ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) — The second annual Royal Oak Taco Festival kicked off Friday afternoon.
Throughout the weekend 3rd St. will be closed between Main St. and Knowles St. S Troy St. will also be closed between 11 Mile and E Fourth St.
Organizers say they're expecting several thousand people throughout the weekend. Last year more than 50,000 people attended the festival.
"Cinco de Mayo was crazy. The lines were crazy. Last year was crazy. So we’re really excited about this year," said Tina Lisecki with Cuernos Chuecos.
Lisecki says their specialty is their al pastor taco which is cooked in a unique way.
"We marinate the meat overnight with pineapple and then it slow roasts on the rotisserie and then we carve it to order," said Lisecki.
The festival will feature four sound stages for live music and other activities, drinks, and more than 50 different food trucks.
The cooks at Galindo’s say they’re serving up the best torta around.
"A torta is a sandwich. I’m from Mexico City and I make the tortas how I do in Mexico City," said Eric Galindo who owns the food truck. "One of the best tortas I have is el chapo, chupacabra, Puerta Vallarta."
At the Drunken Rooster, the staff is preparing for big crowds too. This year they're planning to put more than 4,000 ears of corn on the grill Friday.
"We were here last year. We didn’t have the food truck, we only sold corn. People were a little bit worried about us that we weren’t selling tacos but we were able to go through about 6,000 ears of corn last year," said Drunken Rooster owner Hassan Musselmani." We have the traditional Mexican street corn, we have Cheetos, Hot Cheetos, and then a mystery flavor and it’s always worth a try."
The festival will take place from June 30th until July 4th. More information about festival hours can be found on the festival website.
