Latin Fest returns with ‘spirit of fun’

By Dale Woodard on July 20, 2021.

Herald photo by Al Beeber One of the musical acts performs during the annual Latin Fest this weekend at the Lethbridge Multicultural Centre.

The beat was alive and very much upbeat Saturday afternoon as Latin Fest rocked the Lethbridge Multicultural Centre.
The reason to celebrate was two-fold as patrons got back into party mode after last year’s Latin Fest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to raising a glass to the 10th year of the event.
“We have the spirit of fun,” said Omar Duenas, event coordinator for the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association. “Latin people like to dance and enjoy good food. Despite that we had to cancel last year, we see the Latin community is responding to this event and that’s who we are. We enjoy the food and music and that’s what we want to show, who the Latin people are.”
Latin Fest has hit the decade mark, but Saturday was the first year the long-standing event was held at the Multicultural Centre.
“Usually, we have it at Galt Gardens in the park, but we thought we wanted to bring more people to the centre,” said Jackie French, executive director of the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association. “We have a beautiful facility, so we thought we would use the indoor and outdoor and have a cool and hot place for people to go. We just like people to come here and see what we have to offer.”
Saturday’s event offered the attendee the choice of braving the heat outdoors with food vendors, crafts and kids’ activities or heading into the air-conditioned building to take in some of the live entertainment. The music inside was piped back outdoors for everyone to hear.
“We have lots of kids activities, a trampoline and bungee jump,” said French. “We have crafts and colouring and lots of food vendors. So lots of Latin food and ice cream and slushy drinks, which are great on this hot day.”
Inside, the live performances keep the festivities hopping.
“We have non-stop entertainment on stage non-stop all day long,” said French. “We have Latin bands, Latin dancers and Latin performers. It’s a fun schedule on the stage.”
It also made for some extra traffic.
“We’ve had to add tables and chairs,” said French. “It’s been an incredible turnout. Everybody is having so much fun and they’re happy. It’s beautiful to see.”
Duenas, who had multiple roles at this year’s Latin Fest as an emcee, a deejay and a coordinator of all of the performances, noted the importance of the 10th anniversary of the event.
“It’s a reason to celebrate,” he said. “This is year is special. We’ve always had it at Galt Gardens outdoors, but this year for some licensing and restrictions we had to bring it inside into the Multicultural Centre.”
Three different groups performed Saturday afternoon.
“Each group danced three times, so nine performances,” said Duenas. “We’ll have some Zumba presentations as well. So it’s a variety of performances for everyone. People are are enjoying the outdoors as well.”
French said the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association does about nine staple events a year.
“We do a lot of festivals and we also do a monthly dinner, so we do a different cultural dinner every month. We take a break in the summer in July and August, but then we get right back at it. We’ve been doing takeout dinners since COVID. I think we’ll start to do ones where we can meet in person again and have entertainment.”
Despite the province lifting COVID-19 restrictions as part of Stage 3, rolled out at the beginning of the month, French said precautions were still taken on Saturday.
“We’re trying to still manage to do things safe, we’ve spaced the tables out accordingly. People are just so excited to be out and having so much fun.”

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