Puerto Rican Festival announces new format for 2021 celebration

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — After a long wait due to the pandemic, this year the Puerto Rican Festival will be back for its 51st celebration.

“It feels amazing,” festival president Orlando Ortiz said. “We’re looking to put something together obviously a little bit more modified than our typical Puerto Rican Festival that’s been asking for some time, ‘Hey are we having our Puerto Rican Festival?”

Ortiz said this year they are ready to celebrate. Due to the timing of restriction being lifted this year, the festival will look a little different as a two-day free event held Saturday, August 14th at the International Plaza and August 21st at Parcel 5.

“We anticipate you know the crowd to come out to support the plaza here which is a new venue for the city of Rochester but also Parcel 5,” Ortiz said. “We’ve got some good bands, merengue, salsa, things like that.”

Ortiz said both will provide live music, food, and entertainment for both kids and adults to celebrate the Puerto Rican culture with the community.

“Overall it’s almost like a family reunion to some degree and even more important this year because we haven’t seen all the people that we’re typically used to seeing at events and things like that so we are very excited for one to be able to provide it for free to our community and two provide that opportunity for people to rekindle those relationships we haven’t gotten to do for a while,” Ortiz said.

Festival details & hours are as follows:
• Saturday August 14th | International Plaza | 2:00 PM – 9:00 PM | Artists: TBD
• Saturday August 21st | Parcel 5 | 2:00 PM – 10:00 PM | Artists: TBD

Note: Children 17 or under must be accompanied by an adult.

The Puerto Rican Festival, Inc. is proud to partner with the additional events as a continued celebration of culture and leading up to the annual Puerto Rican Festival celebration:

• Concerts by the Shore: Latino Night
  • Date: July 21st | Time: 7:00 – 8:30pm | Location: Ontario Beach Park | Cost: Free
  • Performers: DJ Bonitillo & Banda Light
• Bands on the Bricks: Latino Night
  • Date: August 6th | Time: 6:00 – 10:00pm | Location: Public Market | Cost: Free
  • Performers: DJ Johnny Mambo | Franco “El Matatan” | La Nueva Secuencia | Carrion y los Pleneros | Sonidos Unidos
• Cocos Locos: Latino Day at Red Wings Baseball
  • Date: August 8th | Time: 1:05pm game start | Frontier Field | Cost: Varies
  • For the first time ever, the Red Wings will play as the Cocos Locos. The first 1,000 fans 21 and older will receive a Cocos Locos flag courtesy of “Presidente”. There will be Latino music pregame in the walk of fame from noon-12:45pm and then throughout the game. Latino food will be available as well as Cocos Locos and other beverages. And of course, Cocos Locos t-shirts, caps, and jerseys will be available in the Red Wings team store. For tickets visit the Rochester Red Wings website or call 423-WING.