Salinas Celebrates 150th Founder’s Day

The city of Salinas celebrating where it’s been and where it’s going.

On Saturday the city held a festival with more than 100 vendors and performances by students from Salinas schools.

Organizer and city council member Steve McShane says, “by many measures this is the largest city centered, family friendly event that Salinas has seen in decades.”

Patricia Rodriguez, a volunteer and resident of Salinas who has lived here for 15 years says she’s seen changes for the better, “since I’ve been here I see there’s more community involvement and I feel that most of us in the community want to be a part of it and make it a better place for all of us and our families.”

Long time resident, Miguel Porras, has lived here for 60 years, he says “when I moved to Salinas there was only 39,000 living in Salinas, now there’s more than 151,000.”

While Saturday was about the history of Salinas, organizers say it’s equally as important to focus on the kids who will make the future, “the most important part is our children, this is a living history event. This is an event where people can figure where they came from, where some of the machinery and things that we see in our everyday lives have roots in, it’s a great day for discovery,” says McShane.

Students from around Salinas performed on one of the stages. Salinas Elementary School District music director, John Griffin says the kids have been practicing since the beginning of the year, “they were so excited all year so to get a chance for them to do this now is a wonderful opportunity. They get the nice big stage and for the day they get to feel like they’re part of something really special.”

There were an estimated 10,000 people at the event, everything takes about a year to plan.