San Antonio’s Historic Market Square, a public space, could cost $5 to enter during Fiesta this year. Credit: Michael Karlis

Vendors at San Antonio’s Historic Market Square worry a plan to charge admission to the downtown shopping and entertainment destination during Fiesta could spell the end of their livelihoods.

The small businesses are already smarting from years of lackluster foot traffic due to recent downtown construction projects. Now, nearly 50 of them are bracing for a five-month shutdown as Market Square conducts a major HVAC overhaul on one of its buildings.

Charging $5 admission to the typically free space during Fiesta would scare off customers when they’re needed most, said Yvette Ramirez, president of Market Square’s Farmers Market building, the structure scheduled for the lengthy closure.

“We’re trying to do whatever we can in order to survive those five months during our move out,” Ramirez said. “We’re small businesses, we don’t have corporate funds behind us where we can sustain a five-month closure.”

City Council will vote Thursday on a proposed ordinance allowing the Rey Feo Consejo Educational Foundation to charge entry into Market Square for much of Fiesta San Antonio. Under that plan, the organization would charge the $5 entry fee for eight days in April.

The funds would cover security expenses incurred by the Rey Feo foundation, while some revenue collected by the city will go to its designated Market Square Fund. Most of the money generated during Market Square’s Fiesta events go to fund Rey Feo foundation scholarships.

Even so, vendor Ramirez told the Current that the $5 admission fee would discourage low-income residents from participating in the normally packed event, which previously was one of the citywide party’s dwindling number of free options. Reducing traffic during Fiesta would, in turn, dig into vendors’ sales, she added.

“We see customers who come five or six times during Fiesta,” Ramirez said. “Some come all 10 days, every day. That will definitely hinder them. It’s going to hinder a family that has to pay for four children and the parents, just to get in the door. They have to pay for the parking, which goes up during Firsta, plus the cost of the food at Market Square.”

Ramirez said vendors are concerned because Fiesta represents one last chance to make money as they prepare for a the HVAC installation, which is set to begin in September. That displacement also comes as a decade of construction around Market Square finally winds to a close.

Ramirez said all the construction work has cut her sales in half. Other vendors have seen similar declines as they waited out the work, she added.

“I think privatizing a public space can be very dangerous for the future,” Ramirez said. “I don’t believe Market Square, being a public market, should ever be privatized — even for one day.”

Officials with the Rey Feo foundation told the Current the $5 charge during Fiesta is necessary for providing additional security following a shocking 2024 shooting that killed two people and injured four others.

Ramirez pushed back at that, pointing out that the Rey Feo foundation paid for security last year while keeping the event free for guests.

In its statement to the Current, the organization said those who don’t want to pay $5 admission can go during the days when the market is free.

“If Fiesta fans do not want to pay $5, we suggest they enter the Fiesta de los Reyes footprint right before we start to charge,” Rey Feo foundation told the Current in an emailed statement.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...