Portland Taco Festival: The good, the bad and the ugly

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Gates opened Saturday, August 26, for Portland’s first ever Taco Festival, hosting crowds of hungry people anticipating a weekend full of tacos, tequila, chihuahua races and more. However, festivities were short lived when event operations quickly went south.

 

     The gates of Portland Meadows opened at noon Saturday, welcoming crowds from all over the region to the highly anticipated event, only to close soon after. Tacos, tequila and more were promised on opening day of the Portland Taco festival however for those who showed up late, there was not much left to see.

     Much of the festival’s popularity stemmed through the Facebook page and website, allowing people to purchase tickets and find out more about the special attractions offered over the two-day festival such as a chihuahua beauty contest and tequila tasting. Unfortunately, however, the bar may have been set too high. The event took a turn for the worst as one vendor momentarily had to restock, lines continued to grow, and the layout was so poor that people didn’t know where to go according to multiple comments on the event Facebook page.

     As thousands of people poured through the gates hungry for tacos, tensions began to rise as vendors quickly became overwhelmed by festival attendees growing impatient. Lines were rumored to have taken up to two hours to get through, and event goers openly expressed their dissatisfaction with the quality of the tacos on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Comments skyrocketed on the Portland Taco Festival Facebook page during the event early Saturday afternoon, with posts describing the event as a “waste of money” and “not worth going to” many users exclaimed. The comments, ironically, were in response to the event page’s post regarding tickets being sold out .

        It turns out tickets weren’t the only item to have been sold out over the weekend. The most frequent complaint from attendees and online critics alike was in regards to the lack of actual taco vendors at the festival. Event goer David Koon explained how, “there was only one taco truck,” and for a weekend dedicated to tacos, this idea left Koon and many other people confused and upset. Koon also described how after spending a majority of his time in line, he never actually got a taco. This seemed to be a trend for many attendees, and even potential attendees. Due to chaos erupting at the festival from angry guests demanding their money back, police enforcement was eventually called on site and the event initially planned for the entire weekend was cancelled on Sunday.

        With the cancellation of the second day of the festival, KATU news reported that the event coordinators, Connected Soul and Another Brother Productions, posted a formal apology on their website explaining where things went wrong. Head Coordinator Timothy Arguello issued a statement in order to clear up some confusion relating to vendors and food options, and an explanation on how vendors had limited prep time due to “technical issues with the infrastructure routing power.” You can find Arguello’s full statement regarding the event at www.portlandtacofestival.com.

Potential attendee WSU Vancouver student, Cameron Kast, described how he had planned to attend the festival Sunday but was unable to due to the cancellation. Kast said he heard that the event ran out of food, but that the real problem was just “poor signage” and that the food trucks and vendors were unclear in their taco availability. Unlike some attendees, Kast had not yet purchased a ticket so he had no concerns about being refunded for the ticket cost; however many other customers were outraged.

        The formal apology from Arguello reassured the public that “we are listening” and that “No food vendor was booked for the taco fest unless they were serving tacos.” Event coordinators explained they will indeed offer refunds to those who purchased tickets for Sunday, as reported by KATU news.