04 Jun Hercules Cultural Festival Highlights City’s Diversity With Eats and Entertainment

Photo essay, Joe Porrello

The 2025 Hercules Cultural Festival drew 7,000 people to Refugio Valley Park on Sunday afternoon for seven hours of food, performances, booth browsing and family-friendly activities. 

Hosted by the Bay Front Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the city of Hercules, the free event was sponsored by Phillips 66, Kaiser Permanente, Stanford Blood Center, East Bay Municipal Utility District, and MCE Electric.

 

“Without them, we wouldn’t be able to do it,” said BFCC director Sylvia Villa-Serrano. “All five of them are not only supporting this event, but the majority of others happening in the community.”

She also praised the individuals lending a free hand.

“It takes a lot of volunteers, from checking the vendors in to cleaning up the garbage and everything in between,” said Villa-Serrano.

Villa-Serrano, along with BFCC treasurer Aimee Henry, Crockett Chamber of Commerce treasurer Leticia Holbert, and Contra Costa County administrative services officer Joanne Sanchez, was a head organizer of the festival.

 

Parking spots were full for a mile in every direction from the park and a free shuttle from the Hercules Transit center was provided, as attendees poured in all day on a breezy and sunny, 70-degree afternoon. 

Tents and blankets quickly covered the grass as people soaked in time with family and friends, and children played on any structure they could find.

 

The festival was free and offered freebies, leaving attendees some cash to take a little something extra home from the booths featuring over 50 local artisans, nonprofits and businesses selling a wide variety of items and services including organic dog treats and chair massages. 

“There’s a lot more vendors out here than last year,” said 30-year-old Stephon Aguilara, who was with the same cousins and nephews he came to the festival with in 2024. “It’s a great opportunity to bring people together and support small businesses.”

 

He says, after growing up in Daly City and living in San Mateo, part of the reason he chose to move to Hercules in 2023 was because of the city’s cultural melting pot nature.

Villa-Serrano said the festival highlights just that.

“It’s really just an opportunity to bring people into Hercules and see the diversity of the community,” she said.

Partially driving the city’s diversity is its significant population from outside the U.S. — 34.8% of people living in Hercules from 2019 to 2023 were foreign-born, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

That diversity was on display in the form of about 20 food trucks serving Korean corn dogs, the Filipino staple lumpia, and more. Some trucks had lines around 10 people long for nearly the entire seven hours of the festival. 

Further illustrating the city’s mixed culture was more than 10 groups performing martial arts, songs, music, and dances such as folklórico and hip-hop styles.

 

One of those performing was 11-year-old Isis Mikayle Castillo, who sang multiple songs including “Best Part” by H.E.R. 

“It was really exciting and fun just being with family,” she said.

 

Though it wasn’t her biggest crowd; Castillo has performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” or National Anthem for the Athletics in Oakland, the San Francisco Giants, the Golden State Warriors and Valkyries, and the Los Angeles Lakers.

It was, however, expected to be the biggest crowd the festival has seen over the last three years, according to Villa-Serrano.

Taking place for 25 years before going on a 10-year hiatus due to a lack of financing, the festival started happening again in 2023.

“It’s a very deeply rooted community event in Hercules… it’s one of the longest-standing events we’ve had here,” said master of ceremonies Sidney Yee Siu. “It’s super amazing that they were able to bring it back — I think a lot of people in the community missed it.”

 

Crowned as Miss Chinatown U.S.A. 2025 earlier this year in San Francisco, the 25-year-old Yee Siu got accustomed to being on stage as a child two decades ago at the same park and event. Raised in Hercules, she says she’s proud to represent her city as the pageant winner.

“Hercules is made up of mostly Asian people, so to come here and be recognized in that way is really special,” said Yee Siu. (The Hercules population is 43.9% Asian, far outpacing any other race — next is Black at 18.7%, according to U.S. census data as of July 1, 2024.)

 

Her parents hosted a booth at the festival to share information about their business, Yee’s Martial Arts Academy, which they opened in Richmond in 1962 before moving it and their family to Hercules 30 years ago.

Since then, Yee Siu says she has seen her community become bigger and better — most noticeably recently.

“Hercules is just in the middle of developing over the last few years; before it wasn’t really known, and now I feel like it’s on the come up,” she said. “It’s really cool seeing people from other cities coming to visit us and having a chance to showcase how great Hercules really is.”