Cinco de Mayo Multicultural Festival Weekend returns with two-day event this weekend
The annual Cinco de Mayo Multicultural Festival Weekend returns to downtown Stockton this Saturday and Sunday.
Hosted by El Concilio, a nonprofit social services agency, in partnership with the city of Stockton. The festival will take place at the Weber Point Events Center, 221 N. Center St. from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, May 4 and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 5.
This is the first year the festival will span two days.
"We wanted to create a Saturday so people can really relax, enjoy themselves at the festival and actually have two days to actually see all the great things we have to offer," Inés Ruiz-Huston, El Concilio vice president of civic engagement told The Record.
What to expect at the 5K run, walk
The event will kick off the festivities at 9 a.m. on Saturday with a 5k run, walk, and roll inside Weber Point, she said.
Saturday morning check-in will begin at 7:30 a.m., and at 8:15 a.m. there will be an Aztec ceremonial dance, followed by a Zumba warm-up at 8:45 a.m., the race registration website states. The run starts at $10 for children 13 years old and under and goes up to $35 for adults over 25 years old.
Saturday's entertainment on the main stage is sponsored by HealthNet. The lineup includes Latin Magic, Central Latino All-Star Band, The Band August, Danzantes Del Sol, Cesar Chavez Mariachi, and Ballet Folklorico.
"We have a lot of food trucks. A lot of different kinds of food that we are going to be having there," Ruiz-Huston said.
Anyone interested in participating can register the day of or online at cincodemayo5k.itsyourrace.com. Those participating will receive a shirt and a medallion, Ruiz-Huston said.
What to expect at the parade
The parade starts at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 5.
The parade will start at Stockton Unified School District headquarters and will proceed down Weber, go up El Dorado Street, make a left in front of Cesar Chavez Library, turn on Center Street in front of the Civic Auditorium and all the way back down to Weber, Ruiz-Huston said.
"We are one of the oldest parades in the nation with Cinco de Mayo here in San Joaquin County city of Stockton. And it's about having fun, celebrating all our cultures, we're such a diverse community," Ruiz-Huston said. "It's just beautiful to see everybody come out, get dressed, show the collaboration of all our nations and our communities. Because we know, this is who we are."
The parades grand marshals are Lisa Aguilera Lawrenson, (superintendent and) president of San Joaquin Delta College and Mario Eguiluz, former president of Comerciantes Unidos.
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"Both of them have been truly significant to the community and have done great work for the community," Ruiz-Huston said.
The posthumous is dedicated to Raoul Mora, she added.
Mora was "a Stockton artist, co-founder of the Mexican Heritage Center, and a teacher," Stocktonia reported in 2022. He died of cancer that year at 83-years-old.
What to expect at the festival
The festival will begin after the parade on Sunday with "over 200 food and vendors."
"What better thing to do than come to something that's free and have a good time and everyone can celebrate and support our mom-and-pops shops," Ruiz-Huston said.
Sunday's entertainment on the main stage is sponsored by T-Mobile and will be by Rocio La Dama De La Cumbia y Su Sonora, Banda Pura Sangre de Eric Rosales, La Legacia and Cesar Chavez Mariachi, Ballet Folklorico, and Edison Mariachi.
"The festival is completely free to everyone," Ruiz-Huston said. "Thanks to the BAC (banking always connected) they were a great sponsor, so all the children's bouncy houses and fun games and activities will be for free."
The celebration will be a weekend filled with many other things such as a Ford pavilion, a STEAM area, a junior muralist area, and a health pavilion, Ruiz-Huston said.
"We have San Joaquin Health Centers and we are also working with the San Joaquin (County) Public Health. We're going to have the vaccine (COVID-19), we're going to give away over 10,000 free COVID tests to everybody so they can take it home with them..." Ruiz-Huston said. "They're also doing blood pressure...do sugar checks on people. We want to make sure people can get checked out on everything."
The event will happen rain or shine, Ruiz-Huston said.
What is celebrated during Cinco de Mayo?
Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day.
On May 5, 1862, in Puebla, a small town in east-central Mexico 2,000 Mexican soldiers faced 6,000 French troops at daybreak who wanted to force Mexico's President Benito Juárez and the government out of Veracruz. Mexico claimed victory by the evening, USA Today reported.
This same battle played a role in the American Civil War. With the French defeated and leaving North America, the Confederacy wasn't able to use them as an ally to win the war, USA Today reported.
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Stockton's Cinco de Mayo Celebration will also have games, prizes, food, Sky Lab, low-rider and classic car show, and sports camps for kids, according to event organizers.
For more information about the event visit El Concillio California Facebook page or website.
Amanda Lee Myers, USA Today National Trending Desk Editor contributed to this report.
Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. To support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Cinco de Mayo Multicultural Festival Stockton
