On Sunday, October 2, Hop Farm Brewing and Popsburgh are giving the people of Pittsburgh what they really want: lots and lots of tacos.
They’ve announced plans for the very first Pittsburgh Taco Festival, with plenty of vendors selling tacos and taco-themed items (think hot sauce), plus Hop Farm beers and Mexican-style paleta frozen fruit pops from Popsburgh to round out the event.
The idea for Pittsburgh Taco Festival originated from Popsburgh’s Craig McCloud, who came up with the concept while chatting with a taco truck vendor at a food truck roundup.
“I had been thinking about starting a food festival, and all of a sudden, this taco festival idea just came to me,” McCloud says. “I was just blown away that no one else had ever done it in Pittsburgh.”
The festival will take place at Hop Farm Brewery in Lawrenceville, and will be broken into two different three-hour sessions, one at noon, and one at 4:00 p.m. Tickets to each session are $10 a piece, and tacos, beer and paletas will be available for purchase in the festival.
The final list of taco vendors hasn’t been announced yet, but McCloud says that he has 12 taquerias committed, and is expecting at least 15 taco vendors to participate.
Participating vendors will include Round Corner Cantina, La Palapa, Mission Mahi, PGH Taco Truck, Bea Taco Town, Edgar’s Best Tacos, Grand Theft Taco and La Sabrosa.
“We’ll have a lot of Pittsburgh vendors, but also people from outside of Pittsburgh, and into West Virginia, too,” McCloud says.
A portion of the event’s proceeds will go to benefit Allegheny Clean Ways, a nonprofit organization that works to empower people to eliminate illegal dumping and littering in Allegheny County.
“I’m a member of their board of directors,” McCloud says, “So it was a no-brainer to try to help them out as much as I can.”
Space is limited to 2,000 attendees per session. Tickets are available online, and more than a quarter of available tickets have been sold since ticket sales launched earlier this week.
Hop Farm Brewing (5601 Butler Street)
This was a good event. Is it happening next year as well?