While last year’s disastrous Des Moines Taco & Margarita Festival left people feeling shellacked, the Iowa Cubs hope to leave a better taste in festival-goers’ mouths after announcing their own Taco & Margarita Festival on Friday.
The I-Cubs festival is slated for July 9 at Principal Park in Des Moines.
A lot of people had beef with last year’s festival—which one person labeled as “Fyre Fest on a bridge”—however, the 2022 Des Moines Tacos And Margarita Festival is completely unrelated to last year’s event.
“Different folks completely,” said organizer Mitch Curley when asked if he was affiliated with AZ Festivals LLC, which put on the previous festival. “We figured we’d be fighting a little bit of that because it’s a similar event.”
“This is all new. This is going to be completely different from anything they’ve seen before, it’s going to be much better.”
I-Cubs Marketing Manager Deonne Witherspoon also confirmed this event has nothing to do with last year’s event. Witherspoon said the I-Cubs festival is sponsored by Ghost Tequila, woman-owned seltzer brand PRESS, and Chicago-based Zing Zang, which makes and distributes cocktail mixes including several margarita mixes.
Witherspoon said the team was contacted by people concerned if this year’s Taco & Margarita Festival is affiliated with last year’s. The team plans to release a video on its social media channels to give details on how and why this one is different.
“It won’t be on the bridge that it was on last year,” Witherspoon said.
One of the biggest complaints about the previous festival was the long lines, a problem Witherspoon said they will try to avoid.
“As a company and as an organization, we’ve been doing everything to make sure that this event is going great,” he said.
General admission tickets are $15 and there are two VIP packages: Regular VIP is $59 and includes early entry, a T-Shirt, two margaritas, and restaurant access. Ultimate VIP has all the regular VIP perks plus exclusive suites that include a taco bar.
by Ty Rushing
04/03/22
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1 Comment on "New Des Moines Taco Festival Organized By Different Groups Than Last Year’s"
We attended the festival today and and I have to honestly say it’s the worst festival we’ve ever been to. Although there were a lot of taco vendors, all that was available was beef, pork and chicken. All the vendors had the same thing. After eating a 3 different vendors we didn’t need to try the same thing at a 4th. It was like they were told what to bring. Where was the seafood? Fun toppings? Creative tacos! The Margarita portion of the festival was a joke. There was hardly any alcohol in any of the margaritas and there was only 4 choices of Margarita. Why not bring in tequila distributors and hold a real festival. Serving margaritas out of the ballpark concession stand was not what I would consider a festival. I own a brewery so I understand the Iowa liquor laws and it could have been done much better with venders. I have hosted many beer festivals and other festivals in my community and people want a variety but a variety not just a choice of 3 or 4 different things. Games and things to do were nice, but we’re foodies and go to festivals for that reason. A refund would be nice. But mostly I just wanted the organizers to know what a disappointment this festival was.