Hispanic Heritage Festival in Uptown Charlotte cancelled over ICE concerns

CHARLOTTE, NC — It’s an event to celebrate culture. A time to bring a large community together.

“It would have been a time to celebrate, but right now we don’t just don’t feel like we should be celebrating anything,” said Rick Herrera.

Herrera is the co-founder of the Hispanic Heritage Festival of the Carolinas. An annual event that started in 2022, bringing thousands of people to Truist Field.

Herrera recently decided to cancel this year’s event. Worried that those in attendance would be easy targets for ICE.

“When you’re talking about putting ten, 11,000 people in one of the largest festivals of the Carolinas, a large mass of people, I think it’s just maybe giving some folks an opportunity to target our community,” explained Herrera.

Hector Vaca with Action NC says this is just the latest festival in the Latino community to be cancelled over fears of immigration enforcement.

“Everybody’s afraid. Everybody, whether they are citizens,  immigrants with documentation or no documentation, anybody who’s my shade or darker is scared right now,” said Vaca.

Herrera tells WCCB that organizers started thinking about cancelling six months ago. With just a month before the festival, they decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

“We’re wanting to bring it back next year, and hopefully we can do that,” said Herrera of a 2026 festival.