Image via Puerto Rican Family Festival
Yussef Morales and Victor Huyke were busy organizing this Sunday’s The Puerto Rican Family Festival. The event which debuted in 2017 was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 and uncertainty continued into 2021. Once the decision was made to go ahead this summer, the permits, acts, vendors and location had to be secured quickly, but Morales and Huyke pulled it off. It is a testament to their organizational abilities, as well as their love for the city of Milwaukee.
The venue changed this year from Humboldt Park to Wilson Park. “Wilson Park is more flat and open, where the three stages of live music, first aid tent, the children’s area and everything else can be more easily seen. That and there’s more off-street parking at Wilson,” Huyke explains.
As in previous years, there will be no alcohol sold as the event is intended for families, although there was a beer garden in 2019 aS. The sheriff’s department enforce the ban on alcohol. This year’s festival will boast 81 vendors, a significant increase from 2019, and includes food, merchandise and health tents. “Five of our food vendors will be here again, and some new ones as well. I am particularly excited about a fusion vendor coming in that blends traditional Chinese cooking with Puerto Rican cuisine, which they call ‘Asian-Rican,’” says Huyke.
Honor the Workers
Apart from vendors, Huyke tells me, they intend to honor the frontline workers who confronted COVID head on during the past year and a half. “Many people of color kept working throughout the pandemic and lost their lives doing it. We intend to honor those people at this year’s festival,” Huyke says.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Morales, who has vast experience putting together events all over the city, also had his hands full, but intends to bring a small piece of each previous event to the festival. He has hosted a Father’s Day car show in the past, and cars have already been registered to be on display this Sunday in Wilson Park’s parking lot. Two of his new business ventures will also make an appearance. Bald Head Mafia, which sells aftershaves, will be represented by a Lamborghini with its logo emblazoned on the hood. Mr. Piragua, which sells shaved ice in the Boricua raspado style, will also be open. A tostones eating contest, domino tournament and dance contest will also be on the docket.
“I am very excited to get back to normal and show Milwaukee the same gratitude that the Latino community has shown us. We have been away for too long, but we are very excited to get out here and give the summer the proper send off like we have in the past,” Morales says. “The smell of Boricua cuisine will soon be wafting in the air, reggaeton bass reverb shaking the leaves off the Wilson park trees, cars revving their engines in the parking lot. This year’s festival is going to be great, but it will only get bigger and better throughout the coming years,” he adds.
The Puerto Rican Family Festival runs 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, August 1. Admission is free.
