Fiesta San Antonio 2024

Fiesta San Antonio 2024

Fiesta San Antonio celebrates the city’s rich heritage with vibrant parades, food-centric events, and lively, local entertainment. The Gay Fiesta parties include masquerade balls, block parties, drag queen chili cook-outs and more.

• Visiting for the event? Stay close to the gay bars and clubs at the Hotel Emma at Pearl, rated “Exceptional” by guests with a stunning outdoor pool, modern gym and stylish rooms.

Event Highlights

What started in 1891 as a way to honor the heroes from the Battle of the Alamo has transformed into a way share in the fun of celebrating our city’s largest city-wide party with a purpose, Fiesta San Antonio.

Fiesta Medals

• Date & Venue to be confirmed
• Kick off the festivities with Fiesta Fiesta, an opening ceremony complete with locally-themed medal exchanges.
• As a long-standing tradition, people go on a mission to obtain and wear as many Fiesta medals as possible.
• You’ll see people wearing their weight in medals – fastened to sashes, jackets, hats and more.
• Get your own Fiesta medals at the Official Fiesta Store or at various events throughout the 11-day celebration!

The Fiesta Flambeau Parade

• Date to be confirmed – Parade Route Downtown San Antonio
• Make plans to attend one of several spectacular parades including Battle of Flowers, Fiesta Flambeau, the largest night parade in the country.
• Stay close to all the events at the Drury Plaza Hotel, rated “Fabulous” by guests with spacious rooms in a historic building.
• The Fiesta Flambeau Parade began in 1948. The parade’s name comes from the French word for a candlestick or torch. In the event’s early years, four-man brigades marched between the other units, carrying torches on five-foot poles. Today Boy Scouts carry safety flares. All the floats in the Flambeau Parade are lighted.
• Don’t forget your cascarones – colorful eggshells filled with confetti – for sharing (and breaking!) along the parade routes.
• Note this year due to parade route changes, the event goes through the gay district. 

Fiesta on the Rainbow

• Date to be confirmed
• The Strip SA bars, Luther’s Cafe, Heat Nightclub, Knockout’s Sports Bar, and Sparky’s English pub hosts two block parties with premium seating to view the parade.  Book your tickets.

The Texas Cavaliers River Parade

• Date to be confirmed 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm, San Antonio Riverwalk
• For years King Antonio had no set tradition for his official arrival at Fiesta. He used planes, trains and automobiles.
• When the Works Progress Administration completed improvements to the San Antonio River in 1941, the Cavaliers decided to introduce the king in a river parade—the first event to take place on the river after the improvements.
• Today the River Parade is one of the few in the nation in which the floats really do float. About 250,000 people line the banks to enjoy the event.
• Check out the top hotels close to the Riverwalk and stay right in the heart of the party!

Night in Old San Antonio

• Date to be confirmed,  5:30 pm – 10:30 pm, La Villita 418 La Villita Street.
• For fun with food and drinks, don’t miss Oyster Bake, A Night in Old San Antonio, a Taste of New Orleans, and more.
• Listen to jazz and enjoy beignets and escargot in French Quarter. The old west comes alive in Frontier Town with its famous Shypoke Eggs and country music. Drink Irish beer in Irish Flats.
• Check out the top hotels close to La Villita Historic Arts district.
• Tejano sounds and famous handmade Maria’s tortillas can be found in Haymarket. Have nostalgic fun in Clown Alley. The music in Froggy Bottom rocks as you wait for the famous Chicken on a Stick.
• It’s always 4th of July in Main Street USA. The Mexican Market area features great music and the very popular Anticuchos beef-kabob. Find sizzling sausage and a German Oompa band in Sauerkraut Bend. Sample cuisine influenced by Northern Mexico in South of the Border. Colorful Spanish murals will surround you in Villa España.
• It takes about 16,000 volunteers each year to stage NIOSA.
• Gay Night at Night – take the gay Annual Pride Ride Shuttle from the Main Avenue Strip to the gates of NIOSA and back. Shuttle runs from 5:00 PM to 10:30 PM. Cost is $5 roundtrip. 

Other events where you can explore the city’s distinctive culture with deep roots include A Day in Old Mexico & Charreada, and more.

Gay Events during Fiesta San Antonio

• San Antonio’s Main Avenue is interchangeably referred to as “The Strip” and “The Gay Strip,” but it’s gay no matter what you call it. Located just north of downtown, in Tobin Hill, this central gayborhood district doesn’t fall short on rainbow flair.
• The best hotels closest to the gay district are found downtown, in the Riverwalk district. 

• Awaiting dates and venue confirmations for the 2024 gay parties.
• The Webb Party – a gay ball raising funds for the Aids foundation, at the Aztec Theatre.
• The Chili Queens Cook-Off presented by the Happy Foundation at the Bonham Exchange.
• Viva Fiesta at Public Theater of San Antonio. Celebrate Fiesta with an evening featuring the city’s premier drag performers at San Antonio’s Fiesta Frenzy, hosted by the Mistresses of Ceremonies Eryca Daniels and Autumn Summers.
• Fiesta Cornyation – the “raunchiest and cheapest” event of Fiesta.  The extravaganza is part drag show, part satirical revue, part beer hall bawdy-fest, at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre.
• Battle of Flowers After Party – the Battle of Flowers Parade passes along Alamo Plaza in front of the Menger Hotel, an area where traditionally LGBTs gather to watch to the parade. After the parade, many revelers head over to the Bonham Exchange for an unofficial after party that continues until the early evening.
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil The 9th Annual Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil masquerade party will benefit Fiesta Youth, a nonprofit that offers peer support, friendship, enrichment activities for LGBTQ Youth. The event is held at the Botanical Garden. Masks are encouraged.

Where to stay in San Antonio?

The following hotels are currently trending with our readers. All are close to the festival’s main events and activities:

Grand Hyatt,  The Westin Riverwalk,   Hilton Palacio del Rio,  Marriott Riverwalk