The Akron Latin Festival is coming back to Lock 3 in downtown Akron for its sixth year, bringing salsa lessons, live music and more than 20 food and retail vendors to the park on September 19. The free event runs from 4 to 9 p.m. and will open with a ceremony featuring flags from different Latin American countries.
According to Cleveland.com, the festival is co-presented by Proyecto Raíces and the Downtown Akron Partnership, and will include informational booths from local nonprofit organizations alongside crafts, activities, face painting, a balloon artist and stilt walkers for kids and families. Piñatas will also be part of the day’s festivities, and local dance groups will offer salsa lessons throughout the event. Live entertainment is planned all day, with performances from Grupo Fuego and DJ Lolo Knows.
Vendors at the festival represent several Latin American cultures, reflecting the range of heritages found across the region. Summit County Public Health vital statistics show that among the roughly 14,000 county residents who identify as Hispanic or Latino, Mexican heritage represents the largest subgroup at 41%, followed by Puerto Rican heritage at 27%. U.S. Census Bureau estimates put Akron’s Hispanic or Latino population at approximately 4.3% of the city’s total, or more than 8,000 residents.
A Nonprofit Born After Sunday Mass
Proyecto Raíces, the nonprofit co-presenting the festival, offers educational and social support to children of Latino and Hispanic families in Akron, per the festival’s Cleveland.com preview. The organization’s roots go back more than two decades to the social hall of St. Bernard Church in downtown Akron, where local Hispanic women and children began gathering after Spanish-language Mass before formally organizing into a nonprofit, according to reporting from Proyecto Raíces itself…