Latin Festival: ‘It just makes you makes you want to party’
All they did was step outside for a bite to eat.
Then the music took control.
The flair of a Latin horn and the signature percussion beats floating down Main Street could not be resisted by Doug Noel and a group of others attending a blues dancing workshop at the Columbia Museum of Art on Saturday.
“We hit the music, and we started dancing. And we’ve been here for, like, an hour now,” said Noel, from Richmond, Va.
You hear the music. You smell all the good smells. You see all the people having a good time. It just makes you want to join in and party.
Chanel Garland
The group of out-of-towners hadn’t known a thing about Columbia’s annual Main Street Latin Festival, one of the area’s biggest, most popular festivals that last year drew some 20,000 people.
Hips swinging, the out-of-towners pulled others from the sidewalk to dance – they couldn’t help themselves.
“I think it’s the color, how it just makes you makes you want to party,” said Chanel Garland of Charleston. “You hear the music. You smell all the good smells. You see all the people having a good time. It just makes you want to join in and party.”
That’s just the thing about Latin culture. It pulls you in. Thousands wandered the downtown streets, stopping to stand in line for a taste of empanadas and plantains and paella and kabobs. They posed for photos in traditional garb, filmed dancers in the streets, wiggled their hips to tunes and soaked in the sea of diversity.
“Anytime that we have anything that brings our culture to the limelight ... in a good way, you try to support that,” said Juan Ortiz of Lexington. “You come out here and have a good time.”
He and his daughter, 13-year-old Raquel, sat on a curb sipping smoothies from pineapple shells, waiting for a live band to take the stage set up on Washington Street.
The Ortizes celebrate a Mexican-American heritage and describe Latin culture as festive and hospitable.
“They’re always going to treat you like a king or like a queen,” Ortiz said. “They’re going to make sure that you’re always in a good mood, that you’re happy.”
Reach Ellis at (803) 771-8307.
This story was originally published August 22, 2015 at 7:28 PM with the headline "Latin Festival: ‘It just makes you makes you want to party’."