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Ahead of the official holiday Tuesday, thousands packed the Delaware River waterfront Sunday to celebrate Mexican Independence Day in Philadelphia.

Mexican Independence Day commemorates the anniversary of the Grito de Dolores, a speech and battle cry by Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in 1810, which inspired the movement that ultimately freed Mexico from Spanish rule.

Sunday’s event, hosted by the Mexican Cultural Center, was the 25th year of the celebration in Philadelphia. Board President Araceli Guenther said she was proud to see so many people after last year’s event brought roughly 13,000 people to Penn’s Landing.

“When I see how our people, our community, people from Mexico in particular, have integrated into Philadelphia and the region, hardworking people, it’s a vibrant people,” Guenther said. “We just felt that for those that came, they needed to feel the full thing that they’ve been feeling for the past 25 years.”

Thousands of attendees celebrated their heritage in the face of ongoing ICE operations nationwide, which earlier this year canceled Philadelphia’s Carnaval de Puebla, the largest Cinco de Mayo celebration on the East Coast. Guenther said that made it more important not to cut back on any programming for this year’s event.

“We had to start the planning from very early on,” Guenther said. “Based on the current climate that is going on throughout the country, we wanted to make sure that we took the necessary precautions, did everything that we could on our end to make sure that this was a successful event and that people felt comfortable in joining us.”

Large-scale events like this one could serve as a primer of sorts as the region prepares for a stacked 2026 calendar. America’s 250th anniversary is just 10 months away, and other major events include the FIFA World Cup, which alone is expected to bring 500,000 visitors. Guenther said the one takeaway she wants people to have from this event is that “everyone is welcome.”

“As I walk around the festival, I can see the different nationalities, the different people that are here,” Guenther said. “And it just makes me so happy that we’re able to share our heritage with them.”

People often confuse Mexican Independence Day with Cinco de Mayo, which celebrates the Battle of Puebla, a battle in which the Mexican army defeated invading French forces.

Sunday’s event was part of the PECO Multicultural Series.