Hola Festival in the media
Knox County
Web School
October 2008
Festival Report
HoLa Hora Latina held the 2008 HoLa Festival on Saturday, September 27th from 11am to 8pm in beautiful Downtown Market Square. In spite of the occasional rain, a televised UT football game and many other festivals on the same day, we had close to 10,000 people come to the HoLa Festival, about twice what we had expected!
The HoLa Festival is a day-long celebration of diversity and a cultural salute to our East Tennessee community. Known for its rich mix of music, dance, food, arts and crafts, the Hola Festival also features its unique Parade of Nations, a visual treat that highlights the varied and colorful costumes of Spain and Latin America.
This year, our emphasis was to show the diversity of our cultures. We accomplished this, by showcasing a great variety of music. Market Square heard the exciting sounds of Salsa and Merengue, the popular sounds of Mariachi type music and music of the Andes. We are proud that the Southern Arts Federation, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Tennessee Arts Commission awarded HoLa Hora Latina a grant to bring Vientos del Pueblo to the 2008 HoLa Festival to play music of the Andes! Another way we showed the diversity of our cultures was through dancing. We had Tango, Salsa, Mexican folkloric dances, Flamenco and even a Capoeira demonstration, Brazilian Martial Arts. We clearly showed the community the great variety in our food. We carefully chose the food vendors to ensure authenticity. Festival goers were able to choose food from: Colombia, Guatemala, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras and El Salvador. Even if we had vendors from the same country, we coordinated the menus to avoid replication of the foods being offered.
We had many children’s activities this year. Besides the normal festival attractions like face painting, basketball game and bouncy house, we had some very special activities. The passport event was not only fun, but also educational, and it attracted many students from local schools including: Carter, Seymour, Lenoir City, Anderson Co., Hardin Valley, Webb, CAK, Oak Ridge, Central, Rocky Hill, Farragut, South Doyle, Gibbs, Amherst, Bearden, home schoolers and others. The passport was beautifully designed by Lizzie Mamantov, a student at Webb School of Knoxville. Kids picked up the passport at the U.S. table, where they received the first flag sticker on the US page of their passport. From there, they were able to “travel” from table to table throughout Krutch Park, visiting, learning and collecting the corresponding flag sticker for their passports. We also had special visitors such as the Kids on the Block Puppets and the Zoomobile. Home Depot had a wonderful woodshop where kids worked on their own wood creations.
The kids also had the opportunity to make their own musical instruments (guitar and flute), as part of the educational component for the grant given by the Southern Arts Federation. Mayfield Dairy and Bush Brothers gave away samples of their great products. East Tennessee Children’s Hospital and SafeKids had valuable information to give out, as well as many prizes. Susan Cook, Coordinator of Safe Kids of Greater Knox Area wrote to us: “In addition to the English information we distributed, we gave out approximately 250 packets of information in Spanish that addressed car seat safety and fire safety.” At the Community Tables section, Festival goers had the opportunity to pick up valuable information from non-profit organizations such as: Kidney Foundation, American Red Cross, Knox County Public Library, YWCA of Knoxville, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Knox County Health Department, COVER KIDS TENN, Knox County Schools Birth to Kindergarten and many others.
Major sponsors of the Hola Festival included: Scripps Networks, US Cellular, Central Business Improvement District, WBIR, News Sentinel, Mundo Hispano, 93.5, Journal Broadcast Group (93.1, Hot 104.5, Star 102.1, Studio 1040), Regal Entertainment, Bush Beans, Bud Light, Children’s Hospital, Safe Kids, Home Depot, TVA, Department of Energy, Southern Arts Federation, Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.
HoLa Hora Latina is so proud to have facilitated the exchange of culture and information that benefited the community as a whole. We are proud to be part of this great community of Knoxville, Knox County and East Tennessee. We are touched by the response from the community and by their support that helped make the 2008 HoLa Festival such a success!
¡Viva Knoxville!
