Indio Tamale Festival — Attraction in Indio

We've been going to the festival for over 20 years. It started in downtown Indio, moved to the park location, back to downtown, and finally back to the park. They struggled with the footprint (layout) of the games, stages, kiddy rides,vendors, and such. But this time, I believe they hit a home run. It was very well spaced and organized. The field is level, and we didn't trip in any holes. Which means mobility scooters can navigate on it. They added camel rides, and they had a horse show. A few suggestions for the organizers. Bring back the multiple stages of music and shows. Reinstall the previous hand washing stations outside the restrooms. The sanitizer makes your hands sticky, and it's impossible to enjoy the food like that. Almost forgot to mention that there was a big-time celebrity there. Overall, we give it 2 ThumsUp 👍🏻👍🏻 (I know the...

This was my first time. It's a lot of fun. Music every where. Tamales of every kind. There were lots of vendors with alot of food choices. But we went for the tamales. I believe it opened at 10. We got there at noon. Already long lines, but not to long of a wait. I would say about 50 food vendors. We ordered from the Oxnard tamales. Very, very good. I had one beef and one pineapple. Excellent. We parked at the Indio civic center and took the shuttle to the main event, probably less than a mile. Shuttles came every 5 min or so. Very...

I used to love this annual event, but 2021 was horrible if you were interested in actually having a tamale. Instead of the stands being spread out on the streets, they were all together in one food court with long lines snaking around each other, during a period of Covid outbreak. I sincerely hope they go back to the previous format. Also there was nice music available but no chairs set up, it was bring your own, not convenient to carry if you're trying to walk around eating something, and this year it was mostly non tamale food trucks along the...