Fiesta Americas – A Celebration of Latin American Culture
On Sunday, September 18 from 11am-6pm, Gypsum’s Lundgren Amphitheater will host Fiesta Americas, a free and family-friendly festival celebrating Latin American culture. Brought to life by a committee comprised almost entirely of Latina and Latino representatives from Mountain Recreation, My Future Pathways, Eagle Valley Behavioral Health, and the Eagle Valley Community Foundation, this day-long event presented by FirstBank has live music, activities, and food for every age and everyone in our community.
“We imagined this event to not just celebrate Latino culture, but to bring together our various communities regardless of ethnicity or nationality, in a fun and free way,” says Eddie Campos, Marketing & Communications Manager at Mountain Rec. “With 30% to 40% or more of our community being Latino, I am overjoyed to finally see an event like this in the mountains. Having grown up in the valley since the age of five, I’ve seen our Latino community often be overlooked. Fiesta Americas celebrates the rich diversity in our valley originating from North, Central, and South America.”
Fiesta Americas—a name chosen for joy and diversity across the Americas —will feature live music all day from a variety of musical acts. “We are so excited about our musical performance line-up this year, with Jenny ‘La Leona’, Grupo Alba, Mariachi Internacional from Denver, and Grupo Acenso. “I think the music will really bring the joy of the event to the forefront” commented Kate Harman, Family & Community Engagement Manager at My Future Pathways. “We’ll start the day off right with a Zumba class at 11, and then jump right into the performances,” she continued.
La Patrona, Flavor Stop, Uncle Sleepers, Tu Casa, and Dulce Tentación will be at Fiesta Americas as well. “We’ll have food from several local Latino restaurants and food truck owners—it was important to us to have as many Latino-owned businesses as possible to be part of this event celebrating Latino culture and community”, remarked Michelle Dibos, Community Engagement Director at Eagle Valley Behavioral Health.
“We wanted to ensure we represent our community’s culture and colors. We will bring family fun activities combined with what community partners have to offer for our Latino community in Eagle Valley”, says Melina Valsecia, Executive Director at Eagle Valley Community Foundation. “We’ll have face painting and a balloon artist, art exhibit, Nature’s Educators will be there with birds of prey, and over 20 local nonprofits have joined us in this event. We all realized that there was a need for this kind of celebration, and we all came together to bring something special to our community.”
Working with younger staff and volunteers from My Future Pathways ensured the planning committee was able to get input from people of all ages, ensuring both a family with young children and groups of twenty-somethings will find fun activities to participate in—like laser tag and bubble soccer. Additionally, there will be a petting zoo, a bouncy house, inflatable obstacle courses for both toddlers and bigger kids, the meltdown game, an inflatable jousting activity, and Old Growth Tree Company brought in Wood & Steel Axe Company for anyone 18+.
Each of the four planning organizations is bringing something special to the event, from Eagle Valley Behavioral Health running Laser Tag, Mountain Rec running bubble soccer and launching their new Outdoor Gear Library, the Community Foundation offering healthy snacks and the MIRA bus, and My Future Pathways focused on the music and entertainment.
Fiesta Americas is presented by FirstBank and received significant support from the Town of Gypsum along with sponsorships from Alpine Bank, Eagle County Public Health, and Mountain Family. Due to the contributions of partners and the generosity of sponsors, this event is free to the public.