The third annual Mole de Mayo Festival will take place on Saturday, May 7, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The festival will be held at El Zocalo Plaza, located at 18th Street and Paulina (CTA pink line stop at Paulina). This festival is being held close to the holiday Cinco de Mayo—the celebration of the Mexican victory over the French on May 5, 1862. The festival is being organized by the Eighteenth Street Development Corporation.

The Mole de Mayo Festival is an event filled with family entertainment and a cooking contest. Restaurants in the Pilsen community and from around Chicago will participate in the event. These restaurants include El Mezcal, Fogata Village, Lalo’s on Maxwell, Las Palmas, Mundial Cocina Mestiza, Taqueria Ciudad, Taqueria DeCero, and Zocalo Restaurant. There will be two awards given in the mole cook-off—the Best Mole Award and the People’s Choice Award. The Best Mole Award will be presented to the winner at 3:00 p.m., and the People’s Choice Trophy Award will be presented at 6:30 p.m.

“We are excited to bring the event back to Pilsen for a third year. We had an outstanding response from the attendees past years and are increasing the number of vendors and introducing entertainment acts to encourage more families to come out during the day,” said Hector Saldana, Eighteenth Street Development Coporation’s Director of Commercial and Industrial Development. There will be food vendors and an outdoor Mercado market that will be filled with local Pilsen businesses displaying a variety of artisans and merchandise. Entertainment will be provided by the Mexican Dance Ensemble (Mexican Folkloric Dancers), Bob Rok, Azul de Noche, Benjamin Anaya y los Extranos Unidos, Tarima Son, and the Lucha Libre Wrestlers. Suggested entrance donation is one dollar.