What’s happening for Tamale Fest 2024?

SAN ANGELO, Texas ( Concho Valley Homepage ) — Tamale Fest is returning to San Angelo for its third annual celebration, bringing fans of the iconic dish together for hours of festivities. From an expanded venue to the event’s first-ever free admission, here’s what you need to know.

What’s new?

Tamale Fest 2024 is scheduled to last from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Nov. 9 at the Pop Art Museum, located at 125 W. Twohig Ave. Unlike previous Tamale Fest celebrations, this year’s festival will be free for anyone to attend.

Also different from past events is the amount of space that will be available. Luis Urteaga, owner of UP Positive Promotions, the business that is behind the event, said that the section of the road directly in front of the festival’s venue will, with the City’s approval, be blocked off to provide extra room for activities.

“The demand outgrew our space,” Urteaga said. “Last year seemed to be a little bit more full, so this year, with the blessing of the City, we’re closing off the street right in front of it.”

This space will be used to house a stage for musicians to perform live music for attendees. The stage will be managed by local disc jockey DJ Mirage, and live performances scheduled thus far include music by Grupo Ánimo and Lake View High School’s Mariachi Los Caciques.

Renowned artists will also make an appearance on the stage — sort of. Making an appearance on the stage for the first time will be “big head impersonators,” local performers who don large fiberglass heads depicting caricatures of famous artists.

“They’re these fiberglass heads that look cartoonish, and they’re three famous artists that are going to be impersonated on stage and later will be available to take pictures with the public,” Urteaga said.

Vendors, new and old, will also be present at the festival. Urteaga stated that there are 30 vendors signed on to be at the event as of the time of publication, with more expected in the weeks leading up to the event.

“There’s going to be a good mix, from makeup to women’s clothing to journals to gifts, food, crafts, so forth and so on,” Urteaga said.

Tamales, tamales and more tamales

The event couldn’t be called Tamale Fest with tamales, though, and Urteaga stated that he received complaints last year that vendors ran out of tamales despite selling approximately 19,200 of them. To meet the demand, he and the tamale vendors are already making plans.

“As of right now, we have four tamale vendors that are committing to take at least 300 dozen, but they’re going to take a lot more, so hopefully, we can have a good supply for the demand that we’ve had in previous years,” Urteaga said.

There’s more to the tamales than just selling them, however. Also scheduled to return for Tamale Fest 2024 are a tamale judging contest and a tamale eating contest.

The tamale judging contest pits chefs against one another in a battle to bring the best tamale to the table. The contest features two categories: best traditional tamale, which asks for the best pork or chicken tamales, and best original tamale, which allows cooks to make tamales using any recipe they’d like, no matter how outlandish.

“Category two is best original tamale, and that’s where they can go all out,” Urteaga said. “They could do a jalapeno popper one, they could do a candy tamale. There’s strawberries and cream, one year we had one of those!”

Both categories will be judged by a panel of tamale connoisseurs from across the Concho Valley, with judges being left in the dark as to who made which tamale. The public can also weigh in on the best tamale, awarding the chef with the most votes a people’s choice award.

The tamale eating contest locks ten competitors in a race to see who can eat a dozen tamales the fastest. Admission into the contest costs $20, and the winner will take home all of the admission money and a 6-pound, wrestling-inspired championship belt.

“We’ve had a lot of good experiences on the two occasions before, and we are going to invite the previous two champs to sign up,” Urteaga said.

Why host a festival?

Urteaga stated that Tamale Fest was first held to promote small businesses and show them the value of marketing themselves.

“The origin of this event was to promote small businesses and showcase skills when it comes to marketing and being able to pull people in,” Urteaga said. “It started off by showing all these independent businesses that, if you do things correctly, you can get a big call to action from the public.”

The event has grown since, attracting more people and businesses to the festival. Despite its growth, the original intent has remained the same, with proceeds being used to help businesses and groups in San Angelo.

“Our intention was to give back and pour into, so a lot of the money that comes in, we’re investing it in a local group and our local mariachi band and promoting local businesses,” Urteaga said.

To learn more about the third annual Tamale Fest, including how to sign up to become a VIP, vendor or sponsor, visit the event’s Facebook entry or its website .

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