Sparks dropping Cinco de Mayo festival

Friday, June 5, 1998 | 9:36 a.m.

City officials had indicated it would be only a one-year suspension when they canceled the May event earlier this year.

But budget managers said at a meeting of the Sparks Redevelopment Agency on Thursday that the city is not allocating any money to stage the annual street festival next year either.

Sparks has put on Cinco de Mayo for seven years but has consistently lost money on the event. The budget allocation for next year's special events fund is $383,802, with no plans to resume Cinco de Mayo on Victorian Square, special event director June Palmer said.

"We took on this event, but now the Hispanic community needs to embrace it," Palmer said.

The redevelopment agency is shifting its focus to support events related to Cinco de Mayo such as the annual Adelante Awards Dinner which is a primary fund-raiser for Latino programs and the Silver State Striders four-mile run, she said.

The cancellation announced in February upset the Latino community, partly because there was little time to organize an alternative celebration of the anniversary of the battle that led to Mexican independence from France.

However, Reno attorney Michael Laub and European Fitness Center owner Simon Abbittan staged a Cinco de May event in the Peppermill Hotel/Casino parking lot with support from Latino business leaders.

Laub and Abbittan said they want to keep doing the event that they hoped someday to return it to Victorian Square.

"Anyone who wants to do an event on Victorian Square can send us a proposal," Palmer said.

Sparks City Manager Terry Reynolds said the future of the city's involvement with Cinco de Mayo is up to the city council.

But Council Chairwoman Cindy Henderson said current budget constraints prevent the city from staging the fiesta.

In 1997, the fiesta brought more than 40,000 people to Victorian Square, but cost the city $110,000 to produce. Reynolds said $60,000 of that was unrecoverable.