Cinco de Mayo Revels in Old Town

For several hours Vince Lopez, 27, had been wearing a bull costume outside a Mexican restaurant in Old Town.

Sunday was a warm day and the huge crowds attending Cinco de Mayo festivities pushed and shoved while bumper-to-bumper traffic honked and screeched. Lopez was getting tired of standing there dripping wet inside the bull suit and trying to entertain little kids, some of whom screamed as he stuck out his hoof to shake hands. Some of them punched him.

But it was worth it: “I get paid with free beer,” he said.

“I’ve never seen so many people,” said Cindy Furlong, special events coordinator at Bazaar del Mundo in Old Town. Wearing a red 19th-Century style dress that she made herself, Furlong stood on a street corner and handed the Sunday agenda to visitors.

“I think we’ve broken all records and I’ve worked here on Cinco de Mayo for years. We’re body to body. A lot of our crowd is from Los Angeles,” Furlong said.

“Close to 10,000” visitors came to Old Town Sunday, San Diego police spokesman John Leas said, adding that it was only a rough estimate. No arrests were made.

Traffic posed the main problem at Old Town, Leas said. “There were not enough places to put people.”

Sidewalks were jammed with retired couples and baby carriages, balloons and street vendors. At Del Taco, thirsty patrons stood in lines 15 bodies deep.

“We’ve been having a traffic jam here all day. It’s been a madhouse since 10:30 (a.m.),” San Diego police traffic supervisor Odie Lindsey said.

But for 58-year-old vendor Stan Stein, there were more gawkers than buyers. “Business-wise--how can I put it delicately?--we’re getting a lot of people here to see the festivities. But they’re not buying.”

Tourism was brisk at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center off Juan Street. By mid-afternoon 105 people had visited the museum, compared to an average of 70 by mid-afternoon on a typical Sunday, missionary Ione Dunn said.

“Some come in just because they’ve parked in our parking lot and feel they should at least come in for just a minute,” Dunn added with a grin.

During the festivities the crowds watched as five Veracruz acrobats performed atop a 100-foot-high pole.

The show began as one of the performers--known as Los Voladores, the Flying Indians of Veracruz--began playing a tune on a flute. “Jump!” someone in the crowd shouted. When the tune was finished, one acrobat lay on his back and spun atop a wheel as his colleagues slowly lowered themselves, head first, to the ground.

The ceremony constitutes an appeal to “the gods to make things go well,” Jesus Llanes of Hermosillo, Mexico, said via a translator, Jaya Ganeshan of San Diego.

Typical happy visitors were two grandparents, Don and Sue Lieber of El Cajon, who pushed their sleeping 13-month-old granddaughter, Kerry Anne, in a stroller. “I like going around in shops and milling around, and we’ll probably get some supper here,” Ms. Lieber said.

Wearing an Aztec-style outfit of bronze metal and gold-colored cloth, Gabriel Adona posed for photos with revelers at Bazaar del Mundo.

“I’ve had pictures taken with people from England and Czechoslovakia and Poland,” said Adona, 27, an academic and personal counselor at San Diego State University. “Yesterday (Saturday) I did it from 12 to 5 and today I’m doing it from 12 to 5.

“The only bad thing,” he added, pointing at his heavily plumed headdress, “is when the wind blows. It makes my hat feel heavy.”