The 152nd Street Cultural Festival 2024 in Longwood, The Bronx, is a Puerto Rican street fair that kicks off the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
Bring la bandera mas bonita and get ready for some good bomba, plena, música jíbara, salsa, and more.
152nd Street Festival 2024
The 152nd Street Cultural Festival is a family-friendly street fair of Puerto Rican music, culture, food, and activities for little Boricuas; on 152nd St between Jackson and Tinton Avenue in Longwood, The Bronx; over Memorial Day Weekend on Saturday, May 25, 2024 from 12-5pm. FREE 🇵🇷
There is live music, dancing, celebrities, and a children’s pavilion with storytelling, face painting, and art projects for kids. There are kiosks with traditional food, artisanal arts and crafts, and many giveaways. It’s like the famous kioskos in Luquillo.
It’s a modern Taíno areíto, a Puerto Rican pueblo Fiesta Patronales in The Bronx. The way the streets are filled with so many Puerto Ricans is like Las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián, Puerto Rico’s biggest festival in Old San Juan.
A Modern Taíno Areíto
Every little town in Puerto Rico has its own fiesta patronales. This is the Bronx version. Just like in Puerto Rico, kioskos will be selling la comida criolla (home food) and drink, and artisanal arts and crafts. There are lots of things for kids to do.
The patron saint of The Bronx is celebrated in August, but in Puerto Rico, Lajas and Toa Alto have festivals around this time. Lajas celebrates El Festival de la Piña Paradisíaca (Pineapple Paradise Festival). Toa Alta honors San Fernando.
If you think about it, the 152nd Street Festival is a modern version of an Indigenous Taíno areíto. That’s a tribal gathering where everyone comes together. We drum, sing, dance, pray, and tell the stories of our people. We eat, drink, laugh, and afterwards we, well you know. It’s also a time and place where we teach our children who they are. It’s when we pass our culture down through the generations. The colonizers said we died out, but we didn’t. They just stopped counting us. El tribu vive en la communidad Puertorriqueña. The tribe lives on in the Puerto Rican community.
¡WEPA!