Taco Controversy: DECC Responds To Comments About Upcoming Event

Earlier this year, the events team at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center announced a taco event called "Duluth Taco Festival", scheduled for the 4th of July weekend, specifically on Saturday, July 6.

The event is designed to offer an outdoor taco sampling event with 20 different varieties of tacos to sample, along with margaritas and live music. Adult admission ($30) includes 6 tacos as part of the ticket, kids admission (10 and under, $15) includes 3 tacos, and a VIP ticket allows for unlimited tacos and other VIP benefits.

Some community members were disappointed to find out that this taco event will not feature any tacos from the Twin Ports area's wealth of local Mexican restaurants. Rather, all of the 20 different types of tacos will be creations of the DECC's culinary team.

A Facebook post being shared around the community by a woman named Aubrey encapsulated this disappointment some community members felt, explaining that she was initially excited to hear about this taco event when it was announced, but was "surprised and disappointed" when finding out that none of the area's local authentic Mexican restaurants and food trucks, including a number of local Latino family-owned establishments, would be involved in any way with this event.

Aubrey concluded the post by encouraging Northladers to check out any of the local Mexican restaurants, listing them by name, and asking people to share the post and spread the word.

The team at the DECC has caught wind of this post, offering a response just days before the event gets underway.

In a social media post published Wednesday afternoon, a member of the DECC's team wrote a lengthy response, acknowledging the post and explaining their decision to operate the event without involving any area restaurants or food trucks.

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They open by expressing appreciation for the passion for the local businesses Aubrey mentioned in her post, saying "We're passionate, too!". The DECC's post then goes on to explain the economic impact the DECC has for the community and the region and acknowledges that some of their tacos at this weekend's event will not be authentic.

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They explain that with tacos on the menu like TatorTot Tacos and Korean Tacos, "we're aware that these are 100% NOT authentic".

The explanation offered for using the DECC's food staff and not bringing in local restaurants and food trucks comes down to money.

The DECC says " For this event to break even, we needed to use our executive chef and local kitchen staff". They go on to say that involving local food trucks and restaurants would add "dramatically increased our costs" and that " the event would most likely have lost money" had they brought in external parties.

In addition, the DECC says that using their food staff "helps our kitchen team get hours in the slower convention months when they need it most".

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They then conclude the post by saying "We sincerely do not want to hurt any of them by selling tacos for a few hours." They proceed to say "Our hope is that visitors coming to our event find these and other great businesses during their stay."

Here's the entirety of the post:

This is the second time in a matter of weeks DECC officials have offered a social media response to community criticism about an event being hosted at the facility. In mid-June, the DECC offered a response to outrage from some community members over a comedy show coming to the venue later this year.

Unlike the taco event, which is a DECC production, this comedy show is being put on by a third party. Even though they are just hosting the event, they did offer a response to frustrated community members about the show, which involves a controversial figure.