Educational voter festival to be held at H-E-B Park in Edinburg

The second annual Vote Fest is a free event at H-E-B Park centered around voter registration and education featuring food, music, performances, carnival rides and local vendors while serving as a community resource fair.

Located at the home of the RGV FC Toros at 1616 South Raul Longoria Road from 4 to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, the event is hosted by Craft Cultura and Texas Turnout.

Texas Turnout is a non-partisan voting engagement and outreach coalition of nonprofits established to increase youth voter turnout in the Rio Grande Valley.

Craft Cultura which stands for “Creating Real Art For Tomorrow,” which is an organization composed of a collective of writers, educators, artists and community members centered around building safe spaces for marginalized communities to have their voice heard, valued and celebrated.

“It’s a community event that celebrates our voter registration and voter turnout initiatives in the Rio Grande Valley,” Clarissa Riojas, campaign director for Texas Turnout, said. “Folks can come out and enjoy free music and entertainment and visit our community resource fair and receive voter education resources to help them prep for the upcoming elections.”

Riojas said the event will help attendees navigate the voting process by teaching attendees how to vote, what to expect on the ballot and information about the Texas constitutional amendments by providing non-partisan voter guides.

She added the event will also help people register for the March primaries.

Working with partner organizations, Texas Turnout can assist in areas such as helping find a ride to a polling location or even help paying for a Texas ID or driver’s license.

“Even people that are not eligible to vote but want to be involved, we can provide civic engagement opportunities so that people have a platform to participate in the process,” she said.

The community resources fair will feature organizations such as LUPE, College Scholarship Leadership Access Program and other community organizations for people looking to get involved or learn about available resources.

Kicking off with a welcome by the organizers, the event features a variety of local talent from a DJ set by QueenKillahBee, a dance performance from the UTRGV Folklorico and a live mural painting by Serkit.

The event has a variety of 30 vendors with baked goods, homemade ice cream, plants, handmade crafts and more.

Riojas added meal tickets will be handed out to use at participating food trucks at the event for one free meal.

“Everybody’s coming together to put on a really beautiful event that the public can come out and enjoy for free all while receiving resources on how to get to the ballot box and make sure that their voice is heard on election day,” she said.

For more information and updates on Vote Fest follow the organizations’ Instagram accounts: @texasturnout and @craftcultura.