This past weekend Denver celebrated Cinco de Mayo at Civic Center Park. It is - according to local media outlets - the largest Cinco de Mayo celebration in the country, and was expected to draw 400,000 people over a three day period. I drove down Saturday afternoon and walked around for an hour, and this only cemented my view about these local festivals. Although there was certainly a lot of Latino food and various other types of Latino booths, this festival is very much interchangeable with the People's Fair here in June and the Taste of Colorado (the Festival of Mountain and Plain) over Labor Day Weekend. I swear many of the merchants are even the same- they just take down the "se habla Espanol" signs when the next festival comes up. And for Exhibit A I have the photograph above, which on the left shows the booths on either side of 14th street, with the state capital in the background. Continue forward and turn left on Broadway, and you have all the food booths. And what are they selling at the food booth in the photograph on the right? Turkey legs, which they sell at each one of these festivals. No doubt these are traditional Mexican turkey legs. I am not saying these festivals are bad. They are great for people watching, but if you have seen one, you have seen them all.
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