San Antonio’s 12th annual Día de los Muertos Celebration at Hemisfair is set to be an unforgettable experience this year, with its signature blend of community altars, live music, and the highly-curated Muertos Mercado taking center stage on October 26-27. Muertos Mercado features 83 vendors, largely women-owned micro-businesses, offering unique and handcrafted items that reflect the rich cultural tapestry of San Antonio.
“San Antonio is very small business oriented,” says Cat Contreras, one of the organizers behind Muertos Mercado. “We’ve had vendors popping up at Muertos Fest since its beginning, which was 12 years ago. It started out pretty small, but now it’s grown. We have 83 pop-up shops at Muertos Fest. They’re all hyper-local to San Antonio. We do have a few that come from LA and Austin and other places, but we try to keep it super local to San Antonio. It’s primarily women-led businesses and Latin-led businesses, and it’s just like a wide variety of goods. You can get things that are very Dia de Los Muertos specific, and then you can also get things that are just super fun and unique for the market.”
Contreras highlights the diversity and uniqueness of the vendors: “We have lots of graphic tees, lots of flavor of San Antonio cultural things that we’re super proud of always. That’s kind of like the best thing about San Antonio is that we love to celebrate our local culture. We have some kids’ stuff, stuff for men, and lots of very traditional Mexican wares. We have lots of vendors that are originally from Mexico and they come to Muertos Fest. So that’s super exciting for us too.”
Muertos Mercado will be spread across several areas within Hemisfair, including Plaza de Mexico, Tower Reach, Yanaguana Gardens, and the Magik Theatre parking lot. Attendees can easily navigate the market using the MuertosFest App, which provides a map and vendor listings.
Contreras herself is a pop vendor with a t-shirt business called Barbacoa Apparel and a Play-Doh and sensory shop for kids of all abilities called Fresh Masa. “We’ve been popping up for about 10 years,” she shares. “Christina Martinez and I, she’s with Very That and I’m with Barbacoa Apparel, we’ve started organizing pop-up markets and they just asked us a few years ago if we would help organize this portion of the festival. And so we’ve been doing it and we love it.”
Muertos Fest, established in 2013, is held annually in downtown San Antonio at Hemisfair. It boasts the largest open altar exhibition and contest in the region and is recognized as the largest and most well-known Day of the Dead Festival in Texas and the U.S. The festival honors and remembers loved ones who have passed away while fostering cultural awareness, understanding, and appreciation. Named as one of the 10 Great Day of the Dead Celebrations in the world by USA Today, and as one of the “7 Best Fall Festivals in the United States” by National Geographic magazine, Muertos Fest was also named the second-best Día de los Muertos Celebration in the country by Tripping.com. Recently featured in the Season 12 premiere episode of The Food Channel’s Carnival Eats, Muertos Fest continues to captivate audiences with its rich cultural offerings.
For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit MuertosFest.com and follow @MuertosFest on social media for updates.
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