inFESTed 2025: Your Guide to Tucson’s Biggest Spring Festivals

What You’ll Discover in This Episode

The Origin of inFESTed – How this annual tradition started and why it’s become a favorite among Life Along the Streetcar listeners.

Tucson Festival of Books (March 15-16, 2025) – A deep dive into one of the largest book festivals in the U.S., its impact on literacy efforts, and why it remains free for the public.

Arizona International Film Festival (April 3-13, 2025) – Insights into this globally recognized festival, how it bridges cultures through film, and what to expect in its 33rd year.

TenWest Festival (March 25-30, 2025) – A look at this interdisciplinary “impact festival” blending entrepreneurship, technology, and the arts, plus highlights on keynote speaker Guy Raz.

Agave Heritage Festival (April 10-13, 2025) – The evolution of this festival from a cocktail contest to a cultural celebration of the agave plant, including culinary, agricultural, and artistic perspectives.

Why These Festivals Matter – The role of community volunteers, the economic and cultural impact of festivals in Tucson, and how they showcase the city’s unique spirit.

Behind-the-Scenes Stories – Tom Heath shares his personal experiences volunteering at the Tucson Festival of Books and past interviews with filmmakers and festival organizers.

How to Get Involved – Where to find schedules, ticketing info, and opportunities to volunteer or support these amazing festivals.

Tucson’s festival season is in full swing, and Life Along the Streetcar is here to make sure you don’t miss a moment of the excitement! Our annual tradition, inFESTed, is back for another year, bringing you an in-depth look at some of the most exciting cultural celebrations happening in the heart of Tucson. Whether you’re a book lover, a film enthusiast, a tech innovator, or a fan of agave spirits, this episode has something for everyone.

What is inFESTed?

Several years ago, we started getting tons of questions from listeners asking why we didn’t cover more of Tucson’s amazing festivals. Instead of featuring just one event per episode, we decided to pack a bunch of them into a single, high-energy show. That’s how inFESTed was born—a play on words reflecting how Tucson is absolutely infested with incredible festivals this time of year.

This year, we’re spotlighting four major events that showcase the rich cultural, creative, and community-driven spirit of Tucson.

Featured Festivals in This Episode

Tucson Festival of Books (March 15-16, 2025)

One of the country’s largest book festivals, this two-day literary event brings together authors, publishers, and readers for a celebration of storytelling. Held on the University of Arizona campus, the festival features panel discussions, book signings, interactive exhibits, and literacy-focused initiatives. With over 400 authors and 150,000 attendees expected, this is a must-visit event for book lovers.

Arizona International Film Festival (April 3-13, 2025)

Celebrating its 33rd year, this film festival is Arizona’s longest-running showcase of independent cinema. Featuring filmmakers from around the world, the festival focuses on bridging cultures through storytelling. Screenings take place at various downtown venues, and many include Q&A sessions with the filmmakers. Whether you’re into thought-provoking documentaries or cutting-edge indie films, this festival offers something unique.

TenWest Festival (March 25-30, 2025)

Known as an “impact festival,” TenWest brings together innovators, entrepreneurs, and artists to share ideas and inspire change. This event features workshops, networking sessions, keynote speakers (including How I Built This host Guy Raz), and live entertainment. If you’re looking to connect with Tucson’s creative and business community, TenWest is the place to be.

Agave Heritage Festival (April 10-13, 2025)

What started as a small tequila cocktail competition has grown into a full-scale festival celebrating the agave plant’s role in the culture, cuisine, and history of the Sonoran Desert. Events include tastings, seminars, culinary pairings, and discussions on agave’s significance in textiles, agriculture, and sustainability.

Why These Festivals Matter

Each of these events represents a different aspect of Tucson’s vibrant culture—whether it’s the power of storytelling, the impact of film, the spirit of innovation, or the deep-rooted traditions of the Southwest. What makes them even more special is the dedication of volunteers, local organizations, and community members who work tirelessly to bring them to life.

At Life Along the Streetcar, we love highlighting these hyper-local experiences that make Tucson such a dynamic and inspiring place to live.

Get inFESTed! Listen Now & Join the Conversation

Tune in to the episode now! Whether you’re planning your festival schedule or just want to learn more about Tucson’s incredible event scene, this episode is your guide to experiencing the best of what our city has to offer.

Stay Connected & Get Involved
Website: lifealongthestreetcar.org
Facebook: facebook.com/LifeAlongTheStreetcar
Podcast on SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/lifealongthestreetcar

Have a favorite festival story? Want to suggest a future guest or topic? Reach out and let us know! We love featuring local voices and hidden gems that make Tucson shine.

Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful day in the old pueblo. And you are listening to Katy. Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson community. Sponsored, all volunteer powered rock and roll radio station. This week we’re going to revisit our annual tradition called Infested. In fact, infested it 2025 is going to be a peek into all of the festivals where a few of the festivals that are going be held over the urban core here in coming weeks.

Tom Heath
We’re going to head over to the U of A for the Tucson Festival of Books. We’re going to head back west for the innovation of the Ten West Festival. And of course, coming up in April, Film Fest Tucson and the rich traditions of the Agave Heritage Festival. We’re going to catch up on some new and exciting updates for each of these, and do a little overview as well.

Tom Heath
Talk about our history with these organizations and what’s happening here in 2025. Today is March 2nd, 2025. My name is Tom Heath and you are listening to life along the Street car where each and every Sunday our focus is on social, cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s urban core. We shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about, from around to the University of Arizona and all stops in between.

Tom Heath
You get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM streaming in downtown radio.org. Also available on your iPhone or Android using our very own Downtown Radio Tucson app. And if you want to interact with us on the show, we invite you to do so through Instagram. And Facebook is probably the best way. And if you want information on us, maybe information on the book, listen to some of these past episodes or contact us.

Tom Heath
You can head over to Life Along the Street car.org. And of course, we invite you to, check out the podcast. If you missed the show here on Downtown Radio, you can catch our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, iHeart radio, many others, and including just asking your smart speaker to play the Life Along the Street Car podcast. Well, I started a tradition, I don’t know, 4 or 5, six, seven, eight years ago, who knows?

Tom Heath
Where we just got all kinds of questions about, hey, why don’t you feature this? Why don’t you feature this festival in the in this festival and that festival. And we got we just had too many. So I put them all into one show, and I just did, you know, like a couple minutes on each one and, and highlighted what was happening, where to get more information.

Tom Heath
And we called the show in Fest. ID get it infested with the first capitalized. And then the next year we kind of did the same thing and the year after. So now I think this is like our fifth year of doing it. We’re we’re just going to talk about some of these cool things happening between. I’m out in the University of Arizona.

Tom Heath
We we taken four today. We featured all four of these at some point, at least once on the show. So if you head over to our, web page, which is life along the Street car.org, and you type in the festival, you’re going to find at least one and probably 2 or 3 podcasts that we have done, celebrating their work here in our community.

Tom Heath
But these are all put on by, really dedicated individuals, mostly volunteers. There’s I’m sure the paid staff and others that are involved with it, but there’s just a lot of people doing some really good things here in Tucson. One of the first ones coming up here is, Tucson, a festival of books that’s happening, in just a couple of weeks here.

Tom Heath
It’s going to be, March, 15th and 16th on the U of A campus. And if you don’t know much about this, well, you can head over to our website and check out some of the history of it. But this thing started back in 2009 and it was a two day event. 50 some thousand people showed up for this first ever book festival.

Tom Heath
That was a, a celebration of, literacy efforts here in Tucson. It was started by, by many people. But some of the leading factors were, Brendan Bill Viner, who had, a lot of influence in our community through other projects like the Fort Lowell shootout. But they got together at the U of A, the Arizona Daily Star, and they figured out, you know what?

Tom Heath
We could we could bring a festival to Tucson that can have some impact. And, you know, one of their missions was to raise money for, nonprofits doing work and literacy efforts here in Tucson. And one of their other goals was to keep this event free to the public. And, you know, this first event in 2009, they had well over 400 authors.

Tom Heath
They had, like I said, around 50,000 people that had showed up, sponsors and around 800 or so volunteers, of which I was one, just, you know, a little historical fact there in 2009, I showed up Saturday morning for the very first shift, and, I haven’t left the festival since. This is my 15th or so year.

Tom Heath
The volunteering with the, the team there, because it’s so important to our community, you know, not just the reading aspect of it, but what it does to raise money for literacy efforts. It’s it’s really an incredible event now, you know, 20, 24, the numbers were closer to 150,000 people that showed up on the on the campus, for this two day event.

Tom Heath
And again, same major sponsors between the University of Arizona, Arizona Daily Star, several others. Throughout the years have really made this happen. But this this event has grown to include competitions throughout the year. They give out awards as well as, raising money for, for these nonprofits. They have a wonderful Friday night dinner with they feature, an award, some recognition to, authors that have been an influential into the festival books.

Tom Heath
And again, hundreds of people attend this to, to really get a, a sense of of how great this thing is. You really got to be out there and see it. But this year, it’s on March 15th and 16th. You know, one of the things that makes it so special is not just the, the authors that come out and the, the, the event, the exhibitors that are on on campus, there’s a couple hundred booths worth of exhibitors or 400 plus authors that will be out doing presentations, all free, all different genres.

Tom Heath
And if you go to their website, Tucson Festival of books.org, you can, you know, take a peek at, the schedule and see who you might want to go check out. Some of the sessions, have what they call fast passes where you can, reserve, get it, get an essence, a ticket in advance. There’s no cost for it, but you have to be, lucky enough to get one, and then you’re you’re guaranteed a seat in these popular venues.

Tom Heath
But if you miss out, that’s okay. They always reserve, seats for general admission. It’s held on the University of Arizona campus. But as I started to say, what are the things that are special to me is is because I was a volunteer very early on and I volunteered every year, since with the the one year, you know, we took off for Covid, I am impressed with the thousands of hours of volunteer work that gets done every year.

Tom Heath
There’s people that work on this year round, and there’s there’s people that, spend a little bit more concentrated effort, and then there’s some that just come and work for four hours on a Saturday or Sunday. All of that adds up to this incredible amount of, in-kind donations of our time that that frees up hundreds of thousands of dollars that would go towards the cost of having to staff this festival.

Tom Heath
So super excited that, you know, Tucson is willing to put this on. And, you know, that they’re that they’re able to, to do so in a way that keeps it free for the public. You know, it’s been a been a big issue since the beginning of this, effort was that we weren’t charging the consumers, or the public to come, that they were going to be able to enjoy all this for free.

Tom Heath
And, you know, it’s been that way. It’s been great, you know, and it’s the whole lineup. I’m going to go through it. There’s just hundreds of authors, different genres. You can check them all out on the Tucson Festival Books website. And, I hope you do. I hope you do. And then right after that, we’ve got the ten West Festival.

Tom Heath
This one is, is fun. They took a little bit of time off. They’re trying to get their cycle. They got out of the June or out of the fall cycle to get into the, the spring cycle. So it’s been a little over a year since the last one. But if you’re not familiar with Ten West, it’s really, it’s it’s a lot of different, areas coming together.

Tom Heath
It’s it’s technology. It’s entrepreneurship, it’s arts culture, really bringing, a lot of different, genres into one festival with leadership. Opportunities to really take from this there, their presentation, their, their, their keynote speaker is, Guy raz. And, you know, he’s he’s the, the podcast host of, how I Built This, where they have entrepreneurs talking about how they built these amazing, organizations.

Tom Heath
And he’s a podcast guy. So, you know, I like him, but the Ten West was featured on our very first show in October of 2017. We intentionally did Mission Garden as the first story because that’s the foundation of our region. And then we talked about Ten West, because that was the future. And, again, that was in 2017, we entered, Liz Pocock, who was she was in some leadership capacity, but she was not in charge of the Ten West Festival.

Tom Heath
And she is now heading up Startup Tucson and she’s, driving this, this effort forward. But Ten West is back. It’s March 25th through the 30th. There are all kinds of workshops. There’s a six days of of, events. There are conferences. There’s also mixers. There’s music, entertainment. Really hard to describe. How wide and how deep the, the, the impact is of this festival.

Tom Heath
In fact, they call it an impact festival. You know, last year I went I think it was last year or two years ago. I went and they had me out of which is this really incredible, gallery and art experience that started out of New Mexico and a bowling alley. And as I was just getting started with the Tucson gallery, hearing what they had to talk about and how they got things going, just just really helped me, form, some ideas on our little Tucson gallery here by by getting a sense of this artist’s expression in New Mexico through this organization called Meow Wolf.

Tom Heath
And that was brought to us by, the team at ten West. So head over to their website if you want more information. It’s ten west.com, and, you can learn about that. But again, it’s coming up here really quick here at the end of the month. Passes are, available for some of the events are free, but a lot of the, a lot of the areas to you want there are things where are you going to be paying with discounts obviously if you do it in advance, all that information is over on their website.

Tom Heath
Well, we’ll be back in just a minute to, wrap up the infested with some April events coming up here. But first, I want to remind you that, you’re listening now to lifelong streetcar and downtown radio 89.1 FM and streaming on downtown radio.org.

James Portis
This podcast is sponsored by Tom Heath and the heat team and another home loans. If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, continue listening or head over to lifelong the Street Khou.com for current events and information on what to do while visiting Tucson. Tom Heath and MLS number 182420 Nova and MLS number 3087 became number 0902429. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Tom Heath
If you are just joining us, we’re in the middle of our, annual traditional, show we called infested with the FST capitalized because we talk about the, some of the amazing festivals that happen this time of year in Tucson. We’re so lucky. You know, we we could talk about so many others that, that happened between, during the nice weather here in Tucson, we picked for the Tucson Festival of Books and the Ten West Festival are coming up in March, and we feature those in the first half.

Tom Heath
And then in the second half here we’re going to talk about the Arizona International Film Festival, which I mistakenly in the open called Film Fest Tucson, which is another festival, but that’s in October. So just to be clear, here in April, we have the Arizona International Film Festival. And then we also have the Agave Heritage Festival coming up, as well, the, the International Film Festival.

Tom Heath
This is a big deal here in Tucson. This is the 33rd year, it’s been, held in different you know, they have movies in different places, but they bring in, international, filmmakers. I actually had a chance a few years ago to interview, a filmmaker out of Dublin. And he came on the show, we got to talk about him, and then I want to see his his movie, his film was fabulous.

Tom Heath
But, this is the International Film Festival. It’s the 33rd year, and they are going to have, a tough time. I understand, selecting the, the films to display that should be out here really soon. And I think it was due out this weekend or early, next week. The where the, the committee reviews all kinds of different films.

Tom Heath
The theme this year is Bridging cultures as, looking for ways to, to share images and voices from a diverse cultural, the diverse cultures within Arizona communities. So the, the, the mission, the, the, the festival includes not just, longer films, but they have shorts. They will do days where they will have, you can you can go see several shorts.

Tom Heath
And again, I did that that was sort of my entryway into the, film festival arena. I went to one week or one, one day days. Shorts. And I saw a lot of different, activity in a very, a very broad manner of subjects. So the shorts are a good way to get involved.

Tom Heath
And then I happened to see then, some of the, the, the longer, films and again, there’s funny stuff. There’s heart wrenching stuff. There is just a wide selection. Their website is film Festival arizona.com. If you want to check out what’s happening there. The, the dates are April 3rd through April 13th. You know, and again, there’s a wide group of people that are supporting and sponsoring, the events.

Tom Heath
And when you’re downtown, you see people with their big film festival, badges of taking a lot of pride that some of them will pay and go to just about every, if not every, opportunity they will get out there, this channel. So one of the things that’s really, I think, nice about these film festivals is that many times at the very end, you get a chance to hear from the filmmakers themselves or key members of the film as they will, after the screening, we’ll talk to you about different components of it.

Tom Heath
So it’s it’s a really way to get intimately involved with, with some of these, but, it’s, the Arizona International Film Festival is the 33rd year, and it’s been one of the best reviewed festivals. From organizations that look at, efforts like this. I think they have the several years now in a row, they’ve been named as one of the, the best, festivals in the country.

Tom Heath
And we have it right here in Tucson and in downtown Tucson. There we go. We got a month between now and then, and some have been approached by, a couple of folks on this. We might, do a feature coming up, but we’ve we’ve talked with them in the past. As I mentioned, I interviewed a filmmaker, and you can get all that information on life on the streetcar.org if you want to listen to any of these past episodes.

Tom Heath
But, they’re there again, their website, if you want to check out the the lineup, which hasn’t been announced yet, at least as of as of today, when I’m when I’m recording this. So it should be coming out very soon. You can see all the films that’ll be coming April 3rd to 13th to, different venues here in the urban core and the festival that we’re going to kind of wrap up the, the infested show with is the Agave Heritage Festival, which is the 10th through the 13th.

Tom Heath
This one again been featured a few times on our show. Todd Hanley, has spoken on that, and we might get Todd back. You know, we have Todd in a while. I’m gonna reach out to them. But this one, this one is going on. I don’t think it’s quite 20 years. Looking at my notes. So.

Tom Heath
Yeah, 2008 was the first time they did this. And in the very first one, really came off as, as almost like a cocktail contest where they, they featured agave or, or tequila and, created some unique cocktails. And it has just grown over the years into, a true celebration of the agave plans and its impact in our region.

Tom Heath
You know, Tucson has been put on the map for all things agave, and this festival is is a big reason for that. Happened out of the, you know, the team at Hotel Congress, it’s it’s expanded, you know, beyond that. But it’s not it’s not just, it’s not just the alcohol that’s derived from the agave. They have seminars.

Tom Heath
They do certainly they do tastings. They pair it with, you know, a world class culinary event. But they talk about it from a textile standpoint. They talk about it from a spiritual standpoint. The the, the impact of this crop. It’s truly a Sonoran desert. It’s a regional thing. That’s a big part of who we are and how we’ve come.

Tom Heath
And, you know, these, these events like this, that, that broaden our horizons or are very interesting to me. Again, mostly put on by volunteers with a very small staff. To make it happen. I think last year there was a band, like an orchestra that came out of, I want to say Brazil, but they don’t know for sure, but they, they had they had, a, a desire to be a part of this.

Tom Heath
And they, they they came and they were they were a part of it. They’ve it’s just been really fun to see this evolve over, over the years. You know, the, the lineup is on their website, which is Agave Heritage festival.com, and you can see the, the presenters. There is a lot of them that are going to be talking about, you know, all things agave as we as we discussed there.

Tom Heath
You know, and these are people that are in the agricultural side. They’re in the academic side. They’re in the culinary side. So lots of, lots of ways to, tap into, the Agave Heritage Festival a a little bit of a little bit of a pun there. So I hope, you find a time to check that out and again right away.

Tom Heath
I mean, I taught on it a while, so I’m gonna reach out, see if we can get him on here. But that’s the agave heritage festival, and that’s going to be, in, in, in April, coming up here in a few weeks. My name is Tom Heath. And, you are listening to life along the Street car downtown radio.

Tom Heath
We’re on 99.1 FM and we stream on downtown radio.org.

James Portis
Support for downtown radio is provided by the Tucson Gallery, located in downtown Tucson. Instead of the proper shops at East Congress Street, the Tucson Gallery offers original work, reproductions, and merchandise from Tucson artists like Joe Padgett, Jessica Gonzalez, Ignacio Garcia, and many more. For information about other artists, including when they open up at the gallery, head to the Tucson gallery.com or find them on Instagram and Facebook as Tucson Gallery.

Tom Heath
Well, don’t go anywhere. Stay tuned for Ted Presents Ski with Words and Work as he interviews writers and others from the labor movement. And lots happening in that arena right now. So I’m curious to see what he will be, chatting about today, said some. He always has really good shows, but right now some very topical shows. Coming up, words and work.

Tom Heath
And that’s, just in a couple of minutes. And then at the top of the hour, Ty Logan is with his show Heavy mental, and invite you to, stick around for that. And then we’re back into the music at 1:00. And speaking of heavy metal, Ty was a guest on the show a few years ago.

Tom Heath
So if you go to life on the street car.org because you want to check out some of our featured, the festival features that, we talked about today. And I want to go a little bit more in depth in some of those stories. You can also check out Ty Logan’s, two part series that we did very, really powerful, really powerful interview.

Tom Heath
You can have him back on, see how he’s doing. It’s, it was, one of those interviews. They kind of started and just kept going. So we made it a two parter. Very candid, very open, about his, some of the challenges he’s had over his life and how it’s come full circle to, to really help, people in our community now.

Tom Heath
So, that anyway, it shows, heavy metals coming up at noon. Well, I want to thank our guest today, me, for, being so courteous, showing up on time and answering all the questions, just as I had expected. To do so, but we got we got a chance to talk about four festivals de Tucson Festival of Books, the ten West Festival, the Agave Heritage Festival, and the Arizona International Film Festival.

Tom Heath
All of those happening within the next month or so. In the urban core, different areas of the urban core might feature them. The April ones here might feature them coming up. We’ll see if you want more info on any of them. Life on streetcar.org. Just put the info in the search bar and you’ll find at least one, probably 2 or 3.

Tom Heath
And most of these now that we’ve been doing this for such a long time. And if you don’t like me talking because I don’t like me talking, but I really want to do these shows once a year. But if you don’t want me to be the voice you hear all day Sunday morning, then help us. Let’s let’s find some great guests and great topics that we can, we can add to the mix here.

Tom Heath
So if you’re involved with something, if you have a passion, share it with us. You know, this this show is, I like to say, hyper local. I mean, it’s not even local. It’s hyper local because we basically have a three mile footprint, from a mountain in our series on us. We’d love to have you sharing those, comments, questions, concerns, topics, any of that stuff.

Tom Heath
And if you if you have something out there that you’re doing that that needs to be broadcast, let us know, because either maybe you’ll be a guest or we can at least get your content out through our channels and, you know, collaborate in that manner. You can reach us here by email, contact at life along the streetcar.org.

Tom Heath
We’re on Facebook and Instagram under the same handle. And, we invite you to connect. Yeah. And one last thing before I wrap up here. Just a, a thank you to, the team at Downtown Radio. So head over to their website, Downtown radio.org, if you want to check out, upcoming shows and things that are happening.

Tom Heath
And I always invite you to, pick out a genre that maybe you didn’t know you liked or didn’t know anything about because, you you might find some really cool stuff, broadening your horizons, all done by volunteer deejays. So, we invite you to check that out on the downtown radio.org. Well, a special thanks to James Portis, our production specialist.

Tom Heath
He makes this show happen. No video today. Just me talking. So we didn’t want to put that out there. No one wants to see just that, but great audio work from James. Amanda Maltose is our production assistant. Going to be getting more involved to some kind of excited about that. My name is Tom Heath. I am the host and producer.

Tom Heath
Each week we have the pleasure of playing Ryan Hood song Dillinger Days to, kick off our show. And today, wanted to to find a little music that tied into the theme. And I tried a few different ways, and I thought, you know what? All of these festivals, they’re they’re just fantastic for Tucson, and they’re all part of this huge, outpouring of support and celebration.

Tom Heath
So we’re going to leave you today with, a version of celebration. This is from a a a group I know how to pronounce. I think it’s called Perpetual Musical. It’s from a 2016 album they put out. It’s called A-side both sides, and it’s, they’re cover of Kool the Gang’s Celebration. I hope you have a great week.

Tom Heath
And, tune in next Sunday for more life along the streetcar.