Salsa festival attracts record crowd

A record crowd estimated at between 7,500 and 8,000 people filled Pacana Park Saturday for Maricopa Salsa Festival Presented by inmaricopa.com.

Previously, the highest attendance at Pacana Park was between 4,500 and 5,000 on Founder’s Day in October 2007.

Marty McDonald, acting director of the city’s Community Services Department, said things went extremely well this weekend, despite swelling attendance.

In part, perhaps it’s because the city planned ahead with free shuttle service to and from the event with pick-up and drop-off points at three nearby schools, making it easier to get to the festival. Public safety personnel from local police and fire were also on hand just in case anything unexpected might take place.

Filling the park, however, turned out to be the day’s biggest surprise.

“It was awesome,” Parks, Recreation and Libraries staffer Katy Konski said, adding that record attendance did have one or two drawbacks.

“We ran out of 4,000 bags of chips, right off the bat,” she said.

Konski is among a host of city employees who donated their time for the day to help pull off the festival. “It was great to see all of the people,” she said.

The city also quickly ran out of 5,000 ballots printed so guests could taste up to 46 version of salsa and vote for their favorite. When they ran out, volunteers began keeping tabs of votes verbally.

Maricopa Police reported having helped reunite 16 lost children with their famlies, but said not a single incident of disorderly conduct or disturbance took place.

“It was a nice day for it; the weather was good,” Sergeant Mary Turner said while keeping watch from an official MPD golf-car type vehicle. “I couldn’t ask for anything better, except an air conditioner.”

The Fire Department of Maricopa reported having had a low-key day, as well, free of needing to provide assistance to anyone suffering from heat exhaustion or any other emergency service.

Captain Danny Ashton of FDM Station No. 574, had nothing but praise for the way guests conducted themselves in such a large gathering.

“It just shows that the family feeling or attitude is still here in Maricopa,” he said. “There was a great turnout, and it was done safely.”

More salsa coverage:

“Salsa festival winners take home big bucks on big checks”

Watch for more stories and photos coming soon.

Photo by RuthAnn Hogue