Upon entering from W 5th, there was a photo op area to take pictures with Santa. The food stalls and trucks were also in the same section. In the grass area there were many vendors selling various items. There was also a stage for musical performances. There were a few food stalls that sold tamales exclusively but most seemed to have a variety of offerings on their menu. Several vendors listed the price of $6 per tamale, which is pretty steep. I only recognized The Original Tamale Co. as I've had their tamales before at the farmers market. Their tamales are big and yummy. There was also a stand that sold sweet tamales with different fruit fillings. As I arrived later in the afternoon the lines for food was short and it seemed a few of the vendors were already sold out because their booths looked zipped up. Most festival goers were relaxing on the grass enjoying the musical performances. Although coming later you can avoid the crowd and easier parking but it didn't seem like I got to enjoy the festival to the fullest so I plan to attend much earlier next year. read more

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What does a gal do when she wants to go to a festival and has no one to go with? She goes by herself and has a great time!!!! I walked around and visited the different vendors. I also really enjoyed the live music. I stopped at The Canyon truck as last year I really liked the tamales tatemados! I got a red pork tamale. The gentleman even remembered my name ... like what!!!! That was over a year ago!! I got an agua de sandía for 10 bucks at another stand. Wow .. pricey . Festival foods are pricey though! The line for gourmet tamales was long but they're not from Oxnard or even Ventura County. Back in the day it was more local vendors. I wish it was more of that. I'd love to see more local Oxnard, Port Hueneme ... etc vendors. Maybe even a home cook competition! read more

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Super fun A great way to start December Downtown Oxnard Several food trucks A few Tamale stands My favorite Tamale stand was Me Gusta by far they had the best red & Verde pork, chili & cheese was my number 1 favorite tamale! read more

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This was my first time attending Oxnard's Tamale Festival and I had a great time :) My dad and I bought a bacon wrapped hot dog with grilled onions on top for $5 (forgot which tent), a banh mi tamale with cha cha sauce (sriracha + sour cream) for $3 from the O Street gourmet truck and a chocolate tamale for $2 from Sugar Beets. Of course, the bacon wrapped hot dog was delicious but wish they added more grilled onions to it. The banh mi tamale was my favorite because of the spicy yet smooth cha cha sauce (think I wanna make that sauce at home mmm). The chocolate tamale was good but kinda reminded me of a brownie lol The festival seemed successful since some tents had long lines but we'll see how next year goes :) read more

Got here around 2p and was surprised to find that the festival itself wasnt that big. We went to the salsa festival this year that was held at the same location and it felt much bigger. Either way.. Tamales.. Yum! The first tamale we grabbed was meh but we were starving so we scarfed it down. We got an horchata drink from the neighboring tent.. It was pretty gross, no rice milk and had cantaloupe chunks.. There were a few vendors out there too..not a crazy amount We went back for round 2. We wanted to try the award winning chipotle bbq tamales from the me gusta tent, they won best tamale again this year. They were sold out when we got there. My brother got the sweet corn tamale and with that realized sweet tamales just aren't our thing. We also got some empanadas from the Buena high school tent, they were so good! The best food we tried at the festival in fact. The empanadas were perfectly fried and so flavorful. The star of the dish... They're chimichuri sauce! OMG soooooo good! Fried cilantro, garlicky goodness!!! I would have walked away with a bucket if I could. Lastly, we got a bean and cheese pupusa. The filling was really good but the batter had a weird after taste. The cabbage and tomato sauce was a nice fresh change from all the fried food we had. All in all we had fun eating, walking around and listening to the live music.. Spent $10 and got stuffed! Only thing is I wish they had more selection as far as the tamale vendors go. Cheers! read more

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I give this 5 stars because there was a good varety of tamales, fun vendors, other delicious food, great live music, FREE admission, and good central location. When I go to a festival such as this, I expect to see some flavor combinations I have not been exposed to, and this did not disappoint. The most out-of-the-box tamale I tried was the pumpkin tamale. It was yummy--a great mash up of some of my favorite things: pumpkin and tamales. I know there were some other cool ones (I read about a chocolate one from a previous year?!!) I didn't get to try because I filled up on regular chicken/pork-filled tamales so quickly, but I regret nothing. Next year I will buy the traditional tamales to-go and allow myself to explore some of the fun creations the chefs brought out for this event. The tamales are all so affordable, so why not load up? If I am in SoCal during this festival I will make sure to attend it again. read more

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I'm at the tamale festival every year and I must say it never gets old! The best time to get your tamales is right before the Christmas parade is over and the crowd starts rushing to all the food. The tamales range from $2- $3 and some of my favorite tamales are the oyster tamale, the strawberry cheesecake tamale, pumpkin tamale, banana bread tamale and the pork & beef. I haven't found a chicken one i really love yet but I'll be on the hunt for it next year. The entertainment is pretty cool and they have a lot of vendors out selling pretty much everything imaginable. The festivals is free of charge and make sure to bring an umbrella because the last 2 years it rained. OOOO 4 out of 5 Afros read more

2013 Oxnard Christmas Parade & Tamale Festival... the day of the event and the only thing on my mind during the early morning downpour was, "Rain, rain, GO AWAY!" There is some truth when Tony! Toni! Toné! once crooned "It never rains in Southern California." Oh yeah! Put yo' hand up & sing it wit' me a lil louder, "It never rains in Southern Ca-li-for-nia!" Sure, we need it, BUT, NOT WHEN THERE IS A PARADE to participate in!!! However, Cub Scouts will not succumb to the challenges placed before us! We are raising men with integrity and WE RISE to the occasion! As our Cub Scout troop waited for the cue to start our parade stroll, armed with see-thru ponchos and umbrellas, everyone's prayers were answered! Rays of sun broke through and brightened our path through the streets of downtown Oxnard. Ahhh! Lots of people to wave at and wish Merry Christmas & Feliz Navidad to, in a bath of warm sunlight. It was a smart move to pair the annual Christmas Parade with The Tamale Festival. We're all gathered here with holiday spirit. Why not keep the fun going?!? All around the Oxnard Pagoda in Plaza Park, there was quite a gathering of friendly local vendors happily serving a variety of foods! All sorts of tamales to enjoy... traditional ones like pork, chicken, beef, and cheese. Also, some imaginative tamale varieties were created, such as strawberry, pineapple, piña colada, banana bread pudding, pumpkin cheesecake, and chicken tandoori were the ones I saw. It's a Tamale Festival, I enjoyed ALL of them! Not into tamales? Well, there was Filipino food, Vietnamese cuisine, American fare, seafood from The Jolly Oyster Kitchen Truck and Sabor Seafood, sweets, yogurt, shave ice, and vegan options like roasted corn lathered Mexican style, yum! Fresh huge funnel cake was delicious! Bunch of kiddie things as well, with the most unique thing a "Bubble Lagoon" - a wide swimming pool filled knee deep with water. Kids could get inside large air filled balls and float, roll and tumble away. Smiles and laughter all around. The Tamale Festival still appears to be in its growth years, nowhere near the beast the Oxnard Strawberry Festival has become. But certainly, a way to have an enjoyable family outing to start the holiday season in Oxnard. Merry Christmas! read more

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Wow, I was seriously disappointed. Parking is horrible as you can imagine festival parking would be but that wasn't the reason why I rated the festival so low. This is the oxnard "TAMALE" festival" What really wasn't on the main theme of this shindig? Tamales.. This event was more like a swap meet with food vendors. I was expecting to see tamale vendors as far as the eye could see but what I found were a few places selling tamales and other items as well. I did however find a tamale "gourmet" vendor with trophies that I should have taken pictures of at the end of a row. I thought it would be my best bet to try their tamales since they were boasting all the awards. I am sorry to say that those tamales which were 45.00 a dozen.. YES 45.00 and I got two .. did not taste any better than the local spots here in Los Angeles. Now I must put this in here as well as I got 2 dozen FROZEN tamales BUT.. also got 2 warmed up tamales to try as soon as I sat down. In fact, I would have to say the tamale shop on whittier blvd in Los angeles had better tasting tamales and at a fraction of the price. I got a few other items from the festival like baked stuff from Anns Bakery which was good but did not warrant me travelling a few hours to come and get them. The only place that I could say was THE BEST was a vendor towards the stage selling Pupusas. OMG.. 5 star pupusas ! They filled that thing to capacity and it was soft with a slight crisp like taking a bite out of a fresh piece of bread! I am still thinking about that place and how I should have just ordered from their to begin with. In essence if you decide to come here there are a few things that you NEED to know. 1. Although it says it starts at 9am, the professional vendors are ready to go and wanna sell , sell, sell.. but can't. YEA... they can't because they have to wait for the city to come around and ok them first. HINT.. CITY !! get there earlier so people can get started ! 2. Parking sucks so if the venue says it starts at 9.. get there at least by 830 so you can have parking. There is a starbucks located behind all the festivities so it's not like you will just be waiting in the park like the homeless people that were there. 3. If you plan to dine in, you should go with at least 3 people.. 2 as food runners and 1 to go and grab a table in the park as they tend to fill up pretty fast. Pass by the food vendors to get an idea of what you want then plant your runners in line so the minute they open BAM! youre in ! 4. Last tip, if you don't make it in time and the lines are as far as the eye can see. Don't worry ! As soon as everyone got their fill of food the lines died fast by 10-1030am Sorry Oxnard, until you have Vendors lined up so that it looks like the renaissance fair food court I won't be back. Great parade, cool kids in cheerleading, football, and martial arts etc.. but I came for the tamales. read more

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Plaza Park in Oxnard is just roaring to be used as public space! You know Ventura County just has so many festivals that they are hard to keep track of. OK so I got an invitation to go to the Tamale Festival via facebook, I thought to myself, eh maybe. But the more I went to that invitation the more excited I got. OK so Saturday December 4 is here and it's festival and parade time. So the festival is mixed in with the Christmas Parade, they kind of happen at the same time. I went to the Christmas parade more than a decade ago (gosh I'm old) and I hadn't gone since. The parade is cool, very community oriented. Ok so this review is about the Tamale Festival not the Parade. The Tamale festival I think was great. Now lets keep in mind that it's only 3 years old (young lad), therefore the fan-fare is not as big as other festivals. This festival is ultra local. Ultra local because most people that were there are residents of West Ventura County (Ventura, Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Camarillo). Most booths for the most part were from local restaurants i.e Sugar Beets, Sabor, Vallarta among others. There was only about 10 tamale vendors, so the size of the tamale fever can improve (hopefully it does). I had a couple of Tamales, but my two favorite ones were 1. Sabor's tamal de raja de chile. The masa was moist, it was decent size, soft, cheese was amazing, and chile was to die for delicious, yummm... now I only ate one because I am Mexican, and after Christmas we have bags and bags of Tamales in our freezer that we get tired of eating... so I did not want to eat that many. Sugar Beets Chocolate Tamal was another of my favorite. It was just so unique, I've never heard of a chocolate tamal, let me tell you about the flavor now, the chocolate taste was just right, no strong chocolate after taste, just a really good soft chocolaty taste. Amazing, Creative, unique, eclectic, special, very for the occasion. What I hoped to see: They should have like a tent or something dedicated to tamale tasting. This concept comes from the salsa festival. You know a tent, they give you (lets say) 15 tickets (which you purchase) and booths give you samples of tamales, just to taste, and judge which one was the best. Or have local competitions, where anybody can enter, families, to see who bakes the best tamale. I mean this dish is a popular one in the city, I am sure at least a quarter of the people cook it at some time. Entertainment: Just to point out that there was also dancing and live music to pass the time and digest those tamales, and sitting in the grass. Oh and Miles form AGT, Oh and a Parade with over 90 local floats. Tips If you go, car-pool, remember there is a lot going on that day in downtown, so streets are closed and people are coming from all over the city, be aware, if you can: bike, walk, bus, or car-pool, I recommend you do so. It's a (you know what) driving there! Looking forward for next year, to see how it grows! read more

I give it four stars for being a pretty good sized festival with free admission! Parking actually isn't too bad. I parked in a public lot. I went at 1:30pm so maybe it was an off time. There was a good crowd when I got there. There's a few crafters, TAMALES obviously for sale, "rides" for kids, and some big companies like Verizon and united air(?) passing out swag. I had some not so good tamales the first round but the ones I took home were better. They had the winners trophy for best tamale of the festival so that might have explained that. Tamales ranged from $2-$2.50 depending on the vendor. This year was so windy some vendors left at 2 when I was leaving. Tents were about ready to blow away but a lot of vendors stuck it out. read more

By far, this was the grestest event I've been to in a long time. I decided to skip the Wine Tour in Ventura to go to the Oxnard Tamale Festival. After eating tamales from Me Gusta and Nancy's Bakery, I have to say I have no regrets. There was a family-friendly environment, great music, great vibe, and great selection of vendors to choose from. Not only is this event your one stop shop for tamales, but it also hosted a wide variety of vendors selling items from scarves to bird houses. I can't wait until next year. I'll be bringing my family, friends, and neighbors. The City of Oxnard truely shines during the holiday season. read more

I'm so proud of my city for organizing this FREE event! The Tamale Festival was fantastic! While it was pretty crazy to find parking it didn't deter me from having a great time. I was really happy to see so many families milling around enjoying the parade. The lines weren't too long for ordering tamales and the vendors had fun stuff to see. My only regret is that I couldn't stuff more tamales into my happy little tummy. read more

The Tamale Festival was a great added feature to the Oxnard Christmas Parade! The tamales were so tasty and the bands to dance to kept us warm. I didn't want to eat too many as I am going to make my own and didn't want tamale burn out. The line up of entertainment and the tamale vendors were perfect for the location. The beer was nice and cold, but would not mind having a glass of Pinot Noir or Merlot to go with my tamales. Thank you to the City of Oxnard for providing us yet another great and FREE event to attend. Hope to see you all next year! read more