SAN ANTONIO – There goes another $5 out of your chicken on a stick budget.
The Fiesta de los Reyes at Market Square has traditionally been a free Fiesta event, but organizers say a proposed $5 gate fee for the busiest times is necessary to cover the costs of enhanced security that began in 2025.
Merchants in the area, though, are pushing back against the proposal, which still needs City Council approval.
Fiesta de los Reyes runs from Friday, April 17 through Sunday, April 26, typically between 10 a.m. and 11 p.m., apart from an extension to midnight on the Saturday of the Fiesta Flambeau Parade.
The proposed $5 gate fee would be charged to attendees 13 or older arriving after 6 p.m. on most weekdays, or after 1 p.m. on weekends and the Friday of the Battle of Flowers parade.
If someone enters before those times, they would be able to stay in the event for free.
According to a City Council agenda memo, total ticket revenue is expected to be about $400,000 this year.
The city would get 25% of anything collected above $250,000 both this year and in 2027.
That share would increase to include a 50% cut for ticket revenue above $350,000 in 2028 through 2030.
Security costs
The nonprofit Rey Feo Consejo Educational Foundation has had the city contract to conduct Fiesta de los Reyes since 2011 and uses it to raise money for scholarships.
More than 250,000 people attend the event at Market Square over the course of 10 days. Although entry has previously been free, the Consejo make money from sponsorships, booth rentals and drink sales.
The group pays the city a minimum of $135,000, plus 75 and 25 cents, respectively, for each beer or non-alcoholic beverage sold.
After a fatal shootout in 2024 and another shooting in 2023, the group’s interim director, Elaine De Los Santos told KSAT security measures were imposed by the city for 2025.
Enhancements included closing off the event perimeter with fencing and safety scrim and screening attendees with private security. The event hours, which previously lasted until 1 a.m. on multiple days, were also reduced.
The extra security came with a cost, though — about $200,000, De Los Santos said. So, instead of raising money, she said the Consejos ended up losing $143,000.
“We tried to keep the festival free last year, but unfortunately it cost our organization a lot of money. So we went ahead and decided $5 is not a huge, huge fee,” she said. “We realize that it’s hard on families right now. We feel we’re also competing against the other organizations like (A Night in Old San Antonio) and (La Semana Alegre), and all those organizations charge at least $20.”
The ticketing services are expected to cost the Consejo about another $100,000, she said.
Pushback
The San Antonio City Council still needs to approve the fee. It’s scheduled for a vote on April 9, just over a week before Fiesta de los Reyes begins April 17.
Yvette Ramirez, the president of the San Antonio Farmers Market Plaza Association, represents the 54 business in the Farmers Market Plaza at the western edge of the Market Square.
She said her group will be at the council meeting to speak against the fee, which she thinks will keep out families and potential customers for the small businesses in Market Square.
“This is a public market,” she said. “We just can’t afford to privatize that market for 10 days. Because this year it’s $5. What’s next year, $10?“
Ramirez thinks organizers should find a different way to cover the cost of the security, without a gate fee, or at least less of one.
“We have let the city know that if the charge is after 6 p.m., we don’t have the issue like we would if prior to 6 p.m.,” she told KSAT.
De Los Santos told KSAT the Consejo had already reduced the number of hours they want to impose the fee, and she did not know of another way to raise the money to cover the security costs.
“There’s a lot of expenses. I mean, I think over $300,000 goes into just all the music and the entertainment and the talent. And so again, means all these little bitty things add up really, really quick,” De Los Santos said.
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