NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Southwest Bricktown Fiesta is Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at SW Bricktown Park at 301 West 1st.
"The Hutchinson Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative has been working with, now the SW Bricktown neighborhood since 2014," said Adam Stewart with Hutch Rec. "One of the things that neighborhood has identified as something they really want to do is have these community events to really celebrate the community and celebrate the neighborhood."
The event is to commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month and includes music from Mariachis Jalisco, The Hutch Clique, the DJs from 620 in the Mix and the headliner is Cojunto Rival from Wichita. There will also be lots of food and drinks at the park.
"That was probably the single biggest thing we learned last year was, we cannot have too many food vendors," Stewart said. "There were some considerable waits last year. We've more than doubled the number of vendors we're going to have this year to help alleviate that. We'll have a mix of food trucks and food stands."
In addition to those, there will be a beer garden by Reno County Boxing Academy with food and a special Mexican-style lager brewed by Sandhills Brewing in Hutchinson. There will also be a silent auction to benefit the virtual school program at Avenue A School that will include signed T-Shirts they were able to get when Gabriel Iglesias, also known as Fluffy, came to town for the Kansas State Fair.
The event is for everyone, not just those that live in SW Bricktown, according to board member Adam Pina.
"I grew up on the 600 block of West Sherman," Pina said. "After attending the first event, I have since moved out of that neighborhood, but I had to be involved in it. It was something that I had always believed in, community outreach and just bringing our community together as a whole and reaching out to everybody and showing what we have to offer, especially in the Southwest Bricktown area."
The event last year had around 1000 people, but everything is free and it's for everyone in town, so Pina and Stewart would like to see the event grow into something that everyone in Hutchinson can come down and enjoy.