The Fiesta San Antonio Commission has released its first-ever NFT, or non-fungible token, a digital collectible that’s a lot like an animated Fiesta medal. The NFT is for Taste of Fiesta, which runs Friday at Aggie Park.
Fiesta medals have been a San Antonio staple for decades. Now the Fiesta San Antonio Commission is taking that beloved bling to the future with Fiesta’s first-ever NFT, or non-fungible token, a special digital collectible.
Feast your eyes on the Taste of Fiesta 2022 NFT, a GIF-like Fiesta animation that’s like a pin-on for your screen instead of your shirt or sash.
The Fiesta San Antonio Commission has released its first-ever NFT, or non-fungible token, a digital collectible that’s a lot like an animated Fiesta medal. The NFT is for Taste of Fiesta, which runs Friday at Aggie Park.
The limited-edition NFT is free with a $35 or $50 ticket to Friday night’s Taste of Fiesta event at Aggie Park, or $20 on its own. Taste of Fiesta tickets and NFTs are available at sanantoniofiesta.org/nfts.
“With this NFT, the Fiesta Commission is excited to offer this new feature to our Fiesta Family, and we look forward to creating more of these digital collectibles so that more people have the opportunity to experience a part of the Fiesta spirit,” Steve Rosenauer, commission executive director, said in an emailed statement.
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Taste of Fiesta offers various Fiesta foods and drinks in advance of Fiesta 2023, which runs April 20-30. And much like a Fiesta medal, the Taste of Fiesta NFT captures that fun in a small, collectible work of art — in this case, a cartoon mouth that opens wide for chicken on a stick and other Fiesta favorites.
“It seems like a big part of Fiesta is its collectibles. And this seemed like a natural fit,” said Rik Wederstrandt, art director at Blonde Creative, the San Antonio advertising and design agency that crafted the NFT.
An NFT is a one-of-a-kind digital asset, such as an image, video or music file. Every NFT has a unique digital signature that is authenticated on blockchain, a sort of digital ledger that’s stored on thousands of computers, and cannot be copied or duplicated.
Fiesta NFT buyers “mint” or publish their NFTs via a special one-time-use code and link. The NFT is then stored in the cloud until the owner claims it and sticks it in a special digital wallet.
Wederstrandt understands the concept comes with a bit of a learning curve, which is why fiestasanantonio.org/nfts includes a FAQ section and walk-through video. Though he noted Fiesta makes a good platform for educating the public on NFTs.
Fiesta isn’t the only NFT game in town. In March, the Spurs sold $200,000 worth of NFTs to celebrate Gregg Popovich’s coaching career and support the San Antonio Food Bank. Even tattoo artists in the Alamo City sell NFTs to supplement their skin-based income.
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Wederstrandt sees the Fiesta NFT as the start of a new era in Fiesta collectibles, one that will add to but never replace traditional Fiesta medals. After all, the former Fiesta chips king has more than 600 of those shiny beauties.
“That was kind of my baptism into the medal collecting,” he said of his 2013 reign.
Time will tell if NFTs have just as big an impact on the Fiesta faithful.
rguzman@express-news.net
René A. Guzman writes about geek and pop culture as well as consumer gadgets and technology. Before joining the Express-News in December 1998, the San Antonio native co-owned a college humor magazine named Bitter, for which he wrote, designed and edited, as well as distributed at various campuses and businesses citywide.
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