The promise of “bottomless tacos” and “unlimited sample pours” of beer attracted hundreds to a weekend food festival at The Midway. But instead of going home with full stomachs, attendees were hangry and disappointed that the West Coast Taco & Beer festival was a bust.
Aaron Wolfson, 51, of Pleasant Hill, said he expected the $60 tickets he bought for his family to cover unlimited tacos from dozens of vendors. Instead, there were just four merchants selling tacos. Meanwhile, the craft beer samples were limited to “little, tiny pours,” he said.
“There wasn’t one happy person there. Everyone felt scammed,” he told The Standard by phone. “I felt embarrassed to bring my wife, our daughter and her boyfriend to this place.”
Julio Buendia came searching for delicious tacos and cold beer but found vendors shutting down, a single overworked bar tap and milling, unsatisfied crowds Saturday at the popular Dogpatch venue.
He said he arrived around 2:10 p.m., 10 minutes after the event opened, and waited an hour in a line that wrapped three-quarters of the way around the block. At one point, he peered into a window in hopes of spotting mouth-watering excitement, only to find shortly after he got inside that most food vendors were packing up to leave.
“I spent maybe five minutes inside before my friend and I decided to leave,” said Buendia, 30. “It was definitely not what was advertised.” He plans to try to recover the ticket costs through his credit-card company.
When Buendia bought a ticket to the festival in early July, his stub told him to expect “taco & beer/cider/seltzer tastings,” a “custom festival stadium cup to keep,” “access to 30+ food/drink vendors” and “live music + DJs.”
The festival apparently drew several hundred people to The Midway for what an initial flier had promised would be “bottomless taco samples from top chefs and restaurants,” “60+ craft beers, cider and seltzers — unlimited sample pours” and “DJs and vintage/boutique vendors.”
On Monday, promoter Blue Stream Entertainment’s site still promised attendees “bottomless” food and drink samples. Blue Stream Entertainment CEO Brandon Mozley did not respond to a phone call and message Monday for comment.
Buendia said he bought tickets for himself and three friends at $40 each but later learned that fees added $20 to each. Upon arrival, he found a lone ticket-taker checking IDs, the bar selling drinks and few food options, with long lines.
As he checked the event Instagram account while waiting in line, Buendia noticed warnings from commenters: “They were saying, hey, it’s not worth it, there’s no unlimited pours like advertised; everything inside, you pay for it. Then we also noticed that the page owner was deleting those comments.”
His account matched those of other Reddit posters documenting food providers who insisted on charging for tasting items, alongside quarter-cup samples of beverages that barely wet attendees’ whistles.
“It’s a scam and I got suckered. I feel stupid as hell not looking at the reviews,” said one Reddit poster. “No food samples and crazy long lines.”
On a Yelp page for the event, commenters vented their displeasure over the disparity between what was promised and delivered.
“Once you enter, there are only 4 vendors selling tacos for fees ranging from $5-$12. Only 1 gave a free sample, the others had signs expressly stating no free food!” Berkeley resident Mikel H. said Saturday on Yelp. “There are 3 beer counters where they give you a 3 oz. pour of beers that you can buy at your local grocer. That’s it. Almost $200 for the privilege of buying overpriced tacos that should be $2-3/each and a quarter of a can oc mostly foam. Event is a ripoff and false advertising. Don’t buy!!!”
The Standard reached Jose Perez by phone, owner and operator of Bakersfield’s Tacos Chewi. He said he encountered many complaints from people Saturday at the event.
“A lot of people were leaving,” Perez said. “Everybody was saying ‘this is a bullshit event,’ ‘I don’t like paying a hundred dollars.’”
Perez said he made $1,500 at the event but ultimately lost money traveling five hours both ways, bringing a booth and two employees to the event, and paying $500 for a propane tank.
“A lot of food I had to bring back,” he added. “I had to trash it because I didn’t use it; it was out for too many hours.”
Perez said he had fonder memories of prior events in Long Beach and Ventura, where he said attendees received unlimited food items for a flat fee without issue. But he said that he believed that San Francisco event attendees were expected to pay, as he understood it.
Brandon Ward, a talent buyer who handles The Midway’s music bookings, called Saturday’s festival “an outside event” and said Blue Stream Entertainment “rented the venue and actually hosted ticketing on their own platform,” a practice he said is unusual.
“We had our production set up correctly for them,” Ward told The Standard on Monday. “We didn’t realize that they were promising something and not delivering it until the show had started. It was not an ideal situation for the venue and not something that we’re thrilled to be involved with, to be honest.”
A drop-off in regional corporate events has led many venues to explore working with promoters on “unique, different events like this,” Ward said.
Blue Stream Entertainment is still scheduled for an Aug. 31 event at History San Jose; its fliers offer “bottomless” tacos and beer.
This article was originally published by a sfstandard.com . Read the Original article here. .