MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee's cultural festival season continues this weekend as the Puerto Rican Festival of Wisconsin returns to the Summerfest grounds for its second year, expecting close to 10,000 attendees.
Yussef Morales, the festival's founder, started the event 13 years ago under the 35th Street bridge in Milwaukee with 2,000 people. What began as a small community gathering has grown into one of the city's marquee cultural celebrations.
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Morales said the festival was born out of a desire to fill a void in Milwaukee's Puerto Rican community.
"There used to be a festival back in the 90s and we didn't have it for a while and I thought it was something I was missing in our community," Morales said. "As a proud Puerto Rican man, you know, and my family's really been engraved into Milwaukee and my brother's a police officer, my other brother's a teacher, I just thought it was something that was missing that we really need to get, empower our culture and really share it with other people."
The move to the Summerfest grounds is something Morales said he never expected to happen so soon.
"Being at Summerfest is everything — it's something that we thought would happen in 40 years," Morales said. "People always would bring it up on social media and throughout the event, and I would say 'you're crazy. Give us about 40 more years.' So it's an honor to be here and I feel like now, we're a part of the family of festivals in Milwaukee, part of Germanfest, Polishfest, Mexican Fiesta and that whole family of amazing festivals that really do a good job of promoting culture and helping Milwaukee stay, you know, the spicy city that we are."
Morales said the Summerfest venue has been a key driver of the festival's continued growth.
"Summerfest is the perfect platform for it. It's a great location, and I think it's been helping us and it's just going to keep helping us grow," Morales said.
The one-day festival features a strong musical lineup, including salsa legends Michael Stewart, DI and Paquito Acosta, as well as Grammy Award winner DIA and BLB, a salsa group from Puerto Rico. Many of the artists flew in ahead of the event.
"From the beginning, one of our main goals is to be one of the biggest music Puerto Rican festivals, bring some of the best music," Morales said.
In addition to music, the festival includes a kids' area and a special exhibit from the Milwaukee County Zoo. Food vendors from across the nation will also be on-site throughout the day.
The Puerto Rican Festival of Wisconsin takes place Saturday at the Summerfest grounds in Milwaukee.
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