Cinco de Mayo event heading downtown

Local businesses are coming together to bring the inaugural Festival de Cinco de Mayo de Graham to the downtown square. With food, entertainment, children’s activities and more, the event is looking to liven up the square.

The festival will be held on Fourth Street and Oak Street from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 4. Owner of Neri’s on the Square, Neri Gonzalez, who is part of the Cinco de Mayo committee coordinating the event, said it continues to grow.

“We were trying to go so small and it’s growing and we love that for being so organic. We love that everyone in the United States is so familiar with Cinco de Mayo and people look forward to drinking margaritas and eating Mexican food,” she said. “But the most important thing that is just so amazing is that it’s more of a family event (where) everybody (can) bring (their) kids and it’s just an opportunity to see how everybody can just come together and just do something for our square and our town.”

The committee was granted permission from the Graham City Council to close Fourth Street and Oak Street on the square for the event. Gonzalez said Oak Street will have children’s activities while Fourth Street will have vendors and live entertainment.

“Right now the plan is to have Fourth Street with all food vendors, Mexican snacks, Mexican food, margaritas, because we were also able to get the alcohol sales and consumption on the street permit for that day,” she said.

Children’s activities will include bounce houses, face painting and balloon and glitter tattoo artists. Entertainment on the Fourth Street side will include a mariachi band and traditional dancers.

“This mariachi band is the official mariachi band of the Texas Rangers. It’s a big mariachi band. They’re so fun and they’re so great,” Gonzalez said. “We will also have a few sets of traditional Mexican dancers that will be performing that day.”

Safety was a focus of the committee so the event will have 10 off-duty and on-duty police officers who are working the event that day, according to Gonzalez.

Those that wish to be vendors can visit the Graham Downtown Business Association Facebook page, or pick up an application at 525 Salon, Neri’s on the Square or Graham Wines. The committee is also inviting businesses on Fourth and Oak Streets to bring their wares outside for the event.

“We are inviting all the retail stores to come out of their store and have sidewalk sales,” Gonzalez said. “So there will be sidewalk sales and you’ll be able to buy food, buy drinks, listen to the mariachi band and bring your kids.”

Following the festival, Middle Sister will have live music and drink specials and Neri’s on the Square will also be having a special Cinco de Mayo dinner and drink specials. Another event will end the Cinco de Mayo celebrations Sunday.

“Dos Leones is going to put on a big fiesta and they are inviting all the people in Graham, their customers and everybody to come,” Gonzalez said. “They’re going to close some part of their parking lot and they’re going to have margaritas at the patio, a taco bar and they’re going to... have a mariachi band too.”

Gonzalez said that last year they wanted to close the street and host a festival while bringing all the neighboring businesses together, but it was too fast to make that happen.

“We just invited all the neighbors on the square to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and they (had) specials,” she said. “Neri’s donated a few gallons of margaritas to people that participated and they gave that to their customers. So it was something (that) people really enjoyed that day. ...A lot of people came out just to celebrate (and) to eat.”

After the smaller event last year, Gonzalez said a few neighboring businesses on the square approached her to make the event larger this year.

She approached the city regarding the details and a Cinco de Mayo committee was formed composed of members Gonzalez, Michael Armstrong, Clara Salazar, Isabel Smith, Sherry Walls, Letty Fuentes and Heather Lindley.

“I don’t think anything is possible if you don’t work together in having each other’s back and wishing success to others around you is so important to make something successful,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said the event will stay local, help smaller businesses in Graham and help to bring the community and businesses together.

“We’re bringing our whole square together to put this event on. That’s kind of our main focus to make the square look really festive and bring people from all over the place,” she said. “We’re inviting everybody from around this area and also all the other cities around Graham, but also people from Wichita Falls in Fort Worth. We want people to come here.”