The Perez family marked their Easter camping territory at Brackenridge Park a week before the city lifted the overnight camping curfew. Since Sunday night, the family guarded the area from 7:30 a.m. until the park closed.
They finally put their tents up Thursday night. They were able to claim an entire portion of a block facing St. Mary’s Street, perfect for the 10 families — about 100 people — they invited.
“It gets tiring. There’s times when I’m just like, I want to throw in the towel and go to sleep, because we’re running on three to four hours of sleep each day,” said Celia Perez.
But it’s all about the family, she said.
“On Easter Sunday, it’s seeing everybody happy, the kids excited,” she said, adding that her kids ask her and her wife about the upcoming celebration all year long.
On Friday morning, tents, tables and chairs sat prepped all over the park, ready for people to enjoy but with no one in sight. By the late afternoon, families began to fill the park.
For years, the City of San Antonio has lifted overnight camping restrictions at some parks on Easter weekend starting the Thursday night before Good Friday. For the list of parks open for Easter camping, click here.
“It’s the San Antonio culture. It’s something everyone knows about, even if they never actually came, they know Brack gets packed,” Perez said. “Brack is the main spot. If you got Brack, you got gold.”
The Perez family started their Easter camping tradition just last year. They chose Brackenridge Park for the ambiance, Perez said: Car clubs, bikers, people riding bicycles, children playing. You’ll smell the fire pits going and hear music playing all weekend long.
Perez said her family keeps their eggshells all year, in preparation for the 30 dozen cascarones they make, ready to crack during the weekend.
Across the park, several families rent portable toilets for the nights they’ll be there, since the bathroom is so far, Perez said.
Having participated in the tradition for 40 years, Jerry Valdez said his family learned over five generations that portable bathrooms are worth the splurge.
He grew up going to Easter camping celebrations with his grandparents and parents, and he did the same with his family — and now his grandchildren are joining in.
It’s tradition that the elders of the Valdez family mark their Brackenridge Park territory, a spot facing St. Mary’s Street, ahead of time. Valdez did that this year by tying chairs with his last name to trees on their “turf.”
They had to take their tent down Friday afternoon because it was windy, but they’ll barbecue on Saturday and enjoy Easter Sunday with extended family and friends, biking across the park to see cousins who are camping with their own families.
Valdez’s grandson, 7-year-old Josiha Gonzalez, said Easter is his second-favorite holiday after Christmas. Last year, he got a new baseball glove in his Easter basket.
Josiha said he wasn’t sure what the Easter Bunny had in store for him this year. In the meantime, he swirled around on his hoverboard, enjoying the 70-degree weather and greenery.
“I’m spending time with my family,” he said, smiling.
San Antonio Parks Foundation volunteers Barbara and Carl Scheib walked around Brackenridge Park with trash pickers until noon, handing out trash and recycling bags and encouraging people to pick up after themselves and have a plan for their trash.
They also spoke to children about where carelessly discarded trash ends up — in the landscape or the river — and how they can take care of their environment.
“Our main purpose is public outreach to educate people to leave no trace, take their trash, recycle, put it in bags for city staff to pick up, ” Barbara Scheib said. “I’m hoping people will see us doing this and maybe it’ll encourage them to pick up also and not leave trash.”
