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Below are several articles written about the 2006 Cincy-Cinco Festival. Read on...

Friday, April 21, 2006

Salsa your way to Cinco de Mayo festivities in town

By Kate Westrich

Alfonso Cornejo, born and raised in Mexico City, who now lives in Cincinnati, founded Cincy-Cinco, bringing the Latino celebration to the Queen City.

Latin America is composed of 32 countries and many will be represented at Cincy-Cinco through art, music, food and dancing. “Latin America in a very diverse area, so we would like to reflect that diversity in our festival,” said Cornejo.

Now in its third year, Cinco-Cincy benefits health care and educational institutions that support Hispanics in the Cincinnati area through grants. It also helps introduce more Cincinnatians to Latino culture. Cornejo is president of Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for Cincinnati and is invested in our local Latino community.

For the first time ever, Cincy-Cinco is hosting the area's first regional salsa competition. Dancers compete in smaller events occurring in Dayton, Columbus, Indianapolis, Lexington and Louisville for a final night of competition in Cincinnati.

“We came up with the idea because of the great popularity that dancing is having around the world,” said Cornejo. “This is an example of how diverse and fun our culture is. The winning couple will get $1,000 and a Cincy-Cinco trophy.”

Also at the festival will be the world’s largest piñata, setting a new Guinness World Record. “The piñata is approximately seven yards in height!” exclaimed Cornejo.

In Latin America, Cornejo said, there is a day dedicated to celebrating kids. The planners of Cincy-Cinco are working so that kids receive the same sort of attention at the festival. Kids under the age of 16 get free admission into the festival; plus, these kid-friendly activities are planned: bilingual puppet shows, face painting and a poster drawing contest.

“Our original intent was to develop the largest spring Latino festival in the entire Midwest,” said Cornejo.

Cincy-Cinco is on Saturday, May 6, noon-10 p.m. and Sunday, May 7, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. at the Plaza at RiverBend Music Center. Tickets are $10 and children under 16 are free. Tickets may also be purchased at the RiverBend box office, 30 minutes before gates open each day. Parking at the event site is $5 per car.  To get more information on the festivities at Cincy-Cinco, visit www.cincy-cinco.com.

Tuesday April 25^th, 2006

For the third consecutive year, Cincinnati is the place for the first Latino Festival of the region, and it is the best opportunity for Latin people to share our richness in culture with the Tri-State area community. This year, The Cincy-Cinco Festival will take place during 6th & 7th of May, at the Riverbend Music Center Plaza.

May 5th is the celebration of the Mexican Army victory against the French Army at the Puebla Battle in 1862, nevertheless, the celebration May 5th has extended throughout the US, where culture, music, food, and Mexican traditions are celebrated.

In Cincinnati, the Cinci-Cinco Festival Directors Alfonso Cornejo y Neil Comber, have taken this opportunity to celebrate a big Latinamerican Party. We want to show to the people from Cincinnati, that the latin culture is highly rich and varied- says Neil Comber. It goes beyond the Mexican culture. Our festival, is the first festival that invite us to start the summer with a hint of the latin heat. The public will enjoy this big popular party for every age. There will be traditional dances, local singers, salsa and Spanish rock bands, activities for children, food from various countries of Latin America, and also the first professional Ballroom Dance competition, which will have couples from Kentucky, Indiana y Ohio.

“The River bend Plaza has allowed us to celebrate a festival, like the ones we celebrate in our countries, in the street and around a plaza. In Latin-America, the towns are built according to the Spaniard’s models when they arrived to America”-adds Alfonso Cornejo.

This year, the Cincy-Cinco Festival will have a central plaza where everyone will be welcomed with mariachis and bands. They will enjoy of the tipical and colorful dances, and some demonstrations of professional dances. And if you don’t know how to dance Salsa or Merengue, you can take lessons at the plaza along with the rest of the audience. Besides the plaza, there will be a Piñata, that will be part of the Guiness Record, as the world’s biggest piñata, with more than 35 foot hight and 18 foot length. In other words, this piñata will be the size of a three floor building.

Alfonso Cornejo concludes this interview saying: “the Riverbend Plaza offers a wide street where we have placed nine new areas so that the public will know different health organizations, educational institutions and some of the business of our area. You will also find different home-made Latin American restaurants, there will be art exhibitions, and exclusively dedicated area for children, sports, music and dance.
The Cincy-Cinco Festival has not only been able to show the richness of our Latin Culture, but also has accomplished its primary objective which is to gather funds to be distributed among the local organizations in order to help the growing Latin community.
EscapeLatino is pleased to invite you to participate and enjoy the Cincy-Five Festival on Saturday May 6th, from 12m to 10 pm, and Sunday May 7th, from 11 am to 8 pm, at the Riverbend Music Center Plaza. Address: 6295 Kellogg Ave in Cincinnati, OH 45230. You can find more information about the festival by clicking on www.cincy-cinco.com.

Kroger, in all its supermarkets, will be selling tickets for the festival, since April 24th. General entrance is $10 per person. Kids younger than 15th can enter for free. If you have the Kroger Plus card, you get a $2 discount, and if you buy any of the products that are under promotion of P&G you get an additional $2 discount.

Present the $2 off admission ticket discount that appears in the escapeDirect at the gate of the Riverbend Music Center. Limited two people per coupon.

By Lorena Mora-Mowry
www.escapelatino.com

Amber Samblanet

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Cincy-Cinco

Food, dancing, music - and the world's largest piñata

Why celebrate Cinco de Mayo for one day, when you can party with Cincy-Cinco for an entire weekend?

And why settle for a regular old piñata when you can see the world's largest? At nearly 40 feet tall and 40 feet wide, a record-breaking piñata was the only way to top last year's 72-foot long taco, says event co-chair Neil Comber. Kids can also make their own mini piñatas, but chances are those won't end up in the Guinness Book of World Records.

MORE THAN THE PIÑATA

The Cincy-Cinco Festival, which benefits various Hispanic health and education programs, brings some true Latino flavor to the Plaza at Riverbend Music Center this weekend.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican victory over the French army at the Battle of Puebla in 1862 - a fact that often gets lost amid Cinco fun.

"We started this (festival) because Cinco de Mayo is perceived by many to be Mexican Independence Day, but it's not," Comber says. eeded to reestablish it as a Latino event - we hope to spread the beautiful things about our culture to Latinos and non-Latinos."

Cincinnatians of all backgrounds can enjoy the flavor of authentic foods from numerous restaurants including Taqueria la Mexicana, Kiosco Panameno and Santo Domingo. For $10, you can purchase a sampler card good for samples from six of the restaurants and a dessert.

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY

Live music by Tropicoso, Salsa Caliente and other groups will keep your hips shaking, and you can also watch traditional Latin-American dancers strut their stuff and then learn sultry salsa steps with free dance lessons before joining the salsa competition.

"We're going to have the first regional salsa competition on Saturday, and anybody can join in," Comber says. "Saturday night we're doing a professional dance competition ... With the tremendous interest in salsa among Latinos and non-Latinos, we think it will be really popular."

On Sunday, the day's festivities will kick off with a special mariachi mass at 11 a.m.

"(A) mariachi mass is a typical Catholic mass with an extra Latino flavor where a mariachi band plays throughout the mass to give it some color," Comber says.

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