ESCONDIDO (KGTV) — Thousands of people filled Grand Avenue in Escondido for the city's annual Street Festival, with organizers estimating attendance could reach 20,000 — the biggest turnout since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The festival, an annual tradition in the city for more than 30 years, transformed Grand Avenue into a stretch of street food, local vendors, and live entertainment.
Last year's event drew 16,000 attendees. Organizers say this year's crowd is on pace to surpass that number.
Carol Rogers, an organizer of the festival with the Downtown Business Association, said the event serves a purpose beyond the celebration itself.
"A big thing about doing festivals like this is giving people a reason to come to Escondido and experience who we are, you know, they'll come for the vendors, they'll come for the festival food, but they're strolling down our beautiful Grand Avenue, our big new sidewalks and they're experiencing our local businesses, too," Rogers said.
About 400 vendors lined the street, showcasing everything from flowers and clothing to dog treats.
Kelly Waters owns Rescue Dog Barkery out of San Marcos. She was selling a wide assortment of treats, biscuits, jerkies and accessories for dogs. Waters said events like the Escondido Street Festival help her build connections without a permanent storefront.
"I don't have a brick and mortar, so doing the festivals is great because it gets a lot of a wide variety of people to come in and out, and we see a lot of regular customers, but we get to meet a lot of new customers as well," Waters said.
For some attendees, the festival offered a new look at a familiar place. Rolando DeLeon and his wife, Toni, are Escondido residents attending the festival for the first time.
"We're usually around this street, but it's just so nice to see all these vendors, all these people, all the families kind of gathering around Escondido," DeLeon said.
DeLeon said seeing the crowd in his own city was a welcome change.
"You come here on a Tuesday afternoon and this is just like an empty street. So seeing all these people congregate here is, it's just, you know, it's fun," DeLeon said.
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