Discovery Green Day of the Dead Festival: Did we come too late?

First time visiting Houston and it happened to coincide with the day of the dead festival. We were pleasantly surprised with the celebration at Kemah Boardwalk, and decided to spend the rest of the trip finding other Day of the Dead activities.

Went to the Houston Zoo, and again, we were in awe with the colorful celebration.

My husband wanted some souvenirs to remember the trip by, we found the Discovery Green Day of the Dead celebration and read there would be vendors.

We were surprised by the $35.00 parking fee, but paid it for a chance to see some cool vendors.

However, once we arrived at the festival, it was disappointing. There were about 7 vendors. Only one had anything related to the day of the dead. Everyone else sold generic keychains or jewelry, not even remotely related to Mexican culture, or generic baked goods or pet products.

It all felt very thrown together, and was honestly a very disappointing end to our trip. The festival started at 3PM and we arrived at 4:30PM. Did all the good vendors sell out and leave?

I saw that it's not the first year this festival has been held, so maybe I'm just missing something. We had wanted to come back next year for the day of the dead, but we might just head to Kemah Boardwalk for their celebration and make it a day trip. Does anyone have any experience with the Discovery Greene celebration or any tips on where else to go for the Day of the Dead in Houston? Thank you!