A California bar has come under fire for celebrating Cinco de Mayo with an inflatable wall and green card drink vouchers.

Hennessey's Tavern in Dana Point set up the inflatable climbing wall outside its restaurant on Friday as part of its Cinco de Mayo festivities.

Patrons who could successfully climb the wall were given green cards that could be redeemed for free drinks.

But the owner of Hennessey's Tavern has now been forced to defend their decision after the stunt backfired and drew heavy criticism for being a 'horrible, tactless, racist event'.

Hennessey's Tavern in California came under fire for handing out green cards and setting up an inflatable climbing wall outside its restaurant on Friday for its Cinco de Mayo festivities

After receiving an onslaught of complaints on social media, owner Paul Hennessey posted a statement on Facebook saying he was trying to express his concerns about Trump's pledge to build a wall between the US and Mexico.

'Our intentions were to create a dialogue and show how ridiculous that it is to spend tens of millions of dollars to build a wall and even infer that Mexico foot some or the entire bill and have their citizens build it,' he wrote.

'This event obviously struck a chord with many of you out there and you and a number of you did not understand our intent.'

Outraged patrons took to Facebook to slam the bar's statement and accusing its owner of 'casual racism'.

The inflatable climbing wall was set up outside the restaurant and patrons were given the green card drink vouchers if they could successfully climb over it

The owner of Hennessey's Tavern has now been forced to defend their decision after the stunt backfired and drew heavy criticism for being a 'racist' and 'tactless' event

'This response says it all. It is dismissive and condescending. Paul Hennessy, you cannot honestly believe that a 'climb wall, green card, equating to a free drink' in anyway supports anything but a racial stereotype,' one person wrote.

'This was not creating a dialogue. This was promoting casual racism,' another said.

Another person wrote: 'Next year I might suggest you give out Mexican Citizenship cards after climbing the wall - then, we will all get 'your intent'. See how that changes the discussion? Disappointing on so many levels.'

The event came just days after President Trump signed a federal budget plan that essentially stalled his US-Mexico border wall.

Trump campaigned heavily during the election on his pledge to build a wall along the country's southern border to curb immigration from Mexico.

Outraged patrons took to Facebook to slam the bar's statement and accusing its owner of 'casual racism'