Wow! What a great event! It was our first time at the
Oxnard Tamale Festival. A big thank you goes to Yolanda and Mary at the Tamale Festival. Waking up at 3 a.m. to drive down to Oxnard was a unique experience.
We rented a small truck to move our items, but the rental company only had a big semi moving truck. Ruben had a lot of fun driving that truck from Santa Barbara to Oxnard. He said it was his first time driving a truck with the steering wheel as big as a large pizza.
Once we arrived at 5 a.m., there were already a lot of vendors there. Luckily, we were able to navigate our monster-truck-sized vehicle. We unloaded quickly, but the rain started to come down hard. It’s a good thing we had tarps to protect us.
This festival had a ton of great vendors with delicious food items. We met a number of them and even exchanged food plates throughout the day.
There were a number of food bloggers stopping by to take photos of our foods. It was neat to have Raquel from Trendi Eats stop by our booth.
Towards the evening, we ran out of the Guatemalan tamales first, and then a few hours later, we ran out of the Mexican tamales. No worries! We were prepared! We brought a ton of food to keep making Pupusas, Garnachas and Potato Taquitos. Next year, we will double or triple our tamale inventory. We promise!
Since we were close to Port Hueneme, it was really awesome to see a lot of people from the armed services stop by our booth. Ruben talked to a couple of them and mentioned his late cousin, Carlos, who was in the armed forces and his younger cousin, who is currently a police officer.
After the day ended, reflecting on this meeting with the members of the armed forces, Ruben and I talked about discounts. We decided that, going forward, we will be offering a 20% discount to our people in the armed services, veterans, law enforcement, and first responders.
At the end of the day, we had fun, and we were really tired. I noticed a lot of people at the event, which makes me wonder if future Tamale Festivals might become three-day events.
Lastly, one of the most important things about doing food events is that we donate a percentage of our sales to different organizations. For the Tamale Festival, we donated to the WSS Foundation (The Wiedemann-Steiner Syndrome Foundation).
Till next year, city of Oxnard! See you soon!
Our next event info:
December 13th:
At the Casa De La Raza from 10:30a-1:30p.
We will have Pupusa, Tamales and more!
More info at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2381715452138684/
December 14th:
The Omitted Pop-Up Art Market: Casa de la Guerra
15 E De La Guerra St, Santa Barbara, California 93101 - From 2pm-6pm
We will be serving Pupusas!
More info at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/492298851384434/
