{"id":40610,"date":"2026-10-01T17:38:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T21:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=40610"},"modified":"2026-10-01T17:38:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T21:38:39","slug":"despite-move-festival-de-espanos-a-big-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/01\/despite-move-festival-de-espanos-a-big-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite move, Festival De Espanos a big hit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weather forced the recent Festival De Espanos indoors, but the effect was minimal and plans are already being made for next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With more foul weather predicted during a period of incessant rain in Decatur, the festival was moved from the Madison St. Plaza to Riverside Center at the proverbial last minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was tough, but the parks and rec people were so extremely helpful,\u201d chief organizer Victor Canales said. \u201cThe city, including the parks people, city hall, the police and the fire departments, made everything super smooth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Vendors outside Riverside
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Canales said well over 2,400 people attended \u2013 \u201cWe stopped counting at 2,400,\u201d he said \u2013 the eight-hour festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was pleased with how the third-year event unfolded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was amazing! Especially with the pivot to indoors,\u201d Canales said. \u201cEverything went extremely well and we heard nothing but positive from the attendees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact that we had to move the festival and lost a few of our events due to having to go indoors, it was still an amazing turnout,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dancers inside Riverside

<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over 50 combined vendors and food trucks participated. \u201cAnd they were extremely happy with the switch and the crowd,\u201d Canales noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it’s onward and upward for festival No. 4 next year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are already planning for year 4,\u201d the Decatur native said. \u201cWe hope to have a softball tournament, a baseball tournament, a boxing demonstration and a youth soccer event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is now growing into a regional celebration and a great way to showcase Decatur!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com Weather forced the recent Festival De Espanos indoors, but the effect was minimal and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":40611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,14,15],"class_list":["post-40610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-community","tag-decatur","tag-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/festival-outside.jpg?fit=1188%2C504&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40613,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40610\/revisions\/40613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}