AUGUSTA, Ga () – Augusta is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with it’s annual Hispanic Heritage Festival at Augusta Common.

This is the 30th year of the festival honoring the diversity of the Latin American culture and teaching people more about the Hispanic community.

This festival serves as a reminder to the CSRA of its cultural diversity with vendors from many different countries.

Festival organizers say next year they will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Asociación Cultural Hispanoamericana del CSRA (ACHA) and want to commemorate people of Hispanic backgrounds coming together.

“We do that here with a lot of pride and joy and really and integral part of what this community is in the CSRA. Where our Hispanic-American community has come together to not only unite for this festival but year round,” said Micki Berrios, Vice President of Asociación Cultural Hispanoamericana del CSRA (ACHA).

With immigration raids across the country and many other issues happening within their community, Berrios says they want to come together and celebrate one another.

“As a Puerto Rican American, and many of us who are born and raised in the United States, we really want to connect with our roots and allow our extended community to understand who we are and what we’re about and that we are a community that celebrates and enjoys each other and supports each other,” Berrios said.

She tells me she hopes everyone gets the opportunity to have fun at the festival, dance, try new foods and take advantage of all that is offered.

“Obviously I love my tacos but this is an opportunity for me to tap into some other countries and some of those other flavors, there’s a lot of flavor here so definitely come out and learn something new. I want everyone to take away something positive and there’s definitely a lot of fun happening this weekend that I want to share with everyone,” said Berrios.

The festival will continue from 12pm-11pm on Saturday.

To learn more about the festival you can find the link here.