Sedgwick County Kansas Latin Fest ICT Festival

Wichita’s September calendar carries a celebration of Latin music, dance and food that has settled into the city’s early autumn rhythm. The gathering travels through print under two slightly different spellings, Latin Fest ICT and Latinfest ICT, and neither published form adds the trailing word Festival that the title above carries. That small naming gap is worth stating plainly at the outset, because everything else about the event is well grounded: three dated editions across three consecutive years, a named organiser, a named festival director, two different Wichita venues and a programme built around folklórico dance, mariachi performance and cooking traditions drawn from five countries. What follows gathers that record together, keeping each detail fenced to the layer that reported it.

About

The festival is a Wichita production through and through. Wichita serves as the county seat of Sedgwick County, and the event belongs to the city’s Hispanic Heritage Month season, landing on a Saturday in September in each of the years documented. A state tourism layer and a visitors-bureau layer both print the name as Latin Fest ICT. A local radio news layer and a local events-guide layer print it instead as Latinfest ICT. The two spellings describe one celebration, and this article holds both forms side by side rather than merging them.

Behind the event stands Warriors for Youth, the organising body named by a local radio news layer, which also prints the fuller form Warriors for Youth, Inc. on another occasion. The same radio layer names Angela Martinez as the festival director, giving the celebration an identified leader rather than an anonymous committee. Warriors for Youth began, according to that radio account, as a youth athletics programme in nineteen ninety-eight, and the festival reads as a later flowering of that community-rooted work, with school ensembles performing alongside professional acts.

The celebration moved between homes in its documented years. In two thousand twenty-four it occupied Old Town Square, per a state tourism layer, and a local events-guide layer places the two thousand twenty-six edition in Old Town as well. For two thousand twenty-five, the radio news layer reports, it shifted to Evergreen Park for the first time, a change of scenery coinciding with its billing as the seventh annual edition. Attendance at that Evergreen Park gathering was estimated at roughly two thousand five hundred people, suggesting a neighbourhood-scale festival with genuine drawing power.

Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Published name forms	Latin Fest ICT; Latinfest ICT
Host city	Wichita, Kansas
County	Sedgwick County
County seat status	Wichita is the county seat
Organiser	Warriors for Youth, also printed as Warriors for Youth, Inc.
Festival director	Angela Martinez, as named by a local radio news layer
Venues on record	Old Town Square; Evergreen Park
Documented editions	Two thousand twenty-four, two thousand twenty-five and two thousand twenty-six, each in September
Admission	Free, as stated for the two thousand twenty-four and two thousand twenty-six editions
Billing detail	The two thousand twenty-five gathering was billed as the seventh annual

History

The deepest root the record offers belongs not to the festival but to its organiser. A local radio news layer states that Warriors for Youth started in nineteen ninety-eight as a youth athletics programme, which means the organisation spent years working with young people in Wichita before its Latin celebration appears in print. When the festival itself began is a separate question, and honesty requires keeping the two apart: no layer read states the year the festival was founded.

For a useful comparison, see the Sedgwick County Kansas Great Plains Renaissance and Scottish Festival for another county festival.

What the record does carry is a billing. The radio news layer describes the two thousand twenty-five edition as the seventh annual Latin Fest, and that phrase is a billing only. It hints at earlier gatherings beyond the dated editions, but a billing is not a founding date, and those earlier editions are not individually documented in any layer available here. Converting a billing into a claimed first year would manufacture a fact the sources never stated.

The dated trail begins in two thousand twenty-four, when a state tourism layer listed Latin Fest ICT in Old Town Square during Hispanic Heritage Month. That listing described a free outdoor event with live dance and music, presentations, games, a car show and vendors selling cuisine and merchandise. A year later, the radio news layer’s account of Saturday the sixth of September two thousand twenty-five, running from one in the afternoon to ten in the evening at Evergreen Park, names performers Rika Rumba and Paradize Band, mentions folkloric showcases and school ensembles, and lists food drawn from Mexican, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Honduran and Guatemalan traditions. For two thousand twenty-six, a visitors-bureau layer and a local events-guide layer again list the festival in Old Town on the nineteenth of September, with the visitors bureau stating free admission. Three Septembers, three listings, and a celebration persisting through venue changes — that is the history the record supports.

What to Expect

Music and movement anchor the day. Across the layers, live music and folklórico dance recur as the festival’s core offerings, with mariachi performances and broader cultural presentations and exhibitions filling out the programme. The two thousand twenty-five radio account gives the flavour: folkloric showcases shared the schedule with school ensembles, so young performers from local schools stood on the same bill as named acts such as Rika Rumba and Paradize Band. A visitor arriving mid-afternoon might reasonably find a stage rotating between dance troupes in traditional dress, student musicians and headline performers, given how the layers describe the mix.

Food operates as a second stage of its own. The two thousand twenty-five edition brought cooking from five traditions — Mexican, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Honduran and Guatemalan — an unusually specific spread that reflects Wichita’s own layered Latin community. Artisan and food vendors appear in the visitors-bureau and state tourism descriptions, and the two thousand twenty-four listing adds cuisine and merchandise vendors alongside games and a car show. That car show belongs specifically to the two thousand twenty-four layer, so it is fenced to that year rather than promised as a permanent fixture.

Admission, at least, carries no ambiguity in the record. The state tourism layer described the two thousand twenty-four event as a free outdoor gathering, and the visitors bureau states free admission for two thousand twenty-six. No layer states a charge for any edition, so in the documented years the celebration simply had no gate — while remembering that vendor food, drink and merchandise remain purchases even where entry costs nothing.

Planning Your Visit

Timing comes first in a practical sense. Each documented edition fell on a September Saturday: the twenty-first in two thousand twenty-four, the sixth in two thousand twenty-five and the nineteenth in two thousand twenty-six. The two thousand twenty-five gathering ran from one in the afternoon until ten in the evening, a nine-hour span that rewards an unhurried arrival; other editions’ hours are not stated in the layers, so checking the current year’s listing as September approaches is the sensible habit. Because the festival sits within Hispanic Heritage Month programming, the surrounding weeks in Wichita tend to hold related cultural events worth pairing with the trip.

Venue awareness matters more here than at most festivals, because the celebration has used two homes. Old Town Square hosted in two thousand twenty-four and is listed again for two thousand twenty-six, while Evergreen Park hosted in two thousand twenty-five for the first time. Those site descriptions stay unmerged in the record, and a visitor should confirm which ground the current edition occupies before setting out. Both settings are outdoor, so sun protection, water and a layer for the evening hours belong in the day bag, particularly since the documented schedule stretches toward ten at night.

Practical preparation can stay simple. Entry in the documented years was free, which removes ticket logistics entirely, though bringing money for food vendors is essential if the five-tradition cooking is part of the appeal — and it should be. Families will find the programme friendly: games appeared in the two thousand twenty-four listing, school ensembles perform, and the afternoon-to-evening arc suits children better than a late-night format. A local radio news layer prints a volunteer sign-up email address for the festival, noted here by existence only; the address itself is not reproduced.

A Sample Day at the Festival

An itinerary built from the documented shape of the two thousand twenty-five edition might run as follows. Arrive near the one o’clock opening and let the first hour belong to orientation: walk the vendor rows, note the stage schedule and decide which food tradition gets the first visit. Spend the middle afternoon with the cultural presentations and folkloric showcases, when school ensembles and dance troupes feature prominently in the radio account. Take an early evening meal from a different country’s stalls than the afternoon snack, reserving appetite for a second round. Then settle in for the headline music as the light fades, since the schedule runs to ten in the evening. Close with a final pass through the artisan stalls.

How It Compares

Wichita hosts many festivals, and separating this one from its neighbours clarifies what it offers. ICT Fest, a separate Wichita local-music festival that surfaces in the same tourism layers, is a different event entirely, centred on local music rather than Latin cultural celebration; the similar names invite a confusion the record does not support. A Wichita margarita festival run by a different organiser is likewise a separate production, sharing only a city and a festive mood. Latin Fest ICT distinguishes itself through its organiser’s youth-work roots, its five-country food spread and its blend of school performers with professional acts — a community celebration with a cultural mission, rather than a commercial drinking event or a general music weekend.

What to Bring

• Money for food and merchandise vendors, since entry itself was free in the documented editions
• Sun protection and drinking water for an outdoor September afternoon
• A light layer for the evening, as the documented schedule runs toward ten at night
• Comfortable shoes suited to park grass or Old Town paving, depending on the year’s venue
• An appetite paced for several food traditions rather than one large meal
• A plan for which stage performances matter most, checked against the current year’s listing

Beyond the Festival Grounds

The celebration does not exhaust what a September trip to Wichita can hold. Old Town, the district that hosted two of the three documented editions, is Wichita’s historic entertainment quarter, and a festival day there pairs naturally with its brick streets and venues. Evergreen Park, the two thousand twenty-five home, sits within a residential neighbourhood whose community character the festival reflects. A visitor with extra days can treat the gathering as an anchor and build outward into the city’s museums, riverfront and dining, while remembering that Wichita’s role as Sedgwick County seat makes it the region’s natural hub for exactly this kind of county-wide celebration.

Why It Matters

A festival like this one carries weight beyond its single Saturday. It gives Wichita’s Latin communities a public stage in the county seat during Hispanic Heritage Month, and it does so under an organiser whose original mission was youth athletics — a lineage visible in the school ensembles woven into the programme. The five food traditions on record in two thousand twenty-five map real communities, not a generic theme, and the estimated two thousand five hundred attendees at Evergreen Park suggest those communities and their neighbours show up for one another. Free admission, stated plainly in the layers for two of the three editions, keeps the door open to exactly the families the organiser has served since nineteen ninety-eight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which spelling of the name should a visitor search for?

Both forms circulate in print. A state tourism layer and a visitors-bureau layer use Latin Fest ICT, while a local radio news layer and a local events-guide layer use Latinfest ICT; searching under either spelling should surface the celebration.

Who puts the celebration together each year?

A local radio news layer names Warriors for Youth as the organiser, printing the fuller form Warriors for Youth, Inc. in another place, and names Angela Martinez as festival director. The organisation began as a youth athletics programme in nineteen ninety-eight, per the same radio account.

What arrives on the food stalls across the day?

The two thousand twenty-five account lists cooking from Mexican, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Honduran and Guatemalan traditions, alongside artisan and food vendors described more generally in other layers. Arriving hungry and sampling across several traditions is the approach the record recommends by implication.

Has the gathering always used the same ground?

No. The two thousand twenty-four edition occupied Old Town Square, the two thousand twenty-five edition moved to Evergreen Park for the first time, and the two thousand twenty-six listing returns the festival to Old Town, so the venue has alternated rather than settled.

What to Expect From the Next Sedgwick County Kansas Latin Fest ICT Festival

How often is Sedgwick County Kansas Latin Fest ICT Festival held?

The documented pattern is one edition each year, landing on a September Saturday in two thousand twenty-four, two thousand twenty-five and two thousand twenty-six, and the two thousand twenty-five gathering was billed as the seventh annual. That billing is the organisers’ own presentation.

When is the next Sedgwick County Kansas Latin Fest ICT Festival?

The most recent dated listing in the record is the nineteenth of September two thousand twenty-six, carried by a visitors-bureau layer and a local events-guide layer with the venue given as Old Town. Beyond that listing, future dates rest with the organiser’s own announcements as each September approaches.

Will the dates change?

The three documented editions each fell on a different September Saturday — the twenty-first, the sixth and the nineteenth of their respective months — so the exact weekend moves from year to year even while the month and the Saturday pattern hold steady. Confirming the current date before travelling is the prudent course.

Closing

Latin Fest ICT, under either of its printed spellings, earns its place in Wichita’s September as a free, community-built celebration of Latin music, dance and food, documented across three consecutive years and two venues. Its record carries honest gaps — no founding year for the festival itself, no stated hours for two of its editions — and this account has left those gaps open rather than filling them. What the layers do support is enough: an established organiser, an identified director, five nations’ cooking, school performers beside named acts, and a county seat that keeps making room for the gathering each autumn.