Annual Colombian Independence Day Festival in Queens canceled as financial crisis zaps funds

On July 24 there will be no music at the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

There will be no crowd of revelers and no community pride. Only silence.

The Colombian Independence Day Festival, a 26-year old tradition and the most emblematic event of the estimated 300,000-strong Colombian community in New York, won't take place this year at the Queens park where it had been held since its inception and perhaps never will be again.

The festival has never received any funds from the Colombian or U.S. governments, said organizers Centro Cívico Colombiano. 

It is completely dependent on private sponsorships.

"But those sponsorships have diminished dramatically or have completely dried up due to the financial crisis," said Adolfo Sánchez, the festival director.

Deeply in debt - last year's festival lost $45,000 - and with Goya Foods, Citibank and several other longtime sponsors no longer backing it, the CCC made the difficult decision to turn out the lights on the event.

"Festivals are too expensive and the New York parks' demands are too high," Rafael Toro, Goya's public relations director, told the online publication queenslatino.com.

The festival is a joyous day-long gathering of mostly New York Colombians and other Latinos who are attracted by the music, the food and the community spirit. Its cancellation is a huge symbolic blow to the Colombian community.

"We have paid $10,000 but we still owe $17,000 to the Parks Department from last year," Sánchez said.

"As long as that debt is outstanding, not only is the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park off limits, but every other park in the city as well."

Sánchez insists that the problem is money. Park costs are on the rise while contributions are way down, he said.

"Most people don't know we need $103,000 just to get the Parks Department permits," Sánchez said.

But some members of the Colombian community believe the problems started with the CCC's well-known penchant for rumors and internal struggles.

"There is a debt, there is a deficit and the sponsors have lost confidence because they see there are accusations and fights," said Rafael Castelar, a former CCC president who was kicked out along with 12 other members in 1997 over an election dispute.

Ironically, that was one of the best years for the festival with an attendance of 800,000.

"[The cancellation] is too bad, because the festival is an institution of the whole Colombian community," said Arturo Ignacio Sánchez, a City and Regional Planning professor at Cornell University. "But it wasn't unexpected because of the CCC internal struggles."

Those struggles, Sánchez said, are part of the "fragmentation" within the Colombian community.

"It's a serious problem," he said. "But I don't see what is happening as a complete failure. This could help to leave behind fights and divisions."

Although the festival will definitely not take place on its scheduled date or in any city park, Adolfo Sánchez says it will take place "as soon as possible, perhaps on the 24th." Colombia's Independence Day is July 20.

"It won't necessarily be in Queens, but we are waiting for responses on two possible locations," he said, refusing to reveal them.

Meanwhile, whether because of the CCC power struggles, lack of money or both, a saddened Colombian community has seen one of their most cherished traditions yanked away from them.

At this point, there is only one certainty about the 27th edition of the Colombian Independence Day Festival: On July 24 there will be no music at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.