In its second year, Colorado Springs celebrates Fiestas Patrias event

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.(KRDO)--On Saturday, thousands of Colorado Springs residents celebrated Mexico's Independence Day. It's the second consecutive year the city hosted Fiestas Patrias. 

The festival started at 11 in the morning. Residents were able to stop by downtown Colorado Springs and enjoy a full day of fun.

"We have more vendors this year than we did the last year, and last year we had almost like 26,000 people and this year we are expecting over 50,000," said Monique Hernandez, founder of Fiestas Patrias in Colorado Springs.

Hernandez said this tradition started all because she saw the need. According to Hernandez, she noticed that in Colorado Springs there was a very large hispanic population, but was one without many Hispanic celebrations. 

"I actually started off doing radio. I did radio for about 20 years in different markets across the country and every market that I went to, there was always a Fiestas Patrias until I came to Colorado Springs," said Hernandez. "That's were the idea began in 2021 and we didn't have our first Fiestas Patrias until 2022 here in beautiful Colorado Springs."

Fiestas Patrias is a celebration to honor Mexico's Independence Day, and all across the world it is celebration in many forms. In Colorado Springs, people were able to honor the day by eating delicious hispanic meals, dancing, singing and watching one of a kind horse performances. 

"Next year we are expecting it to get a lot bigger. We are looking to do a march and in the march what we want to do is invite the community, because that's what we are all about," Hernandez said. "We want to bring all the latin community together and so we can represent each Latin American country."

For those who missed Saturday's celebration, people still have the opportunity to attend Sunday's event. The event will begin at 11 a.m. and end at 8 p.m.