Tacolandia 2016 Pre-Sale Opens This Tuesday, March 8th at 10AM

Today on Neal Saavedra's Fork Report (4:03 PM) I'll be announcing pre-sale ticket dates, which will begin this Tuesday, March 8th at 10AM and will run until Sunday, March 13th at 10PM. LA Weekly's 4th Annual Tacolandia, curated by me, will take place at  L.A.'s historic Olvera Street on Saturday, June 11th from 3PM to 7PM. This year, we'll be expanding to well over 100 of the best taco vendors in the U.S. and Mexico at the best and biggest taco festival in the U.S. with world class taqueros, carefully handpicked from Mexico, Arizona, San Diego, Orange County with the biggest group, of course, coming from Los Angeles, the Taco and Mexican food capitol of the USA.

If you haven't been, we put on an event that's inexpensive but brings the same level of chef talent found at the high end events around town, and we have the biggest participation of any event in the city of mom and pop restaurants and stands serving a range of tacos from regional Mexican, to Alta Californian, to Modern Mexican (Uh, hello, last year, we brought Pangea's Guillermo Gonzalez, the first chef in Mexico to open a Modern Mexican kitchen and a Latin America's 50 best best recipient) to pocho (Mexican-American) cuisine.

And, in order to avoid taco fatigue, we've added some other stellar vendors serving a few taco-like foods, savory and sweet, to add variety, and to maintain our high standards.

Starting Tuesday, March 8th, go to the Tacolandia micro-site and use the promotional code: TACOWHISPERER (that's me) to buy your discounted ticket, but more importantly, to secure your place. In the 3 years Tacolandia has been held, every single ticket has sold out in advance of the event; last year we were sold out a month in advance!

Tacolandia 2016, Saturday June 11th, 3PM-7PM, Olvera Street, http://microapp.laweekly.com/tacolandia/2016/

Pre-sale runs from March 8th at 10AM to March 13th at 10PM

Promo-code: TACOWHISPERER

 

LA Weekly's Tacolandia 2015 Video Recap

                        

Close to 5000 people attended and 80 vendors served amazing tacos at the 2015 LA Weekly Tacolandia event, curated by myself, at the greatest taco show on the planet. It's hard to believe we're just 2 years out from our inaugural event, which featured just 25 vendors and 1500 people, rather intimate in comparison.


If you haven't been yet, Tacolandia 2016 is right around the corner, but do enjoy this video recap of the wonderful vendors and taco aficionados that make this such a special day in L.A.

See you in 2016.

Bill

Work for Tacos? Volunteer to Eat Tacos with Boobs 4 Food at LA Weekly's Sold Out Tacolandia, 6/6/15

Will Work for Tacos?

By now you've heard the news, that LA Weekly's Tacolandia 2015 is sold out, and did so 7 weeks ahead of the much anticipated event. Well, taco lovers, there's still a chance to enjoy tacos from 80 different vendors, from L.A., the O.C., San Diego and from 3 different states in Mexico as a volunteer with my dear friends at Boobs 4 Food. As a volunteer, you get full access to a place where all your taco dreams come true--yes, you can proudly share with your friends with certainty that "Will Work for Tacos" is actually a thing.


Go to the Boobs 4 Food Facebook page to sign up as a volunteer for Tacolandia 2015 on June 6th at Olvera St., but hurry because participation is on a first serve basis.

Boobs 4 Food founders, Katherine, Liberty and Jessica Chen.


About Boobs 4 Food (courtesy of their website)

Founded in July of 2009, Boobs4Food is a volunteer supported organization committed to bridging passion for food & the passion to feed the hungry. We organize monthly volunteer events, open to the public, at local hunger awareness organizations, agencies and hunger related special events (currently in San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and in NYC).

Recognizing that food is a necessity that unites us all, Boobs4Food strives to unite the food-loving community with those for whom the next meal is an uncertainty.

Since 2009, together with our volunteers, we have contributed over thousands of volunteer hours to hunger agencies & organizations including San Francisco Food Bank, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Glide Memorial, The Midnight Mission, Share Our Strength, Taste of The Nation, Second Harvest Food Bank, Project Open Hand, FoodForward, Project Angel Food, Food Runners, Hawaii Food Bank, Food Bank for NYC, Taste of the Nation NYC.

Boobs 4 Food volunteers happy to give back to their community

OG Boob, Christina Abellera, and another volunteer preparing meals at a Boobs 4 Food event

There's no job too big or too small for the women and men of Boobs 4 Food.


If you're not able to volunteer for Tacolandia 2015, Boobs 4 Food serves the communities of Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco year round, just go to boobs4food.com for more information about upcoming opportunities to make a difference, or visit their Facebook page.

Tacolandia Pre-Sale Starts Now Until March 8--Get Your Tickets Now!

I'm happy to announce L.A. Weekly's the 3rd Annual Tacolandia on June, 16, 2015 at El Pueblo de Los Angeles (Olvera Street), to you all,  and I even have a pre-sale code to share with you that you can use now until March 8th. This year we'll feature 80 of the best taco and street food vendors in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, and 3 states in Mexico: Baja California, Sonora and Nuevo Leon. 

This year, the Vendy's Cup will be at Tacolandia, and yes, lot's of great tequila, beer and more to enjoy with your tacos.

Go to this TicketFly link and use the code: TACOBILL to unlock the ticket types, yes, that's right, TACOBILL.  

We've sold out our previous 2 years a week before the event, so, I recommend striking while the plancha is hot. Can't wait to taco with you on June, 6th.

LA Weekly's Tacolandia 2014 on 6/28 at Placita Olvera Goes Back to the Future of Tacos in L.A.

On 6/28, at Placita Olvera, the second annual LA Weekly's Tacolandia will take place to celebrate L.A.'s greatest obsession--the taco--on an unintended journey back to the street where the taco first aroused our curiosities, and where Los Angeles history began. It was hard losing last year's venue, the Palladium--I mean, Tacolandia was such a hit last year--sold out two weeks in advance--went off without a hitch, and it was just a short walk home to my place in Hollywood. But it wasn't meant to be--so when Placita Olvera was presented one late night, I eagerly got to the fun job of curating this event--that means eating lots of delicious tacos, but it wasn't until I approached Cielito Lindo (sweet little heaven) to participate that I realized the fortune of doing this event at Olvera St.


Since 1934, Cielito Lindo has been spreading the gospel of the taco to Angeleno's with their world famous beef taquitos drowning in avocado sauce--it all started here, on this street with these crunchy tacos created by Zacatecana, Aurora Guerrero. Her family spread these tacos all over the city and if you read Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, by one of our judges, Gustavo Arellano, you can learn more about how Cielito Lindo brought us here to this current national taco craze that will not let up--ever. I wonder what she'd think of this Tacolandia, which has now grown to 44 super star vendors.

LA Weekly's Tacolandia, the Hangover Part I

With Dita Von Teese, Miss Los Angeles Latina, and friends of Dita at Tacolandia 2013


I'm still basking in the after-glow of Tacolandia, or maybe it's just the sunburn I got last Sunday, but the reviews have been coming in, and the consensus is that people really enjoyed this taco festival. Of course, all I had to do was look around at all the smiling faces, and eaves drop on all the happy taco chatter going on that day to know it was a success.

My friends at L.A. Taco, Hadley and Alex were certainly pleased with the selections and the vibe, and as Hadley stated in his recap, this was a triumph of the taco lifestyle--a lifestyle that we three lived before all of this and will continue when they kick us to the curb. These guys are fine-tuned barometers when it comes to a party--and it showed on their lazy smiles and slurred speech brought on by many a Bud-Light!

The taco hounds at Serious Eats tried just about everything we offered, as did some those fabulous chowhounders--people were on a mission that day!

The Golden Ticket: Tacolandia

Blood sausage taco at the Mercado Olympic on homemade blue corn tortillas


In just a few hours, select loncheras, mom and pops, taquerias, and chefs will take part in the first annual  LA Weekly's Tacolandia curated by myself. The event sold out surprisingly fast and we've been inundated with requests from all over the U.S. from people trying to get tickets. One woman from the East Coast had booked a flight to L.A. only to attend Tacolandia for her birthday, and was freaking out that there were no more tickets.


Luckily, she had an in through a sponsor--she is in the restaurant business--and today she'll be enjoying the many flavors of one of the United State's favorite foods--the taco.


It seems Tacolandia has become an overnight sensation--simply because people have been wanting a proper celebration of the taco for some time--who knew?


With a small crew, limited marketing--many blogs and stories about Tacolandia were written just because people were excited about this event--we created a taco frenzy. Television spots had to be cancelled because the event had sold out, but many have told us that people are buzzing about Tacolandia everywhere.


If you happened to get a ticket, I look forward to seeing you today--there will be so many special dishes made for this event--you're in for a real treat.

See you at Tacolandia! Thanks for your support for this event, and have fun today.

-Bill    

The First Annnual Tacolandia drops on 6/23 at the Hollywood Palladium. Come Join the LA Weekly and I for the Ultimate L.A. Taco Party

Well, let me say it has been a couple years of dedicated work behind the scenes to see this finally happen--I'm having my first big event on Sunday, June 23rd at the Hollywood Palladium called Tacolandia--with a little(not so little) help with my friends at the L.A. Weekly. A portion of the proceeds will go to Homeboy Industries, an organization that's been doing good in the hood, making L.A. tastier and safer.

It will feature over 30 vendors that have been hand picked by me, with the goal of putting together a unique event to celebrate one of the city's most beloved foods--the taco. You've been to events with fleets of "gourmet trucks"--I love them too--and you've been to fancy chef fests in which you paid a $100+ ticket where you've also had some great tacos, but on this day we will celebrate mom and pops, my personal relationship with Baja California, stands, traditional loncheros(catering trucks), and taquerias at what will be the tastiest and most approachable food event ever produced in L.A. Street food should be inexpensive in price and luxurious in flavor my friends.

Tacolandia is Los Angeles--we live in an urban sprawl covered in outlaw street stands and tables, old school taco trucks, taquerias, modern taco concepts; shiny,shrink wrapped gourmet trucks serving global tacos; chef driven taco carts, and hipster taco trailers. From the barrios of Boyle Heights to Huntington Park; from the after hours hits in Highland Park to Silver Lake; from the strings of dim white globes that are festooned above sizzling meats along the avenues and  boulevards of East L.A. to South Central; and from the West Side to the Oaxacan coffee scented block of Mateo St.--L.A. is a land of tacos.

There will be no two vendors alike--there will be friends from Baja (Chef Javier Plascencia, La Guerrerense, Tacos Kokopelli, and Mariscos El Mazateno will be there), and it's just a hop-skip-and-a-jump from the Hollywood/Vine metro station.

Tickets go on sale April 18 at 10am, and check the website for updates on confirmed vendors.        

Thanks for your support, and I hope to see old friends and make new ones at the first annual Tacolandia.

Tacolandia
Sunday, June 23rd
Hollywood Palladium
12pm-5pm       
$20 admission, for tacos only
$40 admission, for tacos, beer, and tequila!!
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