Fiesta Amistad is now Freedom Fest
Organizers, embracing change, want the festival to be ethnically open, diverse.
Round Rock-based El Amistad Club’s largest annual fundraiser, Fiesta Amistad, will have a new twist, including a different name, added features and activities this weekend.
“It was primarily a Hispanic cultural event that had Tejano music, ballet folklorico and honoring of veterans. We’ll still have some of those traditions. We’re still going to embrace that but we’re growing and embracing our change,” said club Vice President David Villarreal of the newly dubbed Freedom Fest. “We wanted to not have a biased cultural festival.
“We wanted it to be ethnically open and diverse. We’re trying to make it just as open a community as Round Rock itself. So we’ve added lineups that include country music, rock, blues. ... English mainstream music, really. We’re still going to have Tejano bands at the very end of the show but even the choice of music will still be blended.”
El Amistad Club has been around for nearly half a century and its mission has been to award scholarships to deserving high school seniors wishing to pursue higher education study or training. The annual festival, in its 46th year, is the group’s largest scholarship fundraiser.
The goal originally was to raise funds for Hispanic students but has evolved to include a membership and scholarship recipient base with diverse backgrounds and representing varied ethnicities, Villarreal noted.
“I think this is a good time to bring your friends and families and try to help your local community. Just like we’ve helped other kids, we want to help yours, too,” Villarreal said. “The best gift we can give them is a good start to an education.”
The event will include a health and wellness component coordinated in partnership with the Round Rock Parks and Recreation Department.
“That’s why we started our Freedom Fest 5K Run with obstacle courses for all ages,” Villarreal said. “There will be an emphasis on some vendors promoting health and wellness and we’ll still have all the slides, rides, barbecue and arts and crafts, but we just wanted to make it more open to representation of what Round Rock is today.”
The new name for the festival was a fit, Villarreal said, because the event continues the tradition of honoring military veterans and occurs on Memorial Day weekend.
“We thought about Memorial Day and what it celebrates - the ultimate price that American soldiers gave for freedom both domestic and abroad,” he said. “We figured it would be right to name it after that kind of powerful statement to celebrate freedom for those who can’t.”