You can expect music like Tierra Cali, food from across Latin America, and dozens of vendors and kids’ activities August 18 at Bosse Field during Evansville’s third annual HOLA Latino Festival.
More than seven thousand people came out for the HOLA Latino Festival last year.
And now, event organizers like HOLA President Daniela Vidal say they’re working to build more connections between the larger community and incoming Latinos.
"When we started [HOLA], there was nobody doing anything for Latinos," Vidal said. "Actually, there weren’t very many Latinos. We kind of grew very quickly, almost overnight."
HOLA initially acted as the first line of response in education, health care and other outreach services.
But as the groups HOLA supported developed their own resources, HOLA created its annual festival as a new way to reach the community.
"That’s been always our mission, is to be that bridge and bring everybody together," Vidal said.
It's that bridge celebrating cultural difference and what everybody brings to the table.
And even with thousands of people at that table, Vidal says HOLA Festival continues to be a safe celebration for the whole family.
"The police department, who have always helped us with security for the event, say that they’ve never done security for an event of that size where not one incident happened," Vidal said. "Nothing."
Nothing but fun and building bridges.
If you want to know more, visit HOLA's website or the festival Facebook event.
