Indio International Tamale Festival - 2009

We went to the Indio International Tamale Festival today with friends. The festival takes place in Old Town Indio and covers over six blocks of vendor booths. This was our fourth year we attended the festival.

It was the coldest day we have had this fall. It was a whopping 55 degrees F at noon while waiting in the tamale lines. There were thousands of people at the festival and we had to squeeze ourselves through the crowd. We saw all types of tamales starting from traditional to gourmet. The festival also had entertainment and activities including rides, carnival, and a tamale competition.

My husband waited in a two and a half hour line to get Grandma Lupe's Authentic Tamales. We were told it was the best. We bought two dozen frozen pork tamales to bring home and had four hot tamales for our lunch. We all agreed that Grandma Lupe's were the best tamales we ever had!

Watch the above video highlighting our visit at the Tamale Festival.

Tamale Festival 2008 - Indio, CA

We went to the Tamale Festival on a cloudy Sunday afternoon. Parking was a real challenged. We had to park five blocks from the festival, but it was worth it.

At the Tamale Festival, crowds were buying tamales and sampling from one booth to another. In addition there was a few art and crafts booths, a Juggler, a man on stilts, Latin music, and an amusement center with lots of fun rides for kids.

After sampling a variety of tamales, we ended up buying a dozen frozen tamales to take home. We brought along a bag that was well insulated to keep the tamales cold. It turned out by parking far away from the festival was a good thing. A heavy bag full of tamales and a long walk to the parking lot was our exercise for the day!

Click on above image to view a short video clip at the Tamale Festival. To watch video in high definition click here.