annual Ice Cream Festival provides a sweet Saturday for Atlanta

Tara Anastasoff

Piedmont Park, located in the heart of Atlanta, houses the city’s most exciting events, including music performances, farmer’s markets, group yoga sessions, and a community favorite— the Ice Cream Festival. This year’s festival featured roughly 140 vendors, ranging from ice cream to handmade jewelry. “It was so great taking a day off of work and enjoying time with friends in Atlanta. I love spending time downtown for college, but nothing compares to festival days in the city,” Georgia State University student Autumn Boekeloo said.

Tara Anastasoff, Editor-in-Chief, Photo Editor
August 10, 2018

While the ever-increasing Atlanta temperatures keep heat-fearing people indoors where the air conditioning whirs on full blast, the promise of a sweet treat never fails to bring out a crowd. The Eighth Annual Ice Cream Festival, which took place in Piedmont Park on Saturday, July 28, offered an array of cold treats, hot food, hand-crafted knicknacks, and fun family activities.

“The Atlanta Ice Cream Festival was created to bring families to the park for a good old-fashioned fun day. We made sure to include various family focused services like group workouts, art, activities, city culture, and ice cream that the entire community could enjoy. We wanted people to come down to the park and create memories while enjoying America’s favorite dessert: ice cream,” director of the Atlanta Ice Cream Festival Kevin James said.

In addition to the edible treats at the festival, the Third Annual Leah Dortch Fight Cancer Walk kicked off the day’s festivities. Participants walked through the park with their end goal in mind: a cone of sweet, ice-cold ice cream. Yoga sessions and an all-day wellness center sponsored by The Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority helped participants burn off those extra scoops. While health stood as a priority at this festival, the event also offered a car showcase and an ice cream eating competition sponsored by Brusters Ice Cream for all the sugar monsters. In addition to this competition, festival attendees could also set up blankets and chairs to watch live music and fitness performances on the main stage.

Tara Anastasoff
Festival goers enjoyed their ice cream while listening to music from the up and coming band 6 FLOW that performed on the Sundae Stage of the festival. Local Atlanta citizen Sydney Lundeberg happily devoured her cake batter flavored ice cream cone while listening to the local artists.

 

Tara Anastasoff
With a seemingly endless amount of ice cream to choose from, each food truck offered a multitude of creative variations for customers. Food trucks sold normal ice cream in a cone, vegan ice cream, fruity sorbet, rolled ice cream, snow cones, and alcohol-infused ice cream for the older attendees.

 

Tara Anastasoff
In addition to the delicious food and ice cream, live music, and grassy hills to roll down, the festival also offered bounce houses, inflatables, and bungee cord contraptions for children to play in. This section of the festival, which felt like the fair came early to Piedmont Park, oozed fun and excitement from the children’s happy screams.
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My friends and I ordered our sweet treats from the Queen of Cream ice cream truck. Their flavors, which included a blueberry basil sorbet, cake batter, and sweet buttercream cake made it possible for every customer to find their favorite flavor. The sheer amount of ice cream amazed passerbys, and the family friendly environment made the festival a sweet success.
Tara Anastasoff
Ice cream never fails to bring the citizens of Atlanta outside on a hot summer day. With such a successful outcome this year, the festival will likely continue to stick around as an annual tradition for years to come. “I will definitely be attending the Ice Cream Festival again next year. Hopefully I’ll go on an empty stomach though, I was full after one scoop this year,” Boekeloo said.