Puerto Rican pride is taking over the city this weekend, as the 23rd annual 116th Street Festival kicked off the celebrations Saturday.

Organizers say about 100,000 people checked out the dozens of vendors and entertainers at the street fair, which stretched from 106th Street to 122nd Street along Third Avenue between 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Many attending said they also looked forward to Sunday’s 51st Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade.

“I’m very proud to be Puerto Rican and I’m ready for the parade,” said one local.

“I love the parade. It’s great, it’s great. I look forward to many more,” said another.

More than two million spectators are expected to watch the parade, which begins at 11 a.m. and makes its way up Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 86th Street.

Pop singer Kat De Luna and reggaeton group Xtreme are slated to perform at this year’s parade.

Union leader Dennis Rivera has been chosen as this year’s grand marshal.

London, UK. (Top40 Charts/ SONY BMG MUSIC Entertainment) – The wait is over… Kat’s brand new single ‘Run The Show’ featuring Busta Rhymes is out now in the UK!

Already a US hit, the single ‘Run The Show’ offers an introduction to the unique talent of 20 year old Kat DeLuna. Her sound is a colourful canvas of strokes blending Hip Hop, R&B, Merengue, Pop, Latin Jazz, and Electronica and Dance; the bi-lingual songstress does it all.
Kat already has some of music’s biggest names in entertainment singing her praise; with supporters ranging from R&B superstar R.Kelly, who has called her a “prodigy” to the famous Salvadorian singer Alvaro Torres, referring to her as “the new Selena”.

In recent months, Kat has emerged as one of the defining faces of US pop’s next generation. Honored as MTV Tr3s’ Best New Artist and nominated for a Latin Billboard Award, DeLuna has been also featured in People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, and Teen Vogue. Said Billboard Magazine, “With the vocal strength reminiscent of the late great Selena, the Dominican bred chanteuse might just be starting a musical movement all of her own.”

Despite her recent success, things haven’t always come easy for the artist. Born in the Bronx, Kat was raised in the Dominican Republic, where by age 4, friends and family had already recognized her talent. At age 9, shortly after she and her family relocated back to the states, this time to the co**** streets of Newark, New Jersey. Though Kat and her sisters found themselves forced to beg their neighbours for food after their parent’s divorce, their financial situation prompted the level-headed pre-teen to stay in school and work harder to “make it”.

With that goal in mind at age 14, Kat was accepted to the New Jersey School of the Performing Arts, a specialized talent high school once attended by famed artists like Whitney Houston, Savion Glover, and Tisha Campbell. Kat has never looked back, aggressively writing and performing her own music ever since.