Some folks from Iowa and Illinois are not happy with a festival that took place in the Quad Cities over the weekend. According to KWQC, the Quad Cities Taco and Margarita Festival at Vibrant Arena had quite a few disappointed guests. The article reads:

"Dozens of ticket holders and some vendors spoke out about the event on social media. Many claim they were met with overpriced concession stand food sold by the venue."

The Taco & Margarita Festival was put on by United Festival Productions, but Vibrant Arena had taken some complaints from previous events into consideration before putting on their event. Because other events had vendors run out of food and beverages, they decided that the arena would provide all of the concessions. The problem was that there was supposed to be at least one local vendor on-hand for the event, and they weren't told they wouldn't be needed until the morning of the festival. Food Truck Cocina Verde apologized to ticket holders on Facebook, writing:

"We’re deeply sorry for any and all inconvenience. It definitely saddens and frustrates us that we are notified last minute thanks to poor management from United Festival Productions. We will try to see if we can locate a place for us to be at since we had already prepped for the event, stay tuned for more information."

The UFP Vendor Coordinator says Cocina Verde was the only food truck turned away.  The arena provided 13 types of margaritas and 10 types of tacos. They also had around 40 retail vendors on-hand, as well as other features.

Based on the Facebook comments, it appears that people were not only bummed about the lack of local food vendors, but also the quality and price of the food. Tickets cost between $15 and $50, but attendees also had to pay for all their food and beverages. A Facebook user on KWQC's Facebook page named Jamie Lyn wrote:

"I wish we took a picture of the taco my friend purchased. It was $5.50 for a 4 inch shell with a small spoonful of what looked like canned cat food. We purchased 5 VIP tickets for this. Total waste."

Vibrant Arena's Executive Director told KWQC that around 845 people came out to the event and they only had a couple of complaints, but Facebook user Karen Mallinger wrote:

"They didn’t hear complaints from the people who showed up because most of us complaining elected to not show up. Duh…I can buy an $8 margarita from the concession stand next time I go to a hockey game."

We were supposed to have a Taco & Margarita Festival at the McGrath Amphitheatre in Cedar Rapids, but the June event ended up being cancelled in April with no explanation. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing after all.

A Guide to Eastern Iowa Food Trucks

Now that it's fair and festival season here in Eastern Iowa, you'll be able to try a TON of awesome food trucks that we have here in the area. Check out some of your delicious options!

The Highest-Rated Cedar Rapids Restaurants on Yelp

Using ratings on Yelp (which are determined by the number of stars and the number of reviews for each restaurant), I put together a list of the 15 highest rated restaurants within the city of Cedar Rapids. Here are the top 15 places that Iowans seem to love the most:

More From 98.1 KHAK