WTOP is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. All this month, discover stories from the diverse Latino communities in the D.C. region, here at WTOP.com and on air at 103.5 FM.
Music, dancing and the rhythms of Brazil filled Pennsylvania Avenue Saturday, as Fiesta DC kicked off its annual two-day celebration of Latino culture.
Brazil is this year’s country of honor, giving Brazilian performers and organizations a larger presence throughout the festival. Fiesta DC is on again Sunday along Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 7th and 3rd streets, with live performances, food, vendors and cultural activities.
For Katie Kirkpatrick, president of Vava United School of Samba, this year’s celebration has been more than a year in the making. “We have gathered the largest representation of Brazil at Fiesta DC in over two decades,” Kirkpatrick said. “So we have almost 275 participants in general.”
Kirkpatrick, who has participated in Fiesta DC for 15 years, said Brazil’s delegation increased its presence last year. Organizers took notice and selected Brazil as the featured country for 2026.
The festival got off to a slower start Saturday as wind and periods of rain moved through the District. Fiesta DC President Maria Patricia Corrales said weather appeared to be weighing more heavily on some potential festivalgoers than concerns about immigration enforcement.
“They’re more apprehensive of the rain than anything else,” Corrales told WTOP, marking a change from some of the concerns surrounding Fiesta DC last year.
Ahead of the 2025 festival, WTOP reported that some vendors, workers and performers considered staying away because of increased federal immigration enforcement. The Honduran delegation expected to have fewer than half its usual number of dancers after some participants decided not to attend.
Once the festival got underway last year, there were mixed views, with some attendees saying immigration enforcement factored into their decision to attend, while others said they were not concerned.
This year, several people said they were not seeing the same level of apprehension.
Ellen Arnold, musical director of Batalá Washington, an all-women percussion band, has participated in Fiesta DC for 16 years.
“I would chalk it up to the weather a lot more necessarily than the political climate,” Arnold told WTOP.
She said the festival has drawn crowds through other tense moments in D.C., including years when large protests were taking place nearby.
Kirkpatrick also described a shift from last year.
“I have actually seen a very different approach to fiesta this year,” she said. “The mood is a lot more like, not defiant, but sort of like, ‘We’re going to do this. We want to bring this anyway, no matter what.’”
For Kirkpatrick, the focus this year is on what Fiesta DC was created to showcase.
“We are here to celebrate our cultures,” she said. “We are here to celebrate Latin America, all these countries that bring so much.”
The celebration continues Sunday with the Parade of Nations, scheduled from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. along Constitution Avenue NW from 15th Street to 7th Street. The parade will feature floats, traditional clothing, music and performances representing Latino cultures.
Source
