The timing was perfect and so was the fit. Melissa Rodriguez launched Cultura Festival in 2022 at Huntsville, Alabama’s Orion Amphitheater. Same year that world-class music venue opened.

“And it was quite a collaborative experience,” Rodriguez says, “because we had a mutual understanding of me wanting to do a Hispanic-focused event and them wanting to understand more of the community here in Huntsville. And so we brainstormed what that would look like and that’s how Cultura came about.”

Sometimes “collaborative” is hollow biz-speak. Like, say, “pivot,” “disrupt” and, the most dreaded of all, “synergy.” Other times, as with Cultura Festival, it’s a real thing done by real people to do cool stuff that wouldn’t exist otherwise.

Cultura, which presents Hispanic food, music, dance and more,

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