Tamale festivals planned for Indio and Long Beach this December

The holiday season equals tamale season for two cities celebrating the traditional dish with a pair of festivals.

After being canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the 29th edition of the Indio International Tamale Festival returns to downtown Indio Dec. 4-5 with a hefty lineup of more than 60 tamale vendors, but also a new focus on a robust musical lineup that includes nearly 30 bands throughout the weekend. The event is expected to attract thousands of people to the desert city.

“Tamales are incredible, but I think tamales are also a vessel to community and culture, so we’re thinking about the experience as a whole,” said Gopi Sangha, the festival’s new producer.

“This year we are redoing all of the experiences,” he said.

On the music side, the festival will include two stages and will be headlined by cumbia royalty La Sonora Dinamita along with Long Beach rock band Tijuana Panthers. The lineup also includes Morrissey and The Smiths tribute band Sweet & Tender Hooligans as well as local stars such as Giselle Woo & The Night Owls and Israel’s Arcade.

Besides the tamale vendors, who are expected to prepare up to 100,000 tamales per day, the festival will also feature tamale eating and cooking competitions as well as carnival rides. New this year, adults and kids can hop around in what’s being dubbed as the “World’s Biggest Bounce House.” The bounce house is an approximately 13,000-square-foot, 32-foot-tall structure that’s decked out with climbing towers, basketball hoops, slides, ball pits and confetti cannons.

Also expect to see Mexican wrestling with luchadores fighting it out in six daily matches as well as a 3,600-square-foot roller rink with skates available for rental.

That same weekend, Long Beach will host a smaller but just as delicious event. The Long Beach International Tamales Festival will make its debut Dec. 5 and is expected to draw about 2,000 people to the Long Beach Scottish Rite.

“There’s just going to be all kinds of tamales from all kinds of regions,” said Sal Flores-Trimble, founder of Long Beach Living, an organization that promotes and organizes events in the city. Long Beach Living is organizing the festival along with Roxanne’s Bar & Grill.

The Long Beach festival will include about 30 food vendors with a focus on highlighting different regional tamales from places like El Salvador, Peru, Mexico and the Philippines. There will also be vegan and seafood tamales as well as a homemade tamale competition.

Musical acts for the festival will include Mariachi Relampago, folklórico ensemble Relámpago del Cielo, salsa and Colombian cumbia by La Mera Candelaria as well as DJs.

If you go

Indio International Tamale Festival: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Dec. 4 and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Dec. 5, 100 Civic Center Mall, Indio. Free. indiotamalefestival.com.

Long Beach International Tamales Festival: Noon-8 p.m. Dec. 5, Scottish Rite, 855 Elm Ave., Long Beach. $20 for admission, increasing to $25 starting Nov. 15. Admission includes onee tamale. lbhomeliving.com/lbtamalesfest.