{"id":6018,"date":"2026-08-14T11:50:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/08\/14\/ann-arbor-taco-fest-hosts-visitors-from-across-michigan\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T11:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:50:04","slug":"ann-arbor-taco-fest-hosts-visitors-from-across-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/08\/14\/ann-arbor-taco-fest-hosts-visitors-from-across-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"Ann Arbor Taco Fest hosts visitors from across Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.annarbortacofest.com\/\"> Ann Arbor Taco Fest<\/a> took place Friday evening through Sunday\u00a0 at the<a href=\"https:\/\/washtenawfarmcouncil.org\/\"> Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds<\/a>. The festival featured more than<a href=\"https:\/\/www.annarbortacofest.com\/food-vendors-new\"> 30 taco trucks<\/a>, stages with live music and dancing, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.annarbortacofest.com\/entertainment\">lucha libre wrestling<\/a> and a variety of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.annarbortacofest.com\/contests\"> contests<\/a> for attendees to participate in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cultural festival is organized by the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artashealingfoundation.org\/\"> Art As Healing Foundation<\/a>, which also hosts the<a href=\"https:\/\/novitacofest.com\/\"> Novi Taco Fest<\/a>. The Novi festival began as a small addition to a local art fair in 2022, and drew about<a href=\"https:\/\/www.candgnews.com\/articles\/features-news\/novi-taco-fest-attracts-foodies-from-across-metro-detroit\/\"> 20,000<\/a> visitors over three days during its second year, prompting an expansion to Ann Arbor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One vendor,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/p\/La-Patrona-Mexican-Grill-100095017157407\/\"> La Patrona Mexican Grill<\/a>, is based in Lincoln Park, Mich. Kimberly Pineda \u2014 whose family has run the truck for more than four years \u2014 said in an interview with The Michigan Daily that her family puts its own spin on traditional Mexican street food.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhere we\u2019re from, it\u2019s like street food mania,\u201d Pineda said. \u201cWe\u2019re from Tepito, and everything is street vendors. I think what makes us different is the fact that we\u2019re from the city of Mexico. We\u2019re definitely traditional, but anything that we offer is completely homemade with my mom\u2019s spin on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ame.tacos\/?hl=en\">AMETacos<\/a>, another family-run vendor, is based in Detroit, Mich. Chris Gonzalez Rivera told The Daily he began working full-time after graduating high school, as the family business \u2014 founded by his father 10 years ago \u2014 continued to expand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe started getting invited out to events like breweries and festivals,\u201d Gonzalez Rivera said. \u201cThat\u2019s when we purchased this (food truck) on the road. Everything we do is in-house and made from hand. The best part of being a vendor is the adrenaline. You\u2019re nonstop all day, and that\u2019s what I like about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Selena Berry is the owner and founder of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/selenastaqueria_\/?hl=en\"> Selena\u2019s Taqueria<\/a> \u2014 a halal, women-run business based in Dearborn Heights, Mich. In an interview with The Daily, Berry said she feels her usage of Middle Eastern spices and from-scratch preparation distinguishes her from other vendors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m actually Lebanese, not Mexican,\u201d Berry said. \u201cSo I include those spices into the meat I use, which is completely halal and a really good quality cut from Berry &amp; Sons (Islamic Slaughter House) downtown. I make everything, with only my mother and sister helping run the truck. I love meeting all the new people by being a vendor at different festivals and events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A separate stage<a href=\"https:\/\/www.annarbortacofest.com\/contests\"> <\/a>hosted eating contests several times a day throughout the duration of the festival. The taco contest measured how quickly competitors can finish five tacos, while the hot-pepper contest measured participants\u2019 tolerance for heat from locally grown peppers. Additionally, a \u201ccutest dog\u201d contest ran throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an interview with The Daily, LSA rising sophomore Francis Galicia said his favorite aspects of the festival were the traditional food and authentic dances.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI had the best torta while being there,\u201d Galicia said. \u201cI felt like it took me back in time to when I was eating at the local Mexican shop back home. The traditional dancers and music was so good \u2014 it even had me dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Daily Staff Reporter Angel Saade can be reached at <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/news\/business\/ann-arbor-taco-fest-food-trucks-visitors-michigan\/mailto:angelsaa@umich.edu\"><em>angelsaa@umich.edu<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ann Arbor Taco Fest took place Friday evening through Sunday\u00a0 at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds. The festival featured more than 30 taco trucks, stages with live music and dancing, lucha libre wrestling and a variety of contests for attendees to participate in. The cultural festival is organized by the Art As Healing Foundation, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[242,243,948,325,222,5265,5266],"class_list":["post-6018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ann","tag-arbor","tag-fest","tag-hosts","tag-michigan","tag-taco","tag-visitors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6020,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018\/revisions\/6020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}