Cinco de Mayo Felt Quiet on the SouthCoast this Year

Is it just me or did Cinco de Mayo feel a little flat this year?

Allow me to paint a picture for you: I just got home after working a 16-hour shift at the station. The morning of May 5 kicked off with Michael and Maddie at Mi Antojo Mexican Restaurant in the South End of New Bedford and proceeded from there.

Following the morning show, I had somewhat of a smaller-scaled pub crawl in commemoration of Cinco de Mayo. For the remainder of the day, I went from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant, each one with its own flair and authenticity when it comes to the Americanized version of the holiday.

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What I noticed was that each place I went to was decent, but the drive from bar to bar concluded otherwise.

The streets of downtown New Bedford were dead, and even with a late crowd on the horizon, business was still pretty slow. Last year, you couldn't even find a parking spot, and even dating back to before the pandemic, it was a madhouse (from what I remember, of course).

I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, just simply pointing out the obvious. The SouthCoast had different plans this year and couldn't care less about going out on a Thursday night. Indeed, it was a school night, as I kindly define the life of a workaholic, but that has never stopped the bar patrons in the past.

Could Cinco de Mayo be a thing of the past?

The empty roadways and parking spots suggested otherwise.