Michigan Taco Fest 2019 Review: Stand In Line Fest

I gotta tell ya, I was pretty disappointed with Michigan Taco Fest which took place this past weekend in Lake Orion at the Olde World Canterbury Village . Don't get me wrong, the anticipation which led up to the event was high and positive. But being it's first year, Taco Fest ran into a grocery list of issues, some of which rests on the vendors, others, the event planning. So let me walk you through my experience with Taco Fest from Night 1.

Before the event started, I was informed that my future Burrito Rolling Championship had been compromised because the organizers or suppliers of the food which were to be used for the competition, "were unable to facilitate all the product and ingredients" for the contest. Luckily to compensate, they gave anyone who signed up a free weekend pass, which proved to be useless in the end for me.

Once we arrived to Taco Fest, we could see the first line, it was the line to get in. That was a rather quick moving line. After getting in, my brother Tyler and I met our friend Jessica. Once we got in the main food/drink area, all we could see were lines as far as the eye could see. Many lines containing many different people, leading towards many different food vendors.

The first line we got in was for taquitos and a pop, which were advertised on their menu above. After standing in that line for 20 minutes we got to the front only to find out they had neither. Awesome. Taco Fest starts out with a bang. Then we went over to another taco setup, only to find out they didn't have anymore toppings for their tacos, so that really isn't a taco, but I ate one anyway because at this point I've been at Taco fest for nearly an hour and already I haven't had a proper taco.

After this, we realized we were gonna have to wait it out if we wanted to eat Tacos at Taco Fest. Don't get me wrong. There were other food trucks there that had ZERO lines, but who wants to eat Asian Yum Yum or Italian Cuisine at TACO FEST? I came for the tacos, so I was gonna get some. So my brother and I proceeded to get in line for and amazing food truck called Galindo's A Taste Of Mexico. While we stood in line for Tacos, Jessica stood in line for drinks.

You first gotta understand that these people were busting their butt. I've got no gripes with any of the trucks who were serving. But my main issue with Taco Fest was that there was just not enough vendors, space or setup to accommodate all the people that came, so every line to get Tacos was over an hour wait. Look at these lines:

As we stood in line we heard the desperate cries of those waiting, "I'm so hungry!," "How long IS this line?" "Are we even moving?" The patience started to run low once we made it past the line to order, then stood in a separate line to get the food we ordered, which tacked on an extra 15 minutes to the wait time.

One man, Beefy McDoogle, was seen here muttering, "I just want my G** D***  California Burrito already."

I am not kidding you that in the time I took my place in line for tacos, to the time the tacos got in my hand, it took 1 hour, and 35 minutes. I know this because I set a stopwatch about ten minutes into the line.

One we finally got out tacos, we posed for a much earned celebratory picture:

Here is the general consensus, Taco Fest 2019 was a great idea. It had a lot of cool vendors, wrestling, great food trucks, a really nice shuttle service that transported people to off site parking lots, and fun entertainment. But they need to take a page out of Kalamazoo Ribfest's book.

• They need more volunteers.
• They need a ticket booth for drinks that way people aren't digging for money for drinks AND food. It holds up the lines.
• They need whoever is supplying tacos to have a setup on the grounds with food ready to roll, not cooking to order. The lines at Ribfest can get big, but waiting 10-15 minutes for food is nothing compared to 90 for a few tacos. Having food hot and ready makes the ordering speed so much faster.

Once again, I love this idea, and it was a pretty cool venue to host it at, but next year they need to have a faster setup to get Tacos, cause I'm never waiting that long again for food. I mean, if it's supposed to be a taco festival, I wanna try tacos from all sorts of vendors and not have it take 3 days to try 4 or 5. Literally once we ate our one set of tacos, the night was over, we got to experience nothing except spinning a wheel for some vacation scam. Not that lit. Taco Fest was everything but Tacos. The line to taco ratio was way off. It was Line Fest this year. Let's hope next year, access to tacos are abundant and easy. All in all, I still congratulate those who ran it and thank them for their hard work.