Community Invited to Join in the HemisFair 40th Anniversary Celebration

On Sunday April 6, beginning at 12:30 p.m. prior to the opening of My Coke Fest™ at the NCAA’s The Big Dance®, the City of San Antonio and the HemisFair 40th Anniversary Committee invite you to a day of celebration under the entry arch located in HemisFair Park on South Alamo Street.

A brief ceremony to commemorate the opening day of the fair that changed San Antonio will begin promptly at 12:30 p.m. with music by Jim Cullum’s Jazz Band. Members of the original executive committee will be in attendance, and tribute will be paid to those individuals and to the fair’s legacy. Tom Frost, Jr. will serve as master of ceremonies and Peter Holt of the San Antonio Spurs, will be the special guest speaker. County Judge Nelson Wolff and Councilwoman Mary Alice Cisneros also will provide remarks at the ceremony.

Following the ceremony, guests will be invited to follow URBAN-15 through the park to UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures’ ribbon cutting and opening of the year-long exhibit, HemisFair 1968: San Antonio’s Introduction to the World.

In celebration of HemisFair’s 40th Anniversary, UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures will offer complimentary admission from noon to 5:00 p.m. The Tower of Americas will offer free rides to the Flags Over Texas Observation Deck. Entertainment will be provided at the base of the Tower with entertainment and performances by Folkloric Ballet Mexicanidades and the Magik Theatre.

The Instituto Cultural de Mexico will have free admission to the public from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. and will host the exhibit, Mujeres: Sin Cuenta, additional performances by Folkloric Ballet Mexicanidades will also take place from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The Instituto will provide a showing of SAY Si’s HemisFair: A Retrospective 1968-2008. This short documentary, produced by SAY Si students specifically for the 40th Anniversary Celebration, will run approximately every 30 minutes from 1:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

In addition, the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) will be free and open to the public from 12:30 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. UNAM will host a sculpture exhibit, The World is Not Ours Alone.

The celebration of HemisFair Park would not be complete without recognition of the corporate support that existed in the community at the time. One of those corporate citizens – Coca-Cola, an original sponsor of HemisFair 1968, returns 40 years later to add festivities to the celebration. To help mark the place where San Antonio was put on the world map, Coca-Cola is sponsoring My Coke Fest™ on Sunday. This event will feature popular musical entertainment and celebrity appearances. My Coke Fest™ is part of The Big Dance®, a four-day entertainment extravaganza being held April 4-7 on South Alamo Street, directly under the entry arch to HemisFair Park, in conjunction with the 2008 NCAA® Men’s Final Four® basketball tournament being held in the Alamodome April 5 and 7.

Everyone is welcome to come to HemisFair Park to celebrate its 40th
anniversary. For additional information on HemisFair Park and the celebration, please contact Colleen Swain at colleen.swain@sanantonio.gov or call (210)-207-3677. For information on UTSA’s Institute of Texan Cultures exhibit, please call James Benavides at (210) 347-9786.

For information on the NCAA Men’s Final Four and The Big Dance® visit www.NCAA.com/finalfour. For the HemisFair 40th Anniversary Committee Members, the following individuals are available for interviews Lila Cockrell, 212-8423; Bill Sinkin, 354-0236; Patsy Steves, 924-5111; Jim Dublin, 227-0221; Sterlin Holmesly, 299-4550.