Mariachi Cazadores De Nevada wrap up the Día De los Muertos festival at Heritage Park on Saturday evening.
The threat of rainy weather didn’t dampen the enthusiasm for Gardnerville’s first celebration of Día De los Muertos, as hundreds turned out to celebrate on Saturday.
“It’s a pretty big turnout,” Georgianna Drees-Wasmer said. “We were excited at how it all turned out. We had lots of vendors that got involved.”
Latino Arts and Culture of Reno did an educational performance with 12-foot Catrina dolls, Drees-Wasmer said.
“It has been two years of planning between Douglas County Recreation, Main Street Gardnerville and the Carson Valley Arts Council.”
Children and adults sported sugar skull face paintings and vendors offered a variety of traditional jewelry and crafts and Latin-inspired food and drink as part of the event.
“We wanted to bring a little bit of culture and history to Gardnerville for this event,” she said. “Great to see the community come together. We’ve already got a lot of requests for what we’re doing next year.”
Aztec dancers performed at the festival, celebrating three millennia of tradition honoring the dead.
Western Nevada College conducted its annual Dia de los Muertos on Thursday and participated in the Nevada State Museum and Visit Carson City on Saturday.
