Local Travel - Hispanic Festival

Next up in our local series is the Hispanic Heritage Festival, which is a lively festival that celebrates Latin American heritage each year at the Dayton RiverScape MetroPark. This festival is well-attended and takes place just one day, this year lasting from 11am-11pm.

The music was great, especially if you like merengue

In terms of local festivals, this is one of my favorites, and much of that has to do with the food. From spicy pork to savory empanadas, you can find a lot to sample here. This was definitely my favorite part, although I will say that the drink selection (which consisted solely of Yuengling and Sam Adams) left something to be desired. I couldn't even find a Corona, let alone Dos Equis or a Modelo. Still, the food is the real draw for us anyways. If you're a fan of Salsa or Merengue music, you're sure to enjoy some dancing too. I, however, could hardly walk (let alone dance) after sampling all the food I could. Here's what we did.

Plenty of food tents, although the ones on St. Clair were the best

Plenty of grilled food, including Mexican...

...and Peruvian (great empanadas here)

St. Clair is where the better food tents and vendor booths are located

The Lydys, Emerie, Peggy, and Jordan joined us for this trip. Festivals are always better with friends.

Ezra checks out some of the stands

Mmm... empanadas (I had two - steak and chicken)

Ironically, we got caught in the rain while drinking this... true story. Even these were non-alcoholic though, but still tasty.

The pavilion had some music and dancing as well, but to be honest I spent most of my time wandering around here after a brief excursion with Jordan to find an ATM (the closest of which, by the way, is directly East of the MetroParks main office at 409 E. Monument St).

Antojitos Criollos was probably the best food tent we tried, as the line can attest. It's also a local Puerto Rican restaurant that we plan to try now, located at 3937 Linden Ave.

Potatoes, beans and rice, and chicken and pork from Antojitos Criollos

Emerie and Peggy enjoying the fried plantains. The sweet fried plantains were delicious!

Between the food, music, and friends, this is always a fun festival to visit. There's stuff for the kids as well, including games and face-painting. Afterwards part of the group went to see Dr. Strangelove at the Victoria Theater, which was playing as part of their Cool Films Series. We would have joined, but had a class reunion to attend the same evening. It was a great time though and the festival is definitely worth the trip downtown. Enjoy!