MKE Boriqua Fest 2021 Planned For August 1st, But Local COVID-19 Health Restrictions Including Possible Contagious Rise In WI Could Cancel Event

Organizers of the Boriqua Fest 2021 (Puerto Rican Family Festival) plan event for August 1st, location to be announced.

By H. Nelson Goodson 

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

April 4, 2021

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Sunday, Victor Huyke from the Puerto Rican Family Festival of Wisconsin announced that they "are planning to move forward with the festival. It will be held on August 1, 2021. Please note that the festival may be canceled should the (COVID-19) virus blow up again. But we feel confident with the current vaccine and the precautions we are planning."

In 2019, the Boriqua Fest (Puerto Rican Family Festival) in Milwaukee had an attendance of more than 15,000, according to Huyke. The one-day event was held at Humboldt Park in the Southside of Milwaukee, but organizers are currently looking for another location to accommodate the largest Boriqua Fest in Wisconsin.

So far, multiple local festivals around the Milwaukee metropolitan area have canceled for a second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the outdoor festivals draw crowds and with the current COVID-19 health restrictions in place, which mandate the use of facemasks and distancing including outdoor capacity restrictions by the City of Milwaukee Health Department could very well play a big role in deciding to move forward with an outdoor event that can generate profits for the organizers including vendors and not a loss of revenue.

Apparently, local festivals and music venues that include large crowds can't secure any insurance against COVID-19 liability today and event organizers and music venues could be held liable, if someone attending gets infected with the virus and dies.

Also, the Hispanic Scholarship Foundation of Wisconsin that operates the three-day Mexican Fiesta at the Henry Maier Festival Summerfest grounds continues to plan for their event in late August, but Fiesta organizers could also decide to cancel once again, if the COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten the public health.

Some of the local Milwaukee festivals that have canceled for 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic are Bastille Days, Locust Street Festival, Festa Italiana, German Fest, Polish Fest and PrideFest.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services reported that on April 4, 2021, 579,877 Wisconsinites have been tested positive for COVID-19 including 584 for April 4th, and that 6,639 deaths have been reported since, the pandemic began in 2020, but no deaths were reported for April 4th, although a negative death was reported from the total of deaths reported, which meant that one death was reported when in fact it did not occurred.

In Milwaukee County, at least 164,963 people have been fully COVID-19 vaccinated, the CDC reported for April 4th.

In Wisconsin, at least 139 positive cases of the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) variant, B.1.1.7 from England have been reported, 8 positive cases of the B.1.351 variant from South Africa and 2 positive cases from variant P.1 from Brazil. The variants are ten times more deadly and contagious than the COVID-19, according to the CDC.

On Monday, April 5, 2021, everyone over the age of 16+ can be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine in Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers (D) announced in order to stop the spread of the virus in the state.

Nationwide, there have been 30,492,334 COVID-19 positive cases reported with 533,681 deaths and so far, 165M people in the U.S. have been vaccinated, according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In other news, Oklahoma became the 7th state in the U.S. to remove COVID-19 restrictions including facemask use. The other states include Wyoming, Texas, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota and Iowa.

Most states that have removed COVID-19 restrictions and the use of facemasks have Republican governors. Cities in those states will continue to have discretion on enforcement of their own COVID-19 health restrictions and facemask mandates.

Some businesses, including travel agencies and music venues will begin to require that those patrons attending venues or traveling to show their full Coronavirus vaccination cards (known as vaccine passports) to enter businesses, music venues and to travel.