Saturday-Sunday. It’s easy to get swept up in the intoxicating pageantry and noise of Newsed’s annual Cinco de Mayo“Celebrate Culture” festival in downtown’s Civic Center. As in past years, 2014’s installment will feature a dizzying array of authentic Mexican food, colorful song and dance, hundreds of vendors and featured events like a green chile cook-off, chihuahua races, a taco-eating contest and amateur boxing. But the 27th annual fest, which is expected to draw about 400,000 this year, is also fundamentally a nonprofit event that benefits Newsed’s mission to develop programs for low-income families, so all the celebrating is for a good cause. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. May 3-4 at Civic Center, Broadway and Colfax Avenue. Free general admission. 303-534-8342 or .
– John Wenzel
