Second time’s the charm for rescheduled Latino Festival

WALLACE — After a brief two-week delay caused by a nor’easter, the Duplin County Latino Cultural Festival made its second-year return to Clement Park in Wallace this past Saturday, celebrating Latino heritage with music, dance, and food under picture-perfect fall skies.

The festival was organized by Wallace Mayor Pro-Tem Francisco Rivas-Dias, who told Duplin Journal that these past two years’ events are actually the rebirth of a Latino Festival held years ago in the community.

“In the past, there used to be a non-profit called the Duplin County Latino Center. They started doing the festival, but the last one was about 15 years ago,” Rivas-Diaz said.

He said the event ended when the non-profit stopped being active after the original organizers left the county.

“I told Brenda (his wife), ‘we haven’t had a Latino Festival in a while,’ and I came up with the idea for me to create one, so we brought the Latino Festival back last year,” Rivas-Diaz said, adding, “Ours is called the Latino Cultural Festival, emphasizing that we want to promote culture within the Latino community, including the arts and music.”

This year’s event featured numerous entertainment acts, including musicians and dancers, as well as a large collection of vendors and food trucks.