Maricopa Salsa Festival - 4/24/10

[Maricopa360]

It's Time - the 6th Annual Salsa Festival is Here!

We hope to see everyone this Saturday at Pacana Park for the 6th Annual Salsa Festival. From 5-9 p.m., the park will be filled with music, activities, information booths and gallons and gallons of salsa! This is a free event and everyone is welcome.

Here is a timeline for the event:

5:00 p.m. - Salsa Contest Begins
5:30 and 7:30 - Salsa Dance Demonstrations
6:00 - Live music from Tone Cast
8:00 - Live music from Havana Soul
8:30 - Salsa Contest Ends
9:00 - Salsa Winners Announced

There will be many children's activities including bounce houses, an inflatable obstacle course, rock wall, slides, arts and crafts, dance performances, karate demonstrations, gymnastic routines, children's games and a water zone. In addition, there will be food vendors on hand, a Buy Maricopa Zone and many organizations with information booths. Several of the City's departments will be on hand to provide information about programs and services.

Park & Ride Shuttle Service:

There will be no on-site event parking. Complimentary shuttle service will run from 4:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. with continuous and direct shuttles to/from the park.

Pima Butte Elementary School, 42202 W Rancho El Dorado Parkway
Santa Rosa Elementary School, 21400 N Santa Rosa Ave
Maricopa Elementary School, 18150 N Alterra Pkwy
Santa Cruz Elementary School, 19845 N Costa del Sol
Maricopa Wells Middle School, 45735 W Honeycutt Ave
Butterfield Elementary School, 43800 W Honeycutt Ave
Ace Hardware (ADA Access), 21542 N John Wayne Parkway

More than 10,000 attendees will enjoy family fun and entertainment while sampling and voting on tasty salsa entries that will be competing for cash prizes, like $1,000 for Best Overall Salsa. Bring your appetite, so you can sample the entries for Best Mild Salsa, Best Hot Salsa and Most Unusual Salsa.

We can't wait to see you. Visit maricopasalsafestival.com for additional information!

[mallardisme]

Maricopa Fire is also hosting a water safety area.

This will include, among many other things:
Child ID kits
Air Evac Services, PHIL Ambulance
Southwest Ambulance, Drowning Awareness Ambulance
CPR Station, upon completion will be able to participate in Dunk Tank


PR has been pretty light on this event this year, so we shall see how it goes. This has been one of the best events of the year out here.

Come out and meet your neighbors.

[Tempting Fait]

Have fun, Pacana isn't really handy-cap accessible.

[Snooze]

They need to do something about the shuttle service.. waited 45 minutes for the shuttle for Pima Butte and there were lots of us waiting.. Everything else was picked up numerous times even Santa Rosa picked up 3 times while we waited for the 2nd shuttle since we didn't make the first..

[Ice]

We went to Ace, there was a line. Went to Butterfield, there was a line. Decided to park about 500' from the park and got right in and got right out. We just found it easier to park there this year.

[mallardisme]

They need to do something about the shuttle service.. waited 45 minutes for the shuttle for Pima Butte and there were lots of us waiting.. Everything else was picked up numerous times even Santa Rosa picked up 3 times while we waited for the 2nd shuttle since we didn't make the first..

Totally agree. We had several issues with shuttles to and from....

[theotheramy]

I never bother with the shuttles... I parked right across the street and walked right in and got right out.

[KendoPt4]

In the shuttle on the way back everyone had those glow swords and glasses and it was giving me acid flashbacks.  Other than that, good times.

Major props for not charging admission for the bounce-arounds.

[mallardisme]

Well... Mallard is in the doghouse. I mean for real.
The event was a little shorter than it has been in the past, and Starla was beyond pissed at how much time I spent shooting, instead of spending time with her.

I never even had a chance to taste any of the salsa. LOL

It looks like I will need to weigh out actual money (very little) and family time.

Starla, I do apologize.

[asugrl]

Yeah I had never used the shuttle before. We waited like 45 minutes at Pima Butte for it to pick us up, and then maybe 30 minutes to take us back. Next time we'll probably just try to park, lol. I also didn't notice any signs for where the chips were, so that took us a while to figure out. I feel like it was difficult to find what we wanted much of the night, such as a simple drink, until we got to what used to be their dirt parking lot. Otherwise, great free event as usual.

[the.pixie.stick.chick]

we always use the shuttle from Ace.
we arrived at Ace at 530 yesterday and the line was frighteningly long.
so we went to butterfield. that line wasn't much better and the shuttle was tiny.

we risked it and looked for parking. we parked about a block away from the park in the undeveloped part of glenwilde.

[melior]

Yeah we parked nearby when we went to the Halloween thing, I don't know why we bothered with the shuttle.  Luckily we all made it onto the shuttle from Santa Rosa because some people stood up, but we had to wait an extra half hour to leave.  The wee one spent the first half of our visit screaming his head off so I only got to try four salsas.  We were definitely not as prepared as we should've been!  Maybe next year my son will understand waiting in line and the kids zone will be more fun for him.

[KendoPt4]

*coming out of the bathroom*

Salsa Fest is officially over.