Festival de la Familia

Our Mission

The mission of the Festival de la Familia Event is to enhance the Sacramento community's awareness, understanding, and appreciation of Latino cultures, customs, and traditions.

Our Goal

The goal of the Festival de la Familia is to plan and execute a family-centered event which celebrates the richness and diversity found in Latino cultures.

Our Objectives

The objectives of the Festival de la Familia are:

• To develop a family-centered event which promotes family-oriented, interactive, and educational activities.
• To create two-way information exchange about services, opportunities, and needs of the Latino community.
• To develop a Mercado atmosphere which features Latino art, food, crafts, music and entertainment.
• To continuously strengthen and improve the Event to ensure that it maintains its status as a premier event in the Sacramento area.

Festival de la Familia Organizational History

The Festival de la Familia was established in 1992 to enhance the Sacramento community's awareness, understanding, and appreciation of Latino cultures, customs, and traditions. At the initiation of the Sacramento Bee, local community leaders met to establish annual family-centered events, which celebrate the richness, and diversity found in Latino cultures. Sustained entirely by sponsors and the work of more than 600 volunteers, the event draws the attendance of more than 25,000 individuals each year. It is the largest one-day event in Northern California. More than 20 Latin countries have been represented through dance, music, food, arts and crafts, and traditional activities.

The success of the Festival in accomplishing its education and community awareness goals is due to its non-commercial focus on family, culture and traditions. Corporate sponsors provide funding to help support the event, and embrace its goals. Event participants in all categories (children's programming, arts and crafts, entertainment, community outreach, and food) are screened and evaluated to ensure activities are consistent with our mission and are family-oriented, interactive and educational.

The Festival enjoys the strong support of local community leaders, civic officials, and our sponsors. It is recognized as a well-organized and well-managed event. This is due to our committee structure of volunteers who work on a year-round basis and the event contractor.

The event shares with the community-at-large, cultural values, customs and traditions that strengthen pride, awareness, respect and participation. Our volunteers (more than 500) cross cultural, ethnic, gender and age groupings to continually build a better understanding and support for diversity in our community. The Festival has earned the reputation for being a well-organized, purposeful, and successful event. The volunteers, sponsors, local and civic leaders share this prideful reputation. The Festival moved from Old Sacramento to Cal Expo in 2002. This move enhanced our success and creates future opportunities for expansion, including a multi-day event.