Birth of the Calle Ocho Festival :: Little Havana Miami Latin Culture

The Birth of the C bothe Ocho fete In the heart of Miami, Florida, the C tout ensemblee Ocho Festival is an event open to people of all ethnic ski bindinggrounds and age groups. This event dates back to the late seventies. The festival originated in 1977. It was organized by 2 men, Leslie Pantn Jr. and Willy Bermello, who cherished to start a project with the Miami Herald to bring the community approximate together. They decided on a festival while scribbling on the back of a place mat at lunch one solar day at the Red Coach Inn during the summer of 1977. Pantn and Bermellos goal was to have a alley party that would display the Latin-American lifestyle in the city of Miami for non-Spanish speakers. Today, this festival has grown into the largest Hispanic festival held in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people attend the event for the dancing, eating, and getting to write out everyone and everything that is part of Little capital of Cuba.The Calle Ocho festival was originally named the Open House Eight, because the two organizers wanted the festival to be an open welcome to southwest 8th Street. With no credit, Pantn and Bermello ran into a slight problem with their idea. They indispensable money to start up their plan for the festival. Relying solely on the instigate of friends for finance, they managed to raise $37,000 to put on a fifteen block street party. However, Pantn and Bermello still needed coverage for the new festival. give thanks to knocking on galore(postnominal) doors, making presentations to advertisers, and receiving television coverage, they received all the publicity they needed. People from all over South Florida came to attend the Calle Ocho festival. The commencement ceremony festival, held in 1978, was a major success.Music, food, dancing, and smiling faces are some of the many attractions you may find at this festival. Performers such as Willy Chirino, Oscar de Leon, El granny knot Combo, Celia Cruz, The Barrio Boys, and Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, among others, have performed during the past twenty years. Salsa, merengue, cumbia, and guaguanc dancers fill the streets of Little Havana every year.