Fiesta San Antonio (or simply Fiesta) has been since its 1891 inception an annual festival held in April in San Antonio, Texas. It is the city's signature event, along with some events held in the neighboring cities: Boerne, Schertz, Windcrest, Balcones Heights, and Alamo Heights). The festival, also known as the Battle of Flowers, commemorates of the Battle of the Alamo, which took place in San Antonio, and the Battle of San Jacinto, which led to Texas' independence from Mexico in April 1836.
Fiesta is the city's biggest festival, with an economic impact of $340 million for the city. [1] More than three million people take part, [2] in more than 100 events that take place all over the city and beyond. [2]
The festival began in 1891, when local women decorated carriages, baby buggies and bicycles with live flowers, met in front of the Alamo, and threw flowers at one another, thus inspiring the name "Battle of Flowers." [3] Soon, other activities were added to the flower parade, including balls, parties and a carnival. The celebration's name changed over the years from Carnival to Spring Carnival to Fiesta San Jacinto and, in 1960, to Fiesta San Antonio.
The Battle of Flowers Parade Association began crowning a Carnival Queen in 1895. [3] In 1909, local businessman John Carrington established The Order of the Alamo with the purpose of crowning a queen, a princess and 24 duchesses — 12 from San Antonio and 12 from out of town. Coronations of local "royalty", a carnival and other activities became the forerunners of today's fiesta. [3] In 2016, Fiesta celebrated its 125th birthday with special events and ceremony.
Today, more than 100 local nonprofit groups, members of the Fiesta San Antonio Commission, stage more than 100 events over 17 days with the help of some 75,000 volunteers. [4]
Fiesta events include three major parades—two along Broadway and past the Alamo, and a boat parade at the San Antonio River Walk (where the "floats" actually float).
Louisiana cuisine is sold at "A Taste of New Orleans" in Brackenridge Park, and oysters and other foods are offered at St. Mary's University's Fiesta Oyster Bake. There are music (six performance stages) and cultural events, lasting two days.
A Night in Old San Antonio (NIOSA) is a four-evening block party at La Villita downtown.
Fiesta in Blue is another annual event, featuring the USAF Band of the West. Two evenings of concerts are put on in downtown San Antonio featuring classical, jazz, and rock/popular music.
Music offered includes Tejano, jazz, mariachi, rock, big band, classical, and pop. History events are held at the Pilgrimage to the Alamo or This Hallowed Ground. Sporting events include races, soccer, rugby, and lacrosse.
Cornyation, a satirical musical and comedy review for adults, was first staged by theatrical director Joe Salek in 1951. This mockery of solemn Fiesta coronations was inspired when he witnessed the coronation of the Order of the Alamo's Queen in 1950. After a wardrobe malfunction caused its cancellation for several years, it was revived in 1982. [5]
Residents and visitors can get souvenir pins and medals from various dignitaries, organizations, and from Fiesta royalty.
The Battle of Flowers Parade is the oldest Fiesta event and is organized entirely by women. The parade attracts crowds of more than 350,000 on the second Friday of Fiesta. It is the only major parade in the U.S. conceived and produced entirely by women, all of whom are volunteers. The women, dressed in yellow on parade day and wearing yellow hats, direct operations with the assistance of the Army National Guard. Several school districts within San Antonio treat the day of the Battle of Flowers as a local holiday and consequently don't hold classes.
The Fiesta Flambeau Parade starts at sunset on the second Saturday of the festival. Dating from 1948, the parade is illuminated by thousands of lights on the dancers, the band instruments, the horses, the cars, and the floats. An estimated crowd of 600,000 filled the parade route in 2011 to watch the Fiesta Flambeau Parade.
Art historian Ruben C. Cordova documents the deeply racist remarks made by central figures in the Texian revolt against Mexico, and questions why the victory over Mexico is celebrated with Mexican music, food and drink. In their place, he sardonically suggests some unappetizing Anglo-Celtic foodstuffs and "Riverdancing on the Riverwalk" to the tune of bagpipes and banjoes. [5]
Fiesta has also been criticized for the racially exclusionary membership of the most elite organizations associated with Fiesta. The Order of the Alamo and the Texas Cavaliers hold rituals in the Alamo church and crown royalty from their own membership, "who preside over brown subjects." [5] Lilliana Saldaña, associate professor of bicultural-bilingual studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, points out: "Anglo elite place themselves as sort of cultural guardians of the city of San Antonio, which is why they have this fake monarchy, and they have pseudo military." She concludes that Fiesta "does celebrate white supremacy." [6] Writer and producer John Phillip Santos, who characterizes the annual visits made by King Antonio (crowned by the Cavaliers) to his childhood schools as "ostentatious," "distant," and "aggressive," says Fiesta rituals did not include the Mexican American community. [6] Artist Mel Casas (1929-2014) mocked Fiesta queens in a large painting made in 1969 called Humanscape #58 (San Antonio Circus). [5] Cordova proposes a change of date and a "decoupling" of Fiesta from commemorations of battles: "Keep the party, lose the war." [5] Laura Hernández-Ehrisman, author of "Inventing the Fiesta City: Heritage and Carnival in San Antonio," says Fiesta will be divisive as long as it is connected to the Texas Revolution. [7] Several people interviewed by Madalyn Mendoza underscore the importance of severing Fiesta from the war it was invented to commemorate. [7]
Overseeing the festival is a single nonprofit organization, the Fiesta San Antonio Commission. The sponsoring organizations must meet the commission's criteria before receiving approval and being invited to join.
The commission is governed by an all-volunteer board of community leaders and representatives from its nonprofit participating member organizations. The group works throughout the year, coordinating the details and day-to-day tasks required to plan the citywide event. The commission also serves as a liaison between its nonprofit members, the local military activities, and the City of San Antonio. City services are essential to the conduct of Fiesta.
The commission receives no government funding. Its income comes from corporate partnerships, sales in the Fiesta Store, membership dues, and proceeds from the Fiesta Carnival.
April 18–28, 2024, April 24-May 4, 2025, April 16–26, 2026, April 15–25, 2027, April 20–30, 2028. [8]
The Alamo is a historic Spanish mission and fortress compound founded in the 18th century by Roman Catholic missionaries in what is now San Antonio, Texas, United States. It was the site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, a pivotal event of the Texas Revolution in which American folk heroes James Bowie and Davy Crockett were killed. Today it is a museum in the Alamo Plaza Historic District and a part of the San Antonio Missions World Heritage Site.
The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day La Porte and Deer Park, Texas, was the final and decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Samuel Houston, the Texan Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican army in a fight that lasted just 18 minutes. A detailed, first-hand account of the battle was written by General Houston from the headquarters of the Texan Army in San Jacinto on April 25, 1836. Numerous secondary analyses and interpretations have followed.
Juan Nepomuceno Seguín was a Spanish-Tejano political and military figure of the Texas Revolution who helped to establish the independence of Texas. Numerous places and institutions are named in his honor, including the county seat of Seguin in Guadalupe County, the Juan N. Seguin Memorial Interchange in Houston, Juan Seguin Monument in Seguin, World War II Liberty Ship SS Juan N. Seguin, Seguin High School in Arlington.
The San Jacinto Monument is a 567.31-foot-high (172.92-meter) column located on the Houston Ship Channel in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, about 16 miles due east of downtown Houston. The Art Deco monument is topped with a 220-ton star that commemorates the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. The monument, constructed between 1936 and 1939 and dedicated on April 21, 1939, is the world's tallest masonry column and is part of the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site. By comparison, the Washington Monument is 554.612 feet (169.046 m) tall, which is the tallest stone monument in the world. The column is an octagonal shaft topped with a 34-foot (10 m) Lone Star – the symbol of Texas. Visitors can take an elevator to the monument's observation deck for a view of Houston and the San Jacinto battlefield.
A float is a decorated platform, either built on a vehicle like a truck or towed behind one, which is a component of many festive parades, such as those of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, the Carnival in São Paulo, the Carnival of Viareggio, the Maltese Carnival, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, the 500 Festival Parade in Indianapolis, the United States Presidential Inaugural Parade, and the Tournament of Roses Parade. For the latter event, floats are decorated entirely in flowers or other plant material.
The San Antonio River Walk is a city park and special-case pedestrian street in San Antonio, Texas, one level down from the automobile street. The River Walk winds and loops under bridges as two parallel sidewalks lined with restaurants and shops, connecting the major tourist draws such as the Shops at Rivercenter, the Arneson River Theatre, Marriage Island, La Villita, HemisFair Park, the Tower Life Building, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Pearl, and the city's five Spanish colonial missions, which have been named a World Heritage Site, which includes the Alamo. During the annual springtime Fiesta San Antonio, the River Parade features flowery floats that float down the river.
The Barranquilla Carnival is one of Colombia's most important folkloric celebrations, and one of the biggest carnivals in the world. The carnival has traditions that date back to the 19th century. Four days before Lent, Barranquilla decks itself out to receive national and foreign tourists to join together with the city's inhabitants to enjoy four days of intense festivities. During the carnival, Barranquilla's normal activities are put aside as the city gets busy with street dances, musical and masquerade parades. The Carnival Of Barranquilla includes dances such as the Spanish paleo, African Congo, and indigenous mice y mica's. Many styles of Colombian music are also performed, most prominently cumbia, and instruments include drums and wind ensembles. The Carnival of Barranquilla was proclaimed a Cultural Masterpiece of the Nation by Colombia's National Congress in 2002. Also the UNESCO, in Paris on November 7, 2003, declared it one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and it was during Olga Lucia Rodriguez Carnival Queen year.
The San Antonio River is a major waterway that originates in central Texas in a cluster of springs in midtown San Antonio, about 4 miles north of downtown, and follows a roughly southeastern path through the state. It eventually feeds into the Guadalupe River about 10 miles from San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The river is 240 miles long and crosses five counties: Bexar, Goliad, Karnes, Refugio, and Wilson.
Texas Independence Day is the celebration of the adoption of the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836. With this document, signed by 59 delegates, settlers in Mexican Texas officially declared independence from Mexico and created the Republic of Texas.
The Alamo City Rugby Football Club is an American rugby union club that is based in San Antonio, Texas. Alamo City RFC plays in the Texas Rugby Union Men's Division 2 league. Home matches are held at the Bowie Field rugby pitches located inside Brooks Park in southeast San Antonio, TX. The nickname for Alamo City Rugby is "The Defenders".
The culture of San Antonio reflects the history and culture of one of the state's oldest and largest cities straddling the regional and cultural divide between South and Central Texas. Historically, San Antonio culture comes from a blend of Central Texas and South Texas (Southwestern) culture. Founded as a Spanish outpost and the first civil settlement in Texas, San Antonio is heavily influenced by Mexican American culture due to Texas formerly being part of Mexico and, previously, the Spanish Empire. The city also has significant German, Anglo, and African American cultural influences. San Antonio offers a host of cultural institutions, events, restaurants and nightlife in South Texas for both residents and visitors alike.
Fiesta Noche del Rio is a seasonal outdoor performance in San Antonio, Texas which features the songs and dances of Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and the U.S. states of California and Texas.
A flower parade is a parade in which the floats, vehicles, boats, participants, animals and other things are decorated or covered in flowers. Often there are other elements like marching bands and people in costumes. Flower parades are held in several countries, many of which celebrate the forthcoming of the seasons. The oldest flower parade dates back to the 1800s.
La Villita Historic Arts Village is an art community in downtown San Antonio, Texas, United States. There are art galleries, stores selling souvenirs, gifts, custom jewelry, pottery, and imported Mexican folk art, as well as several restaurants in the district. La Villita connects to the San Antonio River Walk and its outdoor venue, the Arneson River Theatre. It is close to the Alamo, the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Rivercenter Mall, and HemisFair Park. It is within walking distance of most downtown hotels.
The City of San Antonio is one of the oldest Spanish settlements in Texas and was, for decades, its largest city. Before Spanish colonization, the site was occupied for thousands of years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. The historic Payaya Indians were likely those who encountered the first Europeans.
Salvador Flores served as a volunteer in the Texan Army in 1835–1836. He was instrumental in organizing and commanding Texian volunteers in support of the Texas Revolution. He participated in many battles and would rise through the ranks to reach Captain status during the fight for Texas independence from Mexico. Salvador continued to provide protection for the ranches and settlers of Texas throughout the Republic years.
Manuel Flores served as a volunteer in the Texas army in 1835–1838. Fighting and commanding, he rose through the ranks to reach sergeant status during the fight for Texas independence and was commissioned a captain during the Republic years.
Events in the year 1836 in Mexico.
Carnival in Mexico is celebrated by about 225 communities in various ways, with the largest and best known modern celebrations occurring in Mazatlán and the city of Veracruz.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of San Antonio, Texas, United States.
The $340 million impact of Fiesta San Antonio is greater than projections for 2018 the San Antonio Tricentennial and Final Four combined, as well as many other well-known festivals like the Kentucky Derby and Indianapolis 500 Festival.