Brawls break out at popular Columbus festival according to attendees, forcing it to close early

Attendees of a popular festival came for the tacos, but left because of the fights.

“Within seconds of us entering (after waiting over an hour to get in) no less than three fights broke out. Within 10 minutes of us being there the police shut down the event,” a festival goer commented on Columbus Taco Fest’s Facebook post.

The two day Columbus Taco Fest which took place on May 18-19, centered around a variety of taco offerings, live music, and fun activities at Genoa Park. They originally didn’t have an age restriction.

But on the first day of the festival, Saturday around 7pm, Columbus Taco Fest posted on their Facebook that they’re implementing an age restriction of 18+ for entry. “Due to unforeseen circumstances and recommendations from city officials, this precautionary measure has become necessary,” the post reads. 

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An hour after the post was live, the entire festival was shut down around 8pm.

Hundreds of comments under the post describe multiple brawls breaking out among the younger crowd, and a video in the post shows a group of about a dozen or so young women engaging in a fist fight. The person who posted the video of the brawl said, “These kids were trouble right from the start, they weren’t suppose to be allowed in the festival and were banned at 4:45pm. They were trying to fight at the entrance check point. A officer was trying to arrest one of them but was assaulted and ganged up on by all her friends. They escaped initially after like 8 friends jumped all over the first officer. They obviously got in from the other entrance and were fighting each other ( multiple groups of those girls for at least 1 hr). There was not enough police or security today. They had like 3-4 unarmed security guards and maybe 4 cops.”

The age restriction seemed to work, however. On the second day of the festival, with an increased amount of security, Columbus adults were able to enjoy their birria tacos in peace.

The organizers of Columbus Taco Fest nor The Columbus Police could not be reached by the time this was published.

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