Some members and long-time volunteers said they were shocked by the decision and are collecting signatures to try to force a special meeting to discuss it. They asked why they hadn\u2019t been given a say in the beloved four-day celebration at La Villita, a hallmark of Fiesta, and questioned the financial losses cited for the cancellation.<\/p>\n
They packed a meeting room at San Antonio Botanical Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cOpen every record that you have and let the public understand why you are single-handedly trying to cancel NIOSA and erase years of history and culture,\u201d NIOSA vice chair Monica Reyes told society President Betty Buech\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Buech\u00e9 defended the move, which she said was supported by a majority of the society\u2019s executive committee and board of directors. An audit showed the nonprofit has lost $1.4 million over the past four years hosting what used to be its major fundraiser, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am implementing the vote of the board,\u201d Buech\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n
The society announced last week that it would suspend NIOSA in 2027 to give the organization time to \u201creview, retool, and reinvigorate the beloved tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buech\u00e9 said attendance has declined in the wake of the pandemic, people are drinking less, which is cutting into revenue generated from the event, and the costs of hosting\u00a0NIOSA are steep. The event is put on primarily by an army of volunteers, and proceeds go to support the Conservation Society\u2019s education and preservation work.<\/p>\n
NIOSA began in 1938 as a one-night street fair called the Indian Festival. It became part of Fiesta in 1946 and was renamed NIOSA in 1948. It is one of Fiesta\u2019s largest events, drawing thousands to La Villita to eat, drink and dance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some members and long-time volunteers said they were shocked by the decision and are collecting signatures to try…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-446380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446380","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=446380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}