{"id":229556,"date":"2026-04-01T02:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T02:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/229556\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T02:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T02:37:13","slug":"market-square-vendors-object-to-possible-5-cover-charge-at-fiesta-de-los-reyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/229556\/","title":{"rendered":"Market Square vendors object to possible $5 cover charge at Fiesta De Los Reyes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SAN ANTONIO &#8211; Local vendors pushed back on the recent announcement that Fiesta De Los Reyes will be considering a cover charge.<\/p>\n<p>In a release sent out by the San Antonio Farmers Market Plaza Association, the potential $5 charge to enter the long-standing fiesta tradition would be a violation  of an original City Council ordinance that prohibited charging fees for access to Market Square.<\/p>\n<p><p>An admission fee is being considered for Fiesta de los Reyes, a popular event at Market Square that has traditionally been free.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>At a time when families are already stretched by rising costs, even a $5 fee matters,&#8221; the release said, &#8220;For a parent bringing multiple kids or a senior on a fixed income, that\u2019s not small\u2014it\u2019s a barrier. Criminals don\u2019t care about a fee\u2014but families do.<\/p>\n<p>The association goes on to say that they were told by event leadership and the Rey Feo Consejo organization that these fees are necessary for securing funds to maintain safety and security of the event, following the <a href=\"https:\/\/foxsanantonio.com\/newsletter-daily\/If security has been an ongoing concern, why is this being introduced just two weeks before Fiesta? If this issue was known, the City, the Consejos, and Market Square tenants should have worked together from the start on a transparent solution\u2014not dropped at the eleventh hour on residents and small businesses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">tragic shooting that occurred in Market Square in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The release responded to that claim, saying, &#8220;If security has been an ongoing concern, why is this being introduced just two weeks before Fiesta? If this issue was known, the City, the Consejos, and Market Square tenants should have worked together from the start on a transparent solution\u2014not dropped at the eleventh hour on residents and small businesses.<\/p>\n<p>News 4 reached out to the Rey Feo Consejo organization for comment.<\/p>\n<p>They told us the security costs were made a requirement after the 2024 shooting, but with the increased security costs, the organization experienced a net loss of revenue from the event. <\/p>\n<p>The reason for the $5 entry fee is due to high security cost that were imposed due to a 2024 shooting,&#8221; said Rey Feo Consejo&#8217;s Interim Executive Director, Elaine De Los Santos. &#8220;Last year fiesta goers had to go through medal detectors, bag checks and we enclosed the perimeter with fencing and Safety scrim which  all comes with a cost. Unfortunately we lost money last year due to all these cost.  The festival ran smoothly last year and no major incidents were reported due to tighter security.<\/p>\n<p>This cover charge is meant to help maintain the same level of safety while mitigating the loss of funds that go towards the Rey Feo Consejo Education Foundation scholarship.<\/p>\n<p>The charge would only apply to those 13-years-old or older, and only during certain portions of the event. Those dates and times are:<\/p>\n<p>April 17 (Friday) after 6 p.m.April 18-19th (Saturday and Sunday)  after 1 p.m.April 20- April 23rd (Monday through Thursday) after 6 p.m.April 24- April 26th (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) after 1 p.m.Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>JOIN THE CONVERSATION (1)<\/p>\n<p>City Council will consider and vote on the potential change on April 9th. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO &#8211; Local vendors pushed back on the recent announcement that Fiesta De Los Reyes will be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-229556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-san-antonio","9":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","10":"tag-san-antonio-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}