On its 10th anniversary, Brazilian Day Philadelphia draws thousands to Penn’s Landing

Thousands flocked to Penn’s Landing Sunday for Brazilian Day Philadelphia.

Now in its 10th year, the outdoor festival immerses attendees in Brazilian cuisine, art, and music to celebrate Brazil’s independence and its cultural contributions to Philadelphia.

Hannah Wood with Project Capoeira, who organizes the festival, said events like Brazilian Day are essential to build community.

“Maybe they see something that they haven’t seen before — or go, ‘Oh, what is that? Oh, that’s something Brazilian?’” Wood said. “ [It] helps to build bridges between individual members of the community, [helping them] understand one another, which then overall, I think, is a path to making a safer and  healthier city.”

In addition to the food, the day was filled with traditional and contemporary  Brazilian music, along with samba and capoeira performances.

Jon Michael Leccia is a capoeira performer, which is a Brazilian cultural practice that blends dance and martial arts. He lives in New York City but says he’s performed at every Brazilian Day Philadelphia event since it began a decade ago and says he looks forward to it every year.

“The community is very strong,” Leccia said. “And everything that we do here is for a very positive influence, not only on the community but the future community that’s going to be here too.”

A flag-raising ceremony will take place Thursday at Philadelphia City Hall at 3 p.m. to celebrate Brazilian Independence Day.

Sunday’s event was part of PECO’s Multicultural Series. The next event is the Mexican Independence Day Festival at Penn’s Landing on Sept. 10 from 2-8 p.m.