By Deborah Van Hoewyk

The 2018 Festival del Sueño (Dream Festival) hosted by The Bacaanda Foundation/El Sueño Zapoteco takes place Saturday, January 27, 2018, from 5 – 10:00 pm in Guelaguetza Park (located beside Marina Park Plaza). This will be the third annual fundraiser for the Foundation, which works on education and health issues in the rural areas surrounding Bahias de Huatulco.

Put together by volunteers from the local, snowbird, and expat communities, the Festival is a lively mélange of Mexican and norteño food, drinks, and entertainment. There will be an artisans’ market and raffles with wonderful prizes from leading Huatulco businesses. There’s a dunk tank for all, a zipline for kids, and a brand-new game called Registro Civil—watch out! You might get captured, carted off to the Registro, and married off . . . Your friends will have to bail you out so you can get “divorced” from that brand-new partner. (All funds from your release, of course, go to the Foundation.)

The Bacaanda Foundation/El Sueño Zapoteco works with a federal agency called CONAFE (National Council for Educational Development/Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo) to support rural schools, which are completely separate from the national public school system—rural towns are responsible for building the school, supporting the teachers, and coming up with anything else needed for their childrens’ education. Through its school adoption program, the Bacaanda Foundation has built or remodeled fifteen school buildings, provided teachers’ quarters and furnishings, and supported training centers and Internet service. The Foundation is also planning for a health center to which students from all CONAFE schools can be referred.

Admission tickets are $100 mxn (free for kids 12 and under), which enters you in a drawing for the Grand Prize (in the past, a trip to Oaxaca). If you purchase your admission ticket in advance at the Foundation (in Tangolunda, across from Dreams), you will be entered in the Early Bird drawing for an IPad (donated by the Holiday Inn in Santa Cruz). There are also packages you can purchase for anyone you’d like to send to the Festival; $500 mxn buys 2 admission tickets and 30 $10 mxn “blue tickets” to spend on food and games. If you would like to sponsor an artisan’s table, you can do so for $200 mxn.

But mostly, just get yourself there and have a great time!