Probably the whole town visited the festival at some point during the weekend, said Calsada, and “they are loving it.”
For Calsada, business was very good this weekend, with Sunday slowing down considerably because “today (residents) are burned out.”
Some 600 people came to the festival, he said.
But Hollis Daker, president of the Niland Chamber of Commerce, gave more modest estimates.
300 people visited Friday and Saturday, Daker said, “and stayed pretty consistent” both days.
“There’s nothing on this side of the Valley anymore,” Daker said.
For the past several years the Chamber of Commerce has been struggling economically, he said, and thus fighting “to keep this little thing that we have in this community going.”
This is why this year’s Tomato Festival, which according to Daker, came up to be about three times bigger than previous years, is seen as a success.
“I’ve been getting good feedback,” Daker said, adding, “I’m pretty sure I’ll get the carnival back next year.”
Besides carnivals and rides, the festival had a parade Saturday afternoon and music from Grupo Firme and Maribel Puentes that evening, said Calipatria Councilwoman Maria Nava Froelich, who also volunteers with the Niland Chamber of Commerce.
In fact, all members of the Niland’s Chamber are volunteers.
“We are real happy,” Nava Froelich said, as the parade had 29 float entrees, many of them from Slab City residents.
There were also tomato packing contests, with Walter and Robert Orallo taking first and second places, respectively. In the women’s category, Ericka Ramirez won first place and Tifanny Ladiz came out second.
“Everything was very well-attended,” Nava Froelich said. “People came from all over the Valley. It was like a family reunion.”
Sunday there was a breakfast in the morning. By 10 a.m. the swap meet opened as dozens of residents were beginning to visit the food vendors while they waited to the watch this year’s Super Bowl on a projector.
“I like it,” said Brawley resident Sergio Acevedo. He was planning to spend all day at the festival with his son Sergio Acevedo, 7, and go on the carnival rides.
The reason why Niland has a Tomato Festival is because in the 1930s, up to the mid-1960s, 80 percent of tomatoes in the United States from October through January came from Niland, said Auggie Sadora, former Chamber of Commerce president.
But then an embargo on Mexican crops was lifted in the 1960s. Then the bracero program, which for years supplied the area with cheap labor, was terminated. Soon after local producers couldn’t compete with Mexican produce anymore, said Sadora.
But tomato crops may be coming back, Sadora said, as some farming families are planting tomatoes again.
“And I hope they succeed,” he said, and maybe during next year’s festival Niland-grown tomatoes are used once again in the tomato packing contests.
Staff Writer Alejandro Davila can be reached at 760-337-3445 or adavila@ivpressonline.com
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