Lake Elsinore Mariachi Fest To Celebrate Heritage, Wellness

LAKE ELSINORE, CA — About 2,000 people are expected to attend this weekend's inaugural Mariachi Fest in Lake Elsinore, and the city is touting the cultural celebration as a healthful opportunity that extends beyond the many benefits of music and dance.

Saturday's concert will be held at the Lake Elsinore Diamond Stadium, 500 Diamond Drive, from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Admission is $25, but there's way to get in free: get a COVID-19 shot.

From 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the stadium, health officials will be administering free Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations (first or second shots, or boosters). The Pfizer vaccines are available to people 12 and older. The first 100 people who receive the shots get into Saturday night's Mariachi Fest for free.

Mariachi Fest is a Dia De Los Muertos celebration that includes music with performances by Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar, Jarabe Mexicano and Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles. A grand finale fireworks show will top off the night.

Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar made national news over the summer when Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly wore an embroidered mariachi jacket to a White House ceremony celebrating the team’s 2020 World Series Championship. Kelly traded his Dodgers jersey for a flashy black and silver coat that was given to him by a Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar band member. The clothing swap happened after the mariachi musicians serenaded the Dodgers as they warmed up before a June 27 game against the Chicago Cubs.

Jarabe Mexicano offers a versatile songbook of Mexican Folk as well as Rock & Roll, Tex-Mex, Latin Rock, and Reggae-Cumbia. The band members are "advocates for the arts and education, with a special commitment to underserved communities," according to the Jarabe Mexicano website.

Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles catapulted to international fame when the dancers performed at the 90th Annual Academy Awards in celebration of the Pixar movie, Coco.

Mariachi crosses into many cultures, but the root is a genre of regional Mexican music.

Lake Elsinore Mayor Pro Tem Tim Sheridan was on hand Wednesday for a news conference at Storm Stadium touting Mariachi Fest and the vaccination initiative that he said align with National Hispanic Heritage Month and the city's ongoing Healthy LE campaign.

Fifty-two percent of Lake Elsinore's population is Hispanic.

"We are a very diverse city," said Jovanny Rivera Huerta, a management analyst with Lake Elsinore's community services department who was also at Wednesday's event. Huerta is helping to spearhead Saturday's concert; he also worked on the city's 2021 Juneteenth observance, and he is gearing up for a large, yet-to-be-scheduled International Day Fest that will celebrate all cultures, ethnicities and races.

Dr. Thuan P. Le specializes in infectious disease at Loma Linda University Medical Center Murrieta. He also leads Ongoing Pandemic Assessment Team Specialists, or OPATS, which is partnering with the city for Saturday's vaccination event.

During Wednesday's news conference, Le said just 40 percent of the local Hispanic community is vaccinated against COVID-19, compared to the approximately 61 percent of Lake Elsinore residents as a whole.

A greater number of Hispanic/Latinx Riverside County residents have died from COVID-19 than any other race/ethnicity, according to data from Riverside University Health System. Of the county's 358,824 total COVID-19 cases, 147,269 have occurred in people who identified as Hispanic/Latinx. Of the county's 5,068 COVID-19 deaths, 2,331 have been in Hispanic/Latinx residents, the updated data show.

Le believes the low vaccination and high transmission rates in this demographic are culturally rooted. Misinformation on social media about vaccine safety and efficacy is perpetuating distrust among tight-knit families and whole communities, he said.

Saturday's event will work toward helping to "bridge that information gap," Le explained.

Additionally, Hispanic/Latinx cultures are family-oriented. Big gatherings are common, and when someone is sick, the tendency is for families to lean in and nurture rather than distance, according to Le.

"It's second nature to come together in times of turmoil," Le said. The virus "spreads through multi-generational families."

The whole idea of the Mariachi Fest and vaccination effort is to "promote health and wellness in the community," Sheridan said.

"COVID is colorblind," Le said. "It doesn't know sex, age or skin color."

For more information on this weekend's event, visit https://lemariachifest.com. Face masks will be encouraged but not required during Mariachi Fest, officials said.