Original Pittsburgh Taco Festival returns to Strip District
Sep. 7—These days, tacos are more than just ground beef, cheese and toppings. From barbacoa to chorizo to lengua, tacos have gone gourmet.
Visitors to the Original Pittsburgh Taco Festival on Saturday will find a taco for every taste bud, said founder and executive producer Craig McCloud.
"We'll have plenty for everybody," he said. "We'll even have a Jewish deli truck that is going to do chicken pastrami tacos."
The event is set for 12:30-7 p.m. at the Strip District Terminal, 2101 Smallman St. At least 25 food vendors will be present.
"We let the vendors create their own menus, but I try to encourage them to keep it simple," McCloud said. "It's a taco festival and people are there for tacos. That's less they have to worry about preparing.
"Some people do elote, the Mexican corn on the cob. We'll have some dessert and ice cream, too," he added.
Some vendors will offer strictly vegetarian and/or vegan menus. Others will have vegetarian options on otherwise traditional menus.
Most of the food vendors are from the Pittsburgh area, along with one from Punxsutawney.
"It's about 50-50 trucks and trailers and brick-and-mortar places that will be serving from a tent," McCloud said.
The festival also will feature two music stages, salsa dance lessons, free face-painting and other family friendly activities.
McCloud founded the festival in 2016 as a way to help mobile food vendors, while offering something new to the community.
"I realized there wasn't a taco festival in Pittsburgh. There's a pirogi festival, a pickle festival, all kinds of other festivals," he said.
Taco fest had its start as a street festival in Lawrenceville.
"We had some first year hiccups and lessons we learned the hard way," he said. "But it really ballooned. It's been insanely popular every time we've done it."
Highmark Stadium hosted the festival in 2018-19. Following a pandemic hiatus year, it landed at the terminal in 2021.
'The first three years, we did two separate three-hour sessions. Starting last year, we just did one big, long festival, which has worked out well," McCloud said.
The festival partners with Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corp. and the Latin American Cultural Union.
"We wish to honor the culture responsible for what we consider the 'greatest hand-food known to man,'" according to the festival website.
The organizations help recruit vendors, organize entertainment and provide authenticity to the event and, in turn, receive a percentage of proceeds, McCloud said.
"I realized that I'm just your average Pittsburgher trying to do a taco festival, and there are plenty of people in our city of Latin American descent who know a lot more about tacos than I do," he said. "PHDC is a business incubator for anyone from a Latin American country who wants to start a business. A lot of the vendors that we have, they've helped to launch their businesses."
Tickets are $9.99 plus fees with purchase by midnight Friday on the festival website, and $15 on event day. Packages including raffle tickets and festival merchandise also are available. Admission is free to children 5 and younger.
Vendors will set their own food prices. Some will accept credit cards, while others may require payment in cash only.
Dogs are not allowed on the festival site.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
