Tucson Taco Festival

My husband and I went to the Taco Festival with a couple friends. We decided to get the VIP tickets at $65.00 due to what was being offered. What was in the ticket offer was 4 beers, 5 tacos, festival T-shirts, VIP area with service and games. Which we did not receive all that was offered.At first the line wait was not bad at all for tickets and the security line to enter. But we had to go back and wait in line again because we were not given the correct tickets/wrist bands. When we entered it was very noticeable that there was many food trucks but all had large long lines that made it hard to walk around. There was only one beer stand that had a line that was almost an hour long wait. We finally found the VIP area close to the stage. The area was only tables and chairs right in front of the speakers. We arrived at 1130am and they only had two servers for beer and taco service. We joined another couple at a table who were already upset with the service and long wait. It took a while before the lady came over to get our beer order (30mins) and told us she was behind and if we even wanted tacos it's going to be over an hour wait. We waited for around an hour and decided that was enough. So around 1pm or so we started waiting in line for tacos (2 of us) and the other 2 stood in line for beers that we had to purchase because we only received 2 of the 4 we were promised with our expensive tickets. It took an hour so by 2pm we finally got tacos at the Taco Festival. I talked to the manager and he acted as though he had no need to fix or take care of the issues with the tickets. The only fix he had was for me to send him an email with T-shirt sizes because he was busy. But apparently too busy to listen to his customers. What really burned me was that he has taken down all negative reviews on his Facebook page for the event. After I had posted there was about 24 comments on my post of other disappointed customers as well. But the same night it was taken down. Even after they posted a festival video and over a 100 comments of angry people who also had there comments removed from the Facebook page. The manager told me he would email me back on Tuesday and I have still no response for the manager. I would say the music was good. That's the only reason it gets 1 star.

5 dollar parking. 5-7 each to get in. All the food in small area so it's super cramped and crowded. $6 more for the "kids zone" that was advertised. No seating except on the ground. LONG lines for all food. One beer spot with the longest line ever. Waste of money in my eyes. We spent $15 for one meal. Tacos up to $6 each not 2-4 as advertised. We're gonna leave here and go buy food and drink somewhere else. Pros free entertainment...

Throngs of people showed up for this event. Whenever you have throngs of people, you are going to have long lines, parking issues and, in Tucson, everyone looking for shade. Then you have the issue of bottles of water being held hostage for precious $2 taco tickets. All of these issues could have been handled better by event organizers. Maybe they should consult Corey about how to organize an event.Now on to the real reason for the event - Tacos! It took me at least two vendors to figure out that the best way to go was to get a taco from one vendor and head straight for a line at another vendor. Here is what I tried (or didn't try for various reasons):Fini's Landing - I stood in this for at least fifteen minutes and the line didn't move. I gave up so I never got to try any of their tacos.Rubios - Their line was manageable, but I was not going to waste my precious $2 ticket on something I can get at the mall any time.Lodge on the Desert - Braised red chile Beef Tongue tacos with radish and carrot slaw. I was hesitant to try these as I am generally averse to eating organs, but surprisingly, these were the tacos I enjoyed the most. The portion was plenty and the tender tongue had a strong beefy and good red chile flavor.Fresh - Chipotle Chicken tacos. The shredded chicken had been cooked to death making the texture off-putting. I did not pick up strong chipotle flavor. There was some sort of slaw tossed on top.Blanco - Short rib tacos. They tasted good, but lacked any heat or flair. Topped with some cabbage and onions.Sir Vezas - Shredded pork with a mild red chile flavor. I watched them make the taco and put , maybe two, cilantro leaves on top. Nothing special.El Coqui - Shredded red chile Beef topped with some cabbage and a teeny dollop of a chipotle concoction. They were the only ones I had to add this type of sauce.Loews Ventana Canyon - Give these guys A for effort. They had 3 or 4 people making tacos from meat pulled from a whole pig sitting on their grill. You could then go through the condiment line and add what you wanted; cilantro, onions, cabbage and salsa. In the end, it was still just shredded pork.I had a conversation with some people standing in line. It basically went like this: Tossing some shredded meat in a tortilla and calling it a taco is not very imaginative. It's something you can do at home. Maybe there is more creativity on what is presented to the judges of this competition. What we got as the people paying for the tacos was, IMO (and apparently others), uninspired.

I am really disappointed! I expected more vendors and lots of food but almost everyone was sold out by 4. The sonoran dogs stole the show. Here I was expecting awesome tacos from tons of vendors and I got a couple tastes. One vendor sold me half a taco for a 2 dollar ticket! What!!??Oh...beers were only 6 bucks each but since taco vendors sold out I had to get drunk on nasty beer since the selection sucked!I will not be back and I live next door. Get it right or fogettaboutit!Oh..and everything the other yelper said above me.

Well, I am with everyone else on this one. This festival has potential, but needs some work.Parking was a little crazy. We got there around noon, I can't imagine how it was after that. Walking to the entrance. Two sets of tables to each side of the path. At each table, there is apparently a line for entry ticket, a line for the tequila tasting, and a line to get a stamp saying you are over 21. And I didn't see anywhere to purchase food tickets at those two tables when we were there. Oh, and there is not one sign saying what is what. So yeah, confusion nightmare.Everything was spaced rather well. But a map or something would have been helpful. That way you could see where all the ticket counters were, etc.$2/ ticket is high. Especially when the size of most of these taco's are street taco size and very small and you just paid $10 entry fee. And to make it more confusing, not everyone had their sign out saying what kind of taco they were serving. Some booths were taking cash and tickets. Some were taking tickets for the taco, cash for ordering other items. It was just confusing. Myself and two friends came up with a plan. We would get a taco at a booth, each of us would take a bite of the taco, then go to the next one. Most of the taco's were good, some better than others. But I was disappointed in the lack of fish tacos. And like Mark, I wasn't going to use a precious ticket on Rubio's.That way, we each got a taste and were able to sample a bigger amount without completely breaking the bank. And $4 for the beer was okay, $6 for the margarita was a little ridiculous. With the amount of space they had, they should have put up at least three more tents with seating and shade. If set-up the same way next year, I wouldn't bother.

No idea who the brains were behind the organization of this event, but it was an epic fail. I realize that this is the first shot at it, but first impressions are important and the way they pulled this off left a pretty bitter taste.Evidently, vendors were ALL supposed to be ONLY taking tickets, which would then be cashed in with the organizer taking a percentage of it out. So, what do you think happened? Vendors realized that it they charged cash for their food they wouldn't have to pay any percentage to the organizers.This is why there were two pricing scenarios there: Cash and Tickets.The parking, the whole mess with the tables, the lack of eating spaces - just a mess. Haven't read anywhere that this was going to be an "Annual" event or not. If it is annual, I am steering clear for at least the next couple of them to let them figure out how to run the bloody thing.

My husband and I got there around 12:30 today. They messed up the security lines SO bad. We got to the front with our tickets after 10 minutes and they made me get in the back of another line when I got to the very front because it wasnt the female line. They had no vocal or written notices showing anyone was in the wrong line to get frisked. After waiting another 15 minutes, getting in there it was a madhouse. There were about 15-20 food trucks or stands, which seems decent, but with hundreds people pouring in every hour it was a massive hallway of people who couldn't get through, especially those in wheelchairs. We tried multiple lines to get food and each one took 45-60 minutes just to get 1 taco. We figured out talking to some of the people working these stands/trucks that most of these were making the food TO ORDER. The longest line was the drink line. They were 80 people deep. Very disappointed.

Because it was the first time for this event, I'll give it a 3 stars but my A-OK means there definitely were highlights with some disappointments. Since it was the first time, we decided we would get here early so we could beat the rush and hopefully the heat. We got here between 11/11:30, and there was a line for parking. The parking for the Rillito Downs does not have the most convenient entrance. I'm so glad we went when we did; the parking did not look fun when we were leaving, and the lines for the booths were not bad yet. Also picking up the Yelp entrance tickets was a little confusing, the peeps at the front did not have a list for us, but luckily it worked out! Like others have said it was a little confusing with the location of the $2 booths. Also this inner field is HUGE and a lot of walking was involved with very little shade. It would have been nice to have a cooling station or some more shaded areas to sit down at. The tacos we thought were decent overall. There were some that were definitely stellar, and some that were just ok. We enjoyed Fresh's taco (chicken option), Boca's amazing vast selection of salsas- who would have ever thought of a banana salsa, Blanco's (delish-short rib-our favorite!), and El Coqui-shredded beef. There was too much pork (not that I don't like pork), and only saw one fish taco option (and it was at the end of our marathon- when we were full and hot). We would have also liked to see more restaurants (for more taco choices). Also the pricing of the tacos I think could have been adjusted; say 5 tickets for 8 instead of $2/pop. Pros: some of the tacos were stellar!Cons: ticket pricing, lack of shade, setup of booths, first event disorganization

Good points: My companion enjoyed most of the meat tacos he tried, and there were a variety of entertainment options including live music, lucha libre, and watching people go down the zip line.What needs improvement: Some vendors need to keep signage up-to-date and ensure lines move along quickly, parking and ticket sales should be more organized, needs clarity in terms of what you can and cannot spend tickets on (maybe via a list of vendors and menus on the Web site posted in advance), **more tacos for nonmeat eaters!** Detailed review:This is a great idea that has the potential to be a great event, but it's got a lot to improve on. First, parking was silly. Cops in front of the park entrance were doing nothing to direct traffic, and two parking attendants in the lot were not doing anything at all to point people towards empty spaces. As a result, there was a chaotic parking situation with people parked blocking aisles and, once you got out of the car, there was very little signage to point you toward the festival entrance.I had purchased the Groupon for half-price entry and it seemed that the ticket sellers were not well-prepared for Groupon users. There was only one attendant who could give out tickets for Groupon people, and my friend and I waited about 10 minutes despite there being only one couple in line in front of us. The process of finding people on the Groupon list, checking them off, explaining how to get ID'ed, buy tickets, etc. took longer than it should have.Ticket sales for food and drink were also misleading and confusing. I bought tickets at the gate because I was told I would need them. After I got inside, I found out that some vendors took tickets for tacos, sides, and drinks, some accepted them for tacos only, and several vendors did not accept them at all! A little misleading, no?My *number one* complaint, however, is that if festival organizers choose to advertise seafood and vegetable tacos among the offerings, there had darn well better be more than one vendor selling each of these items. I saw a single vendor selling veggie tacos (which were awful--I bit straight down into a cooked bit of onion peel) and of the three vendors who advertised that seafood tacos were available, only one (Rubios) actually had them. I stood in a ridiculously long line at one vendor for 20 minutes before another patron came back to tell us the seafood tacos were gone and reportedly had been sold out for some time. Really? Vendors can't be bothered to update their signs to reflect what's sold out? At the other booth, I gave up on ever getting a fish taco after being told twice to "come back in half an hour." As a non-meat eater, I was only able to enjoy two tacos in the entire event. The rest of my tickets were spent on drink, chips, and salsa, which I only bought for the sake of spending the non-refundable tickets. If I had paid the entire $10 entry fee, I would have asked for a refund. As it is, I think the festival was barely worth the $5 I paid. I could eat at the Rubios down the block without a cover charge. Just saying. My suggestion is that organizers contact La Botana, Lovin' Spoonfuls, or the 4th Avenue Fish Taco people and recruit them for next year. If you can't give me food, I won't be back in 2013.