On July 24 there will be no music at the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. There will be no crowd of revelers and no community pride. Only silence.
The Colombian Independence Day Festival, a 26-year-old tradition and the most emblematic event of the estimated 300,000-strong Colombian community in New York, won’t take place this year at the Queens park where it had been held since its inception – and perhaps never will be again.
The festival has never received any funds from the Colombian or U.S. governments, said organizers Centro Cvico Colombiano. It is completely dependent on private sponsorships.
