PGL was once more the host for Gettysburg’s annual Salsa On The Square event, the night each year on the last Friday in September when Carlisle Street is closed off and turned into a festival of dance, food & more. This year, PGL had a Nicaraguan artist on hand to create a sawdust carpet, a style of art traditional to Gettysburg’s sister city of Leon, Nicaragua. Kids participated in both making and destroying the carpet, since this is artwork that is meant to be impermanent, created from dyed sawdust and then swept up at the end of the night. Members of PGL’s board also played the part of the gigantona (the giant dancing lady) and her companion Pepe (the short dancing dude), which is also a tradition unique to Leon. The gigantona represents the Spanish who colonized Nicaragua in centuries past, and she is a giant puppet worn by a person who spins and whirls alongside Pepe, a much smaller puppet with a much bigger head who dances along side her. A coplero, much like a rapper, calls out verse or couplets, while the pair do their dance. The Salsa On The Square event is also a time for the Latino community of Adams County to come together and present traditional dances of Mexico, in between the sets of live music on the bandstand by Hector Rosado and his Orquesta A-CHE and recorded sets by DJ Solalinde. Each year, Latino food is also on sale during the event. The 2023 version of Salsa On The Square was probably the biggest yet, with thousands of attendees on a cloudy but thankfully not rainy night. Project Gettysburg Leon was the proud host of this event each year, and we’ll be ready to do it again next year.
