Salsa Festival Spices Up the Weekend for Thousands

They wanted sour cream. Or yogurt. Or beer. Anything to cool that fire-hot mouth, stop the watering eyes and stave off the panting and groaning.

Thousands of people streamed into the Oxnard Salsa Festival to subject themselves to such torture. And inside the salsa tent there was no relief. No water. No milk. No shaved ices. Only the sinus-clearing, tongue-searing fire brew.

At the seventh annual festival, people waited in line for at least 30 minutes to buy 10 tickets and a bag of chips for a dollar. Then they entered the hot zone--a tent full of salsa booths offering hell, or heaven, in a jar.

Enrique Barba, with a sweating forehead and watering eyes, defended his method of ingesting the popular potion. Forget the chips, he drank salsas straight from a mini-cup. “I do it because I love them,” he said, with an uproarious laugh.

However, somewhere toward the middle of his visit, he became so overwhelmed by the spice that he hurried from the tent, bought some battered zucchini with cream dip and came back for more salsa.

Other festival-goers had different ways of approaching salsa tasting. Some were adamant about getting only mild salsas. Others collected 10 tiny dishes and left the tent to sit at a table and gingerly try each one in order. Still others stood in the middle of the hubbub and gobbled down the delectable with insatiable desire.

Laura Barraza from West Covina had the sample-as-you-go strategy. She carried a dish full of half-eaten salsas and shoveled a chip into her mouth every couple of steps. She did not equivocate in her preference. “I like this one--the flavor is spicy, not sweet, and not overly tomato-y.”

She said the bizarre ingredients didn’t suit her. Nothing sweet or hickory or soy-sauced or too spicy or lemony.

“The whole festival is more fun than I expected,” Barraza said, displaying a picture taken at the festival of her and two friends surrounded by salsa.

While some of the spicy sauces burned the palate and brought tears to the eyes, others offered a chance to cool down with chunks of mild tomato and the tang of sour lemon.

Outside the salsa booth, people waited in long lines for fresh tacos, char-grilled corn on the cob, fruit cups and other yummies. Plaza Park at 5th and B streets was filled with craft booths--including clothing, pottery, jewelry and salsa-making machines. The 25,000 people expected to attend during the two-day festival sunned themselves, ate and enjoyed the partial shade and pleasant ambience in the park.

Youngsters dragged their parents to the Kids’ Korner for games, face painting, a giant slide, an obstacle course and a hands-on exhibit from the Gull Wings Children’s Museum. A center stage put out a continual stream of salsa music and Latin jazz, and people crowded into chairs and atop bales of hay to watch and listen.

The music and merriment continue today with the following lineup: Tizok (11 a.m.), Hot Peppers Production (1 p.m.), Susie Hansen Latin Band (2 p.m.), salsa dance contest, professional division (4 p.m.) and Latin Fusion (5 p.m.).

Festival hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The event is free and ample parking is available.