San Antonio cancels annual Fiesta
SAN ANTONIO — For the first time since World War II, San Antonio will not throw its annual 11day Fiesta bash.
They citywide celebration had been postponed because of the pandemic from April to November before the plug was pulled entirely on the 2020 event. Fiesta 2021 will take place April 15-25, the Fiesta San Antonio Commission announced Friday.
As the number of COVID-19 cases continued to increase dramatically in recent weeks, the Fiesta Commission stayed in close contact with the city. During a call Friday, Mayor Ron Nirenberg told representatives that he “wasn’t comfortable” going forward as planned, according to Baltazar Serna Jr., a lawyer who is Fiesta Commission president.
“At the end of the day, it was the city’s decision,” he said. “And we support them 100 percent.”
In a statement posted on its social media accounts Friday, the Fiesta Commission wrote, “We recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic is not likely to subside sufficiently at any time in 2020 and, in light of public health directives from the governor, Bexar County, and the city of San Antonio, we must forgo Fiesta 2020 in November.”
The commission is encouraging organizers of each Fiesta event to honor tickets sold for 2020 events in April 2021.
Fiesta is just the latest in a series of big, crowdpleasing festivals to fall victim to the coronavirus. Earlier this year, Austin’s South by Southwest in March was canceled, as was Austin City Limits, which would have been held in October. April’s Coachella, the popular music festival in California, also was nixed. And on Tuesday, the State Fair of Texas, which would have run in September, was canceled.
Fiesta has an annual economic impact of more than $340 million, supports 3,464 full-timeequivalent jobs and is attended by about 2.5 million people, according to the Fiesta Commission. The cancellation will be a blow to many area nonprofits, which rely on money raised during the festivities to fund programs, grant scholarships and pay for staff and other expenses.
“We will have to endure some really uncomfortable cuts and, frankly, we’re going to have to work harder with fewer staff and fewer resources in the future,” said according to Paula Owen, president of the Southwest School of Art, which typically gets 4% of its budget from the Fiesta Arts Fair.
Beyond the lost charitable funds, there was a general air of sorrow that the citywide party that is so much a part of San Antonio’s identity won’t happen.
“We’re just as disappointed as everybody else,” said Sandy Saks, a board of member on the Rey Feo Scholarship Committee, which now is looking for ways to connect more directly, if distantly, with donors. “Fiesta is so exciting. It gives so much to the city. But this is just a hiccup. We have to keep the city and the country safe. We’re looking forward April.”