The Arts Council of Brownwood and SALSA – the Strategic Alliance for Leadership and Social Action – are partnering to present the 10th annual Cinco De Mayo celebration from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, May 4 in Downtown Brownwood.

A crowd of 10,000 is expected for the 2024 celebration according to Travis Curry, Vice President of the Arts Council and Director of Cinco de Mayo, as the event will stretch nine city blocks along Center Avenue and include over 100 shopping and food vendors and two musical stages.

“I didn’t ever expect it would get as big as it’s ended up getting,” said Dean Kiesling, one of the originators of the Cinco de Mayo celebration, who was involved for the first five years of the event. “I thought it would grow, and it did progressively year by year, but I don’t think I ever envisioned getting as big as it is. It’s awesome, way exciting.”

Reflecting on the origins of the Cinco de Mayo celebration, Kiesling said, “It started with Eric Evans hiring Revolution Strings, a high school group from Abilene, to come and do a concert at the Lyric that happened to fall on Cinco de Mayo weekend. I’ve always had a real interest in Hispanic culture so I went to Eric, and Ray Tipton was with the Chamber at the time and was the third person really big in helping with ideas, and we started brainstorming and came up with the original plan to include the Lyric and Revolution Strings and have vendors up and down the street. The first year we went from Pat Coursey Park down Center Avenue to around the corner at Steves’. It was pretty small the first time, but we planned lots of activities for kids and wanted it to be a family event.”

Curry added, “When I started with the event eight years ago, it was three or four blocks. I’ve watched it grow over the years and more vendors want to participate and more people want to come from out of town. The biggest one we had was after COVID with six weeks to prepare and we had 8,000 people there from all over, and people were amazed we had that many people after everything had been closed down. Our biggest thing is family, and people have said they can come down and enjoy adult entertainment, but still do it as a family. That has helped grow the event along with the partnership of Brownwood and Early combined. People come from all over the county and this year we’ve already had people call and book hotel rooms from San Antonio, Houston and Austin.”

Musical acts will perform on two stages this year – the main Fiesta Celebration Stage near Pat Coursey Park, and the Hometown Celebration Stage near Shaw’s Marketplace.

Bravos de la Region will serve as the headliner on the main Fiesta Celebration Stage and will be joined by the Mo y Su Conjunto band and Corazon de Tejas, an all female mariachi band from San Antonio, who are both returning to Brownwood. Students from Brownwood Music have formed a band and will play for the first hour, as well.

“We listened to the people and they wanted more Tejano and traditional music from Mexico, so this year we’ve made the main stage strictly that,” Curry said.

At the Hometown Celebration Stage, The Damn Quails will serve as the headline act, while The Remedy and Jaydon Ezra will also be among the alternative musical entertainment.

Kids World also returns, as does the car show courtesy of Primo’z Cuztomz, among other events that have not yet been revealed.

New to the event this year is Sisters on the Fly, the largest women’s social group in the U,S. focusing on camping, outdoor activities and events. Sisters on the Fly will bring their air streams to town for the national conference in Brownwood, which will begin Thursday, May 2.

“They’re going to set up around the courthouse and let people come and see their trailers,” Curry said. “There’s about 15 coming as of right now.”

SALSA, a non-profit organization that helps high school graduates with scholarships each year, will be holding to a 50-50 raffle to help generate money for the scholarships. Last year’s SALSA raffle raised $1,700 and a very happy winner took home $850 with just one ticket. SALSA awarded $7,500 in scholarships to 15 graduating high school seniors from Brownwood and surrounding communities. Ticket prices start at 1 for $1, 7 for $5, 15 for $10, and 30 for $20. The winner will be drawn on May 4 at the end of the celebration and will not need to be present to win.

SALSA’ s block will be located between Water Street and South Broadway, and events there include Loteria, a DJ, Bingo, a raffle and a street dance later in the evening. SALSA will also be in charge of all contests this year, which include El Grito, Hot Sauce, and Jalapeno Eating, among others. Registration will take place under the big white tent.

“All of this couldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for our amazing sponsors – the City of Brownwood, Brownwood Feels Like Home, Visit Early Visit Often and Creative Solutions in Health Care, along with TexasBank, Moore Printing, Andy’s Pest Control, PS Mortgage Team, 3M, KOXE, Brownwood News, Stanley Auto Group, Bruner Auto Family, Matt Williams State Farm Insurance, Citizens National Bank, Kirbo’s Office Supply, and Coldwell Banker,” Curry said.

More Cinco de Mayo details can be found at https://www.cincodemayocelebration.com/ and BrownwoodNews.com will have additional information in the future.