¡Viva Perry! Latino Festival to return Aug. 24 with music, dancers, kids activities

Perry’s annual Latino Festival returns Saturday with food, music, dancers and kids activities.

“We encourage everybody to come and have a good time,” organizer Rosa Gonzalez said.

The festival, hosted by Hispanics United for Perry, will kick off with a parade at 10 a.m. The parade is open to everyone and those interested in participating can start lining up around 9:30 a.m. on 12th Street. The route will closely follow Perry’s Fourth of July parade, traveling down Willis to Pattee Park.

Activities will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Pattee Park, including music, dancers and a variety of food and other vendors.

“Throughout the day, we’ll have a variety of food, not just your typical pupusas and tacos, but we also have funnel cakes, lemonade and hot dogs,” Gonzalez said.

The Perry Public Library will help sponsor kids activities, including giant bubbles, balloons, face painting and a petting zoo. Gonzalez said Iowa Public Television will also be on hand with STEM activities.

The day will be filled with live entertainment from various groups and individuals, including DJs, a band and folkloric dance groups from Des Moines.

HUP will hand out its annual citizenship award at 4:30 p.m., followed by the scholarship award. Gonzalez said they are inviting the 2024 scholarship recipients, Sophia McDevitt and Jose Vargas, to receive their awards.

“We would like to show the community that this is something that HUP also does to support students who want to pursue a post-secondary education,” she added of the annual scholarship program.

T-shirts will be sold during the festival to help support the scholarship fund. Attendees are also encouraged to bring donations of food items or school supplies that HUP will give to the food pantry or the school.

Gonzalez is looking forward to seeing the annual event return on Saturday, especially after the doors closed at Tyson at the end of June .

“We were thinking ‘is this a good time to do the festival or not.’ But we think this is an opportunity for people to get together and enjoy part of their culture, share their culture and a place where you can have a good time,” Gonzalez said. “We hope that this can bring some joy to people.”

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: ¡Viva Perry! Latino Festival to return Aug. 24 with music, dancers, kids activities