Patrons braved the rain for the first night of A Night In Old San Antonio on April 21, 2026.
Isaiah Moseley/Contributor
From right, Sarah Lewis, Diane Rivera, Roxanne Cervantes Pino and Clarissa Gonzalez enjoy their chicken on a stick during the first night of A Night In Old San Antonio in 2021. The event was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic, and held in June rather than April in 2021.
Kin Man Hui/Staff file photo
Patrons braved the rain for the first night of A Night In Old San Antonio on April 21, 2026.
Isaiah Moseley/Contributor
Daniela Cataño, right, cracks a cascarón on Monica Duck’s head during the opening night of A Night In Old San Antonio on April 23, 2024.
Salgu Wissmath/San Antonio Express-News
When DeAnna Keesee and her fiance George set their wedding date for April 28, 1984, George’s stepmother was incredulous.
You can’t get married during Fiesta, she told DeAnna, who grew up in the Houston area. But the couple did, and DeAnna soon became what she calls A Night in Old San Antonio die-hard.
Article continues below this ad
She’s volunteered at the annual four-day celebration for the last 42 years. She’s assembled chalupas, tied balloons, scooped ice cream and served as the event’s chairwoman and then treasurer.
Not even pain could keep her away from the crowds. Keesee broke her foot one year lugging equipment around the NIOSA grounds — and she kept working. Another year, she showed up to work while still recovering from rotator cuff surgery.
She is one of hundreds of thousands of volunteers who have poured time and effort into making it one of Fiesta’s signature events.
So she was devastated when she found out the Conservation Society of San Antonio canceled NIOSA for 2027 — because it’s become a money loser and the organization needs to think through its options.
Article continues below this ad
“It’s surreal,” said Keesee, who served as treasurer for this year’s event. “It doesn’t feel like this is happening to us.”
Keesee and other long-time volunteers, not to mention generations of NIOSA fans, were blindsided by the Sept. 16 announcement and furious that the Conservation Society is scrapping the event. Their anger and disappointment have been reflected in a flurry of social media posts, and they dominated a society meeting Wednesday night, demanding the numbers behind the group’s decision. They also wanted to know why the announcement had come without warning.
The ire has largely been directed at Betty Bueché, the Conservation Society’s president, who said the pandemic was a gut punch that NIOSA is still reeling from.
The financial damage became clear several months ago, when the society’s leaders received the results of an audit indicating the event had lost $1.4 million over the last four years, Bueché said. NIOSA has been a major fundraiser for the organization, but the nonprofit can’t keep losing money on an event that’s becoming more expensive to produce, she said.
Article continues below this ad
“It’s just not viable,” Bueché said.
But some board members and volunteers are skeptical of that rationale and have proposed options for tweaking rather than canceling the event. They’re worried the society will never get the space back at La Villita if it gives it up next year — and they’re dubious that NIOSA will ever return.
“You figure out how to fix it, not throw the baby out with the bath water,” said Patti Zaiontz, a former Conservation Society president and NIOSA chair.
The clash over the event highlights a long-running schism within the Conservation Society between the volunteers devoted to NIOSA and members who care mainly about the nonprofit’s efforts to preserve and protect San Antonio’s architectural and cultural history.
Article continues below this ad
It also raises questions about the future finances and influence of the society, which has historically relied on NIOSA to fill its coffers. It shuttered its NIOSA office and laid off two employees this summer, and is seeking to sell two of its properties and raise membership dues from $35 to $50 annually.
“NIOSA has always been the goose that laid the golden egg,” Zaiontz said.
Pandemic blow
NIOSA started out as a harvest festival the society hosted at Mission San José in 1936, which two years later became an annual street fair called the Indian Festival. The group said it made $336.11 from the first one-night Indian Festival.
Article continues below this ad
The nonprofit continued hosting the event — aside from breaks in 1943 and 1945 for World War II — under different names and in various locations. The city invited the Conservation Society to hold the gathering in conjunction with Fiesta in 1946, and it was renamed NIOSA in 1948, when it moved to La Villita.
NIOSA is one of Fiesta’s biggest events, drawing crowds to munch on chicken on a stick, Shypoke Eggs and anticuchos, swill beer and dance in more than a dozen themed sections intended to highlight San Antonio’s heritage and culture.
The event typically generates more than $1 million annually for the society, its largest fundraiser by far.
But figures provided by the nonprofit show that signs of trouble had begun cropping up even before the pandemic. Smaller crowds were coming through the gates. Attendance dropped from 91,718 people in 2004 to 73,217 people in 2019, a 20% decline over 15 years even as San Antonio’s population boom.
Article continues below this ad
Still, COVID-19 punched a hole in the event. The entire Fiesta celebration was canceled in 2020, and NIOSA was held in June the next year rather than April. Nearly 53,000 people came to NIOSA in 2023 and attendance topped 62,000 in 2024, but it plummeted to 48,000 by 2026.
Bueché blames a constellation of factors for the decline: rainy weather, the trend of adults drinking less alcohol and the sheer number of Fiesta events and other gatherings revelers can choose from, including La Semana Alegre at Hemisfair, next door to NIOSA at La Villita. And high prices for parking, admission, food and drinks are barriers for families grappling with the steep costs of rent, gas and groceries.
It’s difficult to get a clear picture of NIOSA’s numbers because the Conservation Society operates through three separate entities, including a foundation that handles grants. Apart from bringing in NIOSA money — in its good years — the group collects rent on buildings it owns and leases, receives grants and holds securities and other investments.
Article continues below this ad
The society’s main arm recorded losses for five of the past seven fiscal years, including losing $72,619 on $2.7 million in revenue in 2025, the most recent financial filing available. Separately, the foundation also reported losses for five of the past seven years. Conservation Celebration, a nonprofit set up in 2023 to secure permits to sell alcohol at NIOSA, turned a profit in 2023 but reported losses the next two years.
Revenue from NIOSA and other society events fell from more than $3 million before the pandemic to $1.8 million in fiscal year 2025. Expenses ranged from $1 million to $2.9 million after COVID, down from over $3 million before the pandemic.
Bueché and former President Lewis Vetter said the results of the audit — the one showing cumulative NIOSA losses of $1.4 million — had been delayed until last spring because of accounting and bookkeeping changes. Financials for NIOSA hadn’t previously included as much as $500,000 per year in indirect expenses, such as the cost of maintaining buildings the society uses for the event, Vetter said.
Article continues below this ad
“In a sense we’ve been underwriting NIOSA for several years,” said Vetter, who served as president from 2024 to 2026.
Bueché did not provide a copy of the audit or an annual breakdown of losses from the event.
The Conservation Society dipped into its reserves to cover the losses, she said.
A big, costly party
The costs of putting on NIOSA are high, and the society foots the entire bill. Upwards of 6,500 volunteers and the society’s small staff host it.
Article continues below this ad
The nonprofit spends as much as $400,000 on security, an amount dictated in part by the city’s collective bargaining agreement with the San Antonio police union, which stipulates higher pay for officers working Fiesta events.
Under a 10-year license agreement City Council approved in March, the society paid $195,000 to rent La Villita this year and committed to spending another $1.9 million over the term of the contract.
Paying for fire personnel, permits and electricity for booths, food and drinks, equipment repairs and cleanup pushes up the price of admission — and the society knows the cost is a sticking point for some residents, Bueché said. This year, it cost $25 to get into NIOSA at the gate, or $20 if you bought a ticket beforehand.
“We realize that at a certain price point, people feel like it’s too expensive,” she said. “It’s very difficult to juggle everything so we can make sure that we don’t unnecessarily burden people with high costs and we are able to pay all the costs associated with putting on the event. We apparently reached the point where it isn’t working anymore.”
Article continues below this ad
Bueché also said the space available for the event has shrunk by 43% because parts of La Villita have been put off-limits. That includes Maverick Plaza, where San Antonio chef Johnny Hernandez plans to build several restaurants, and the round Villita Assembly Building, which is under private ownership.
CPS Energy sold the building in 2023 to San Antonio-based GrayStreet Partners, which flipped it to local private equity firm Escalera Capital. Managing partner Bobby Magee said the building will likely be out of commission next year because of renovations to convert it to a food hall, but he wants it to be part of NIOSA when construction is completed.
“We’re still optimistic that will be the case long-term,” Magee said.
The city disputed Bueché’s claim that the footprint for NIOSA will be smaller. The same amount of space, including Maverick Plaza, is available for the event, spokesperson Brian Chasnoff said in an email.
Article continues below this ad
Canceling NIOSA
The society received the audit in May, a month before Bueché was elected president.
She appointed a task force to explore options for NIOSA, such as changing its time and dates, location and food and drink offerings. In August, the nonprofit closed its NIOSA office and laid off the two employees.
NIOSA chair Julie Terrill, Keesee and several other society members presented a business plan proposing that the Conservation Society seek more sponsorships, boost marketing and make other changes. The organization has largely avoided soliciting sponsorships from the private sector partly because it often spars with developers and business executives over preserving and restoring San Antonio’s stock of historic buildings.
Article continues below this ad
The plan, a copy of which was obtained by the San Antonio Express-News, projected profit of $1.5 million, based on $3.5 million in revenue and $2 million in expenses. Terrill compiled a list of businesses she’d talked to about sponsorships and potential savings on food prices, security and labor expenses.
But the Terrill group couldn’t change the minds of Conservation Society leaders. In mid-September, the organization’s executive committee voted 5-3 and its board of directors voted 17-10 to suspend NIOSA.
“It was a very sad thing. No one is happy about this, no one wants to do it this way,” Bueché said. “For 2027, we can’t figure a way to do this without losing money again, and we feel like that would be an irresponsible decision.”
At the volatile society meeting on Wednesday, members asked that Terrill be allowed to speak, but Bueché said she wasn’t on the agenda.
Article continues below this ad
“I am implementing the vote of the board,” Bueché said, referring to the NIOSA hiatus.
Keesee and other volunteers are holding out hope that they can convince the society to reverse course and stage their cherished celebration in 2027. Some are gathering signatures from members to force the society to hold a meeting to discuss NIOSA and provide numbers. But they’re worried it won’t be enough.
“It’s like they’re breaking up a huge family,” Keesee said.
Article continues below this ad