Cinco de Mayo fest hopes for better weather in fourth year

FERNDALE — The Cinco de Mayo Festival is back again in Ferndale for its fourth year.

Held annually since 2023 in downtown Ferndale, the Cinco de Mayo Festival will take place from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, May 2, and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday, May 3, on East Nine Mile Road.

The free event, hosted by Mezcal Mexican Bar and Kitchen, hopes to have better conditions than last year after the festival suffered from rainfall. The inclement weather didn’t push organizers from wanting to celebrate Cinco de Mayo again.

“It did affect us, but we were sure we wanted to do this every year, and hopefully it gets bigger and bigger,” Mezcal co-owner Sandra Haro said. “I mean, the weather, you know, hopefully this year it’s nice. As long as it’s not raining, we’re OK.”

In the event that it does rain again this year, Haro said they did get bigger tents for attendees to get cover.

“It’s a bigger tent than last year in case it rains, but I think it’s going to be by day we’re going to figure it out,” she said.

Haro is excited to have people attend each year so they can continue to share Mexican culture with everyone who attends.

“We like it when people come and enjoy what we’re trying to do (with) the event,” she said.

Along with live mariachi music and food trucks, there also will be face painting and inflatables for kids, dancers, a free VIP section with cocktail drinks from Mezcal, and the return of lucha libre from Pure Pro Wrestling.

The wrestling shows at last year’s event were affected by the rain. When this happens, Promoter Joe Byrd said they will adjust their bell times for any delays that weather might cause their outdoor shows.

“What we’ll do is we will turn one of the shows into, like, a super card or so to speak,” he said. “Typically, when we do festivals, they’re usually 45 minutes to one-hour shows. We’re there for three shows a day or two shows a day, depending on where we’re at. So, if we have to cancel one of them, then usually that last one will go an extra hour or we’ll give them a specialty match or something like that, but really we just work around it the best that we can, just like any other festival would.”

Byrd is excited to be coming back for another year with the Cinco de Mayo Festival, as he feels they provide a show that gives people who aren’t wrestling fans something to enjoy.

“(It’s) something to kind of stand and watch, where they can have a blast with and be interactive, something their kids are immediately captivated by and drawn into,” he said. “We really take pride in what we do, and we’ve got a lot of great wrestlers that are booked to come — we call it Lucha Fest — to perform, and each show is going to be unique and different with different main events. We’ve got a lot of our champions that are going to be there, we’ve got luchadors in full costume that’s going to be there, and you’re going to see a lot of high flying action, and it’s just going to be a lot of fun.”

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