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SALT LAKE CITY — The sounds of Mexico come to the streets of downtown Salt Lake City as part of a festival set for Friday featuring several mariachi groups.
The Mariachi Festival, as it's dubbed, returns for the second year and organizers hope to match the crowd last year's installment drew. "I would like to see 1,000 people there," said Britney Helmers of the Blocks Art District, an initiative of Salt Lake City's Downtown Alliance that promotes cultural activities in the city center.
Friday's festival, a collaboration of Steppin' on Main, the Blocks, the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County arts officials, goes from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and will take place on the front steps of Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main in Salt Lake City. Main Street in front of the venue will be closed for the event.
The Mexican Consulate helped organize the Mariachi Festival last year, held at the state Capitol, and Consul General Eduardo Baca hopes it becomes an annual thing.
Helping spread Mexican culture is one of the functions of the consulate "and mariachi music is one of the best expressions of our culture," known and admired around the globe, he said. The presentation, he added, is "an opportunity to highlight the cultural wealth in Utah."
Utah, and Salt Lake City in particular, has a growing population of those of Mexican descent and other Latinos, but Helmers hopes the event has broader draw. "Our goal is that it appeals to everyone," she said.
Friday's performers include Mariachi Fuego, Mariachi Guzmán, Mariachi Sol de Jalisco, Trío Los Charros and classical guitarist Sergio Fuentes Oseguera, who has performed around the United States and Mexico.
"This festival celebrates our cultural diversity and strengthens the bonds between our communities," Baca said. Mariachi music is included on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
