Aftershock is great, but Sacramento must support small festivals, too | Opinion

This past weekend, tens of thousands of fans packed Discovery Park for Aftershock, Sacramento’s blockbuster rock festival. It was loud, it was crowded, it was messy and it was glorious. Events like Aftershock prove Sacramento can host world-class festivals that draw people from across the country.

But for every Aftershock, there’s a Sac Taco Fest — grassroots, neighborhood-driven and rooted in community pride. Imagine how much stronger our city’s culture and economy would be if smaller, homegrown festivals like Taco Fest, which I organize, had the same chance to grow.

It’s the local festivals — the ones rooted in our neighborhoods and cultural traditions — that too often face the biggest obstacles to growing or even surviving.

Festivals are more than entertainment, they are a part of Sacramento’s identity. Families might show up for tacos or music, but they leave with connections to nonprofits, civic debates and a renewed sense of comunidad.

Festivals are how Sacramento celebrates itself. Too often, however, our own systems make them harder to pull off than they should be.

In my day job as a staffer for Congressman Ami Bera, I see festivals across the county: farmers’ markets, cultural parades and neighborhood block parties. Organizers hustle for sponsors, stretch shoestring budgets and fight through a maze of permits, fees and insurance requirements. What should feel like support often turns into barriers.

Behind the rhythms of cumbia and the smell of sizzling carne asada are unseen tensions: police presence, fire inspections, waste management, street closures and costs that pile up. Instead of empowering organizers, the system wears them down.

All this bureaucracy, much of it excessive, is a shame, because festivals are incubators. A taco stand at a neighborhood event can be the first step toward a brick-and-mortar restaurant. A vendor testing out a food cart might one day anchor a commercial corridor. Streets like Del Paso Boulevard show both the promise and the tradeoffs: festivals bring people out, but local shop owners worry closures drive away regulars.

For festivals to strengthen neighborhoods, they need to be built with businesses, not at their expense.

Current festivals also shine a light on inequities. While some neighborhoods get streamlined support, others are left to navigate bureaucracy alone. The city owns tents, stages and even movie screens for rent — but good luck finding that information. County rules on street vendors change constantly, but outreach is almost nonexistent. Documents technically exist in multiple languages, but they’re buried on inaccessible websites.

For communities without connections, the message is clear: the system wasn’t built for you. It doesn’t have to be this way. The fixes are simple: make resources visible, provide guidance in the languages people speak and create clear, consistent rules. Communities already working to strengthen their neighborhoods deserve the same support Aftershock gets.

I learned this firsthand organizing Sac Taco Fest. It wasn’t profitable — permits and logistics eat away at any margin — but it was an investment in community. Watching families stroll Del Paso like it was Main Street USA, I saw how even small grassroots events can reimagine a neighborhood.

Sacramento has the heart for festivals. Aftershock showed we can go big. Now, we need systems that empower local organizers so every neighborhood can celebrate with the same pride, flavor and aliento.

Anthony Uribe is a Sacramento Parks and Community Enrichment commissioner, a congressional staffer and the organizer of Sac Taco Fest.