Pioneer Park to host Cinco de Mayo festival

BROOKINGS — Brookings will host its inaugural Cinco de Mayo festival on May 2, a grassroots celebration that organizers hope will become a new community tradition at Pioneer Park.

“Come out and enjoy the day, because it is a family event,” Diana Gomez, one of the event’s organizers, told The Brookings Register. “Our main focus is the kids so they can come and have a good time.”

She said planning for the festival has been underway since March. It’ll run from 2 to 8 p.m. at the park. The holiday itself is on May 5.

“We’re just hoping to see if it becomes a movement here,” she said.

Grassroots efforts and the generosity of volunteers played a big role in getting the festival off the ground.

“We have a ton of donations from local Latinos around here, around the area, who cook, who like to grill out and have their own side businesses,” Gomez explained. “It’s not just one person — it’s a whole lot of community of Latinos coming together to put this on.”

She said planners are expecting up to 300 guests but are prepared for twice that number. After all, Brookings is a booming community, made even more so by the presence of South Dakota State University.

“Establishing it in Brookings — it’s a great location here, with the college students being in town,” Gomez said. “That was another reason; we’re trying to get them to come, too, before their graduation (May 9).”

Of course, no festival is complete without food and drink options, and there will be plenty of both on May 2.

Refreshment options will include a variety of aguas frescas. They’re a light, non-alcoholic beverage made by blending fruits, cereals, flowers, or seeds with water and sugar.

On the food side, meatier options include carnitas.

“That’s pork meat deep-fried in Crisco and it’s soft, but it’s a crispiness of the meat that’s on the outside — that’s going to be our biggest seller,” Gomez said. “I know people around here, they’ve tried regular street tacos at the local businesses here, and we’re like, ‘Well, we’ll try carnita tacos.’ It’s pretty good. It’ll have salsa, cilantro and onion — it’ll be great.”

She noted that there will be other kinds of tacos as well, including those folks are more familiar with, but carnitas are expected to be the festival’s biggest seller. Beyond that, Mexican appetizers will also be available to purchase, including chicharrónes.

“It’s made out of flour, but it’s like compressed when it’s made and dried — like dehydrated,” Gomez explained. “So, when you fry it, it will expand pretty big. So, it’s kind of like chips, but our Mexican chips. It’s pretty good.”

Long story short, folks, plan to come thirsty and hungry to Pioneer Park on May 2. Your taste buds will appreciate the cultural deliciousness.

That said, there’s more to the festival than food and drink — traditional Mexican games are part of the mix as well.

Gomez described one that originated as something other than a game: “In our tradition, your mom, when she kind of wanted to scare you, she would grab a chancla — you know, a sandal — and just put it in her hand. Just intimidation, kind of something like that. But now it’s become normal to where it’s become a game.”

It’s part of something known as La Chancla games, and this version involves children grabbing sandals and using them to try and knock down a pyramid. Another exciting option includes Loteria, which is like bingo, but relies on colorful, iconic images instead of numbers.

“We’re going to put them out there and try to make it a custom of, hopefully, an annual festival here in town,” Gomez said.

Now, here’s the part that’s really exciting, especially for youngsters with a sweet tooth: Multiple pinatas, each filled with candy and donated by El Tapatio.

“We actually have two great, big pinatas that were donated, and they’re going to have a lot of candy,” Gomez said, estimating it at 40 pounds of sweetness. “The kids are going to be blindfolded, and we’re going to put a barrier around to make sure nobody gets hurt, but it’s going to be neat to see the kids try to hit a pinata. Maybe it might be some kid’s first time ever hitting a pinata. So, that’s cool — that’s one of the exciting parts for the kids.”

She said there’s also smaller pinatas as well, so there’ll be multiple sources of candy for youngsters. “We have a lot of kids around here who play baseball and softball, so they’re going to knock it out of the park if we let them.”

The pinatas will contain items such as Starbursts, Skittles and so on. There was some discussion about adding traditional Mexican candy, but the idea was nixed for this year, but might be included in future celebrations.

“Our palates are different, and sometimes Mexican candy has a little bit of spice to (it),” Gomez said.

In closing, while the Cinco de Mayo festival will focus on drinks, food, gaming and pounding pinatas, it’s also about celebrating a great military victory Mexico had over the forces of France’s Napoleon III in 1862, according to Britannica.com.

“A lot of people think it’s Mexican Independence Day, but it isn’t. It was a war that was won with France,” she explained. “Our DJ, he will be speaking a little bit on topics like that; he speaks both languages, English and Spanish, so he will be great.”

Taken all together, Gomez has a singular desire: “We just hope that people come out and have a good time.”

— Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].