Organizers Cancel Major Mexican Festival In Philadelphia Over ICE Raid Fears
Plus, the disgusting trash problem at the Jersey Shore.
A scene from a previous Carnaval de Puebla in Philadelphia. Organizers have canceled this year’s Carnaval de Puebla over fears of ICE raids. (Photo courtesy Visit Philly)
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Organizers Cancel Major Philadelphia Mexican Festival Carnaval de Puebla Over ICE Raid Fears
ICE has been doing its darnedest to arrest, detain and deport people that Donald Trump doesn’t want in his kingdom – sorry, country. And now the widespread fear over ICE raids has prompted the organizers of Carnaval de Puebla, a huge Mexican festival in Philadelphia, to cancel the event for this year.
It was supposed to happen on April 27th, with an expected turnout of more than 10,000 celebrants. But now it’s not.
“People don’t want to participate because of what’s going on,” the lead organizer told the Inquirer on Tuesday. “People worry if they show up for the carnaval and ICE is waiting for them.”
I could tell you more, but our friend Jeff Gammage at the Inquirer did a great job with this story. So read it!
You may remember that ICE conducted a big raid on a Northeast Philly grocery store and meat market last month. They couldn’t manage to find any rapists, murderers, maniacal gang members. But, hey, they still made four arrests anyway.
Things I Never Expected to Happen But That I Like
A vinyl release of the original Action News theme song, restored from the original tapes. (Remember tape?!) I might have to add this to my birthday wish list. (April 25th!)
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
Who the hell destroyed the yarn bomb art display at the Singing Fountain in South Philly?
At First, I Thought This Was Fake
A giant frigging snake in Center City!!!
By the Numbers
0: Satisfaction generated by Villanova student Juan Eguiguren deciding to sit out graduation after uproar over a 2022 dorm room sexual assault. Students are still planning a large protest on campus this weekend. And the timing is interesting, because it’s also Accepted Students Day.
276,899: Pieces of trash that volunteers picked up from New Jersey beaches in 2024. That includes about 50,000 bottle caps, a Christmas wreath (because of course), and (ewwww) dirty diapers.
1st: Position of Wharton on the latest U.S. News Best Business Schools ranking. (And, hey, Donald Trump went there, though his time at Wharton is bizarrely shrouded in secrecy.) Last year, Wharton had to share the top spot with Stanford, which has now dropped to third place. Gotta hurt!
Local Talent
There aren’t too many 100-year-old musicians still playing a lot of gigs these days. So Philly’s own Marshall Allen is certainly an outlier. He is also positively out of this world in so many ways. He’s at World Cafe Live this evening. But if you miss that (sorry for the late notice!) you can find him at Solar Myth next month. And say happy birthday to the multi-instrumentalist, because he turns 101 in May. That’s a lot of punches! (Please don’t punch a 101-year-old guy in the arm.)
