Fiesta DC, the non-profit organizer of the Latino Festival of Washington, DC, received the unanimous support from the ANC 1A commissioners and neighbors of Columbia Heights, so they can move the festival from Mount Pleasant Street NW to 14th Street NW: from Spring Road NW to Irving Street NW.This proposal was included in the community meeting held last night at Harriet Tubman Elementary School, where Ted Loza, one of Fiesta DC Directors presented a convincing case that received the support of most attendees.
Today I spoke to someone from Fiesta DC and she said that the festival will have five stages for music concerts, including one for children activities, and that a press conference will be held next week to announce officially the festival.
This year festival will be held on Sunday, September 27, from 11 am to 7 pm.
Image by GoogleThe Latino Festival [by Latino the organizers include the different ethnic communities of Latin America and their descendants in the U.S.] has been a tradition in DC since 1971, and they have moved its location several times.
"This is a family-oriented event, with no sale of alcoholic beverages or tobacco, is free and open to the public. It presents a variety of musicians, theater groups, and special mini-fairs for children's fairs, as well as the Parade of Nations, a multi-national display of cultural traditions that usually lasts two hours and includes hundreds of performers and dancers."More than 60,000 persons attended this festival in 2008 and this year the organizers expect to have a bigger crowd as they will have more space for diverse activities reaching out to all communities of Columbia Heights.
Visit Fiesta DC website here.
Fiesta DC 2008
Photos by Daniel del Pielago
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Photos by Daniel del Pielago
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Update: Fiesta DC is NOT moving to 14th Street and is back at Mount Pleasant Street NW. Posted at New Colombia Heights:
Fiesta DC couldn't get permits for the fiesta on 14th Street; Fire and Emergency Services wouldn't permit the closure of 14th close to their station at 14th and Newton. The shift of the Fiesta back to Mount Pleasant was a last-minute change to salvage this year's Fiesta.They should have stayed in 14th Street NW, cutting one block or two. En fin.
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This is great, I like the Fiesta DC festival, but somehow is got too crowded for that little space in mount pleasant, and this time I hope the parade will be better organized, the music and dance groups are nice but they walk too fast!
ReplyDeleteI'm happy and bummed at the same time. Mt. P is too small, but at the same time, I like watching the parade from my balcony.
ReplyDeleteLast year I watched the Brazilians jam while another performance was going on. Amazing.
Mount Pleasant Street is too narrow for such a big festival! Damn firemen got nothing better to do... they could easily get around by 14th street northbound. I hope Fiesta DC will move this festival anyways for its 2010 version, Mount Pleasant is too damn small!
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