A single day of THING NW Festival was cancelled along with the 2025 Pacific Northwest Folklórico Festival. KING 5 spoke with an organizer of the folklórico event.
BURIEN, Wash. — Safety concerns prompted the cancellation of two major local events celebrating Hispanic and Latinx culture.
THING NW Festival 2025 cancelled its Aug. 16 Latinx musical performance lineup. All other Saturday musical events are still scheduled to go on as planned in Carnation.
In Burien, the annual Pacific Northwest Folklórico Festival was also cancelled. It was scheduled for
July 26.
Event organizers say safety concerns for event attendees or participants are the reasons for the decisions to cancel.
For the Pacific Northwest Folklórico Festival, organizers say “recent ICE raids and racist immigration policies” were among the reasons the large event was scrapped.
As of the past week, more than 56,000 people are currently in ICE detention across the nation. Some detainees have criminal convictions nearly half are listed as having an “immigration violation.” So far this year, about 50,000 people were deported from the U.S. between April and June alone.
One of the co-founders of the youth folklórico group Joyas Mestizas, Luna Garcia, joined KING 5 for an interview Sunday morning. Garcia is also an organizer of the Pacific Northwest Folklórico Festival.
“Safety was our number one concern,” Garcia said. “Our work is really rooted in making sure we are showing up positively in the community.”
Garcia said Joyas Mestizas and other groups will continue to perform.
She encourages everyone to follow social media updates for other events. Garcia said the board’s decision to cancel the festival was “extremely difficult.”
“Everyone would have shown up even if they didn’t feel safe because parents will go to great lengths to make sure their kids are supported,” Garcia said. “Even if something had happened, the worst that had happened, a wrongful detainment…that kind of trauma on our community in front of our youth, I think, would have been really damaging.”
To watch Garcia’s full interview, click the video player above.
Joyas Mestizas posted the following cancellation statement on social media:
THING NW Festival posted on Instagram, “In light of recent events affecting our community, we have made the very difficult decision to cancel the August 16 THING Festival date, which was specially curated to showcase some of music’s most exceptional Latinx and Spanish-language artists.”
“Community safety concerns have greatly reduced ticket sales, and the uncertainty about artists’ ability to secure the necessary visas has led to our decision.”
“We stand with our broader community and remain committed to prioritizing attendee and artist safety, and to ensure our events are a positive and memorable arts experience. We want to sincerely thank the artists, our community partners and sponsors, and everyone behind the scenes who worked tirelessly to bring this unique event to life.”
“Refunds will be automatically processed to all August 16 ticket holders to the original form of payment within 7 to 10 business days.”
