MIAMI (WSVN) – Mother Nature poured on as Miami\u2019s biggest street party once again took over Little Havana, but heavy rain was no obstacle for the long-running festivities.<\/p>\n
All day Sunday, Calle Ocho was packed with people who came to the iconic street to take part in the nation\u2019s largest Latin music festival \u2014 full of music, food and culture.<\/p>\n
The rain and wind became intense quickly, but that wouldn\u2019t stop people from participating in all the fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cRain or shine, won\u2019t keep us away. It doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d said a woman.<\/p>\n
Booths were covered up as many looked for any shelter they could find in an attempt to not get soaked.<\/p>\n
The soggy weather prompted the organizers of the 48th annual Calle Ocho to make a change of plans, but the rain didn\u2019t slow people down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve enjoyed the heritage, foods, the people and all that,\u201d said a man. \u201cWe were supposed to have friends come over, but because of the rain, they got scared, told them to get some ponchos and keep on moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was the first time rain affected the festival this much in decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably the first time in about 30 years this has happened,\u201d said Thomas Falcon, President of the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana.<\/p>\n
People ran for cover, umbrellas and all, dampening the festivities just a little.<\/p>\n
However, the festival moved indoors, where the party did not stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a soggy Calle Ocho, but we still got plenty of people out here having a good time, enjoying the day and enjoying the music, the food,\u201d said Falcon.<\/p>\n
Salsa, reggaeton and plenty of live performances brought a whole lot of energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many groups, so many people, different cultures, not just Latinos, but also Americans here like enjoying the time, having fun,\u201d said a woman.<\/p>\n
There were lots of great eats, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about the food and being together,\u201d said a couple. \u201cYeah, and having fun and being together and tasting all the great foods that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wicked weather wasn\u2019t going to stop the festival in its tracks, as people danced the day away.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rain doesn\u2019t stop the party because we have a party with a purpose, so that\u2019s exciting,\u201d said Fabiana Petruzzi, Ambassador of the Kiwanis. \u201cIt\u2019s been an amazing journey; it\u2019s almost a month that we had our pageant, incredible experience. We had the Carnaval on the Mile, events at the Kiwanis school, and being able to contribute to our community has been truly an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, as the weather improved, folks came back out and had a great time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is, you know, just great for us. It\u2019s a wonderful \u2013 see the culture, the music, the energy here. A little rain isn\u2019t gonna keep us from having all this fun,\u2019 said Lourdes Mola, Vice President of Latin Business Development at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.<\/p>\n
WSVN is a proud media partner of the Calle Ocho Music Festival. This year\u2019s festival brought in more than 200,000 people.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n
\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (WSVN) – Mother Nature poured on as Miami\u2019s biggest street party once again took over Little Havana,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-195030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}