Salsa Festival

Last Saturday Andy and I went to Salsa Festival with our friends. Unlike Culinary Festival there was no beer garden, vodka tent or Bacardi tent; however, there was beer, margaritas and a ton of salsa to taste. It only cost $10 to enter and you got to walk around and taste test different salsas at many different stations. I am not sure how many were there, but it seemed like a lot. This festival also held the salsa competition. Each stand was in competition for the best salsa. When I heard about the festival I was pretty excited to go since I LOVE salsa and was looking forward to trying all kinds of different salsa. Fifteen minutes into the festival Andy ruined my excitement for the taste testing. Once we got in I just dove right in and started tasting. After my fifth booth I said to Andy “Don’t you want to try any salsa?” since I was into five booths and he wouldn’t even stop at one. His response “Do you know how many hands probably touched those tortilla chips and how many hands were in the salsa?” Ok, so typical Andy! I didn’t even think about it, but he was right. Some of the booths provided you with your cup of salsa and a couple chips already in the cup and other booths only gave you the cup and you then had to reach into the chip bowl to grab a tortilla chip. Some people were man-handling the chips as they reached in. I thought for a second and realized he was right about how many people probably reached into that bowl and you don’t know where their hands have been. Then he proceeded to tell me how he saw some guy walk out of the port-o-potty and walk right up to a booth and dive right into the chips. GROSS! SUPER GROSS! This completely ruined my excitement for the salsa tasting. I was pretty bummed that I couldn’t even eat one more chip.

After the salsa disappointment we headed over to the main stage to watch our favorite local band, The Chadwick’s. This is also where we were meeting a group of our friends. Within the next half an hour Andy and I found ourselves surrounded by strollers and lots of babies. Not a big deal, but we kind of felt a little left out of the party. I guess we needed to bring a stroller to fit in with our friends now. I guess that is what happens when you get older…you fit in with the latest stroller and not the latest designer jeans! That’s ok though because we enjoyed the company of our good friends and we didn’t feel left out enough to bring a stroller filled with a screaming baby anytime soon. We did, however, have to stay back from the main stage while we watched the band. This is different for me as I like to be right up front, but I had to think of all the little guys surrounding us as we don’t want them to go deaf.

I am not sure I would go back again next year due to the sanitary issues of the salsa, which was the main reason why I wanted to go. Andy wasn’t a big fan of the festival because it was a giant cluster of people that got on his nerves. That on top of no salsa tasting…Andy voted a big fat NO for next year. We will see what next year brings for this festival.