The Calle Ocho festival was originally named the Open House Eight, because the two organizers wanted the festival to be an open welcome to southwest Eighth Street. With no credit, Pantín and Bermello ran into a slight problem with their idea. They needed money to start up their plan for the festival. Relying solely on the aid of friends for finance, they managed to raise $37,000 to put on a fifteen block street party. However, Pantín and Bermello still needed coverage for the new festival. Thanks to knocking on many doors, making presentations to advertisers, and receiving television coverage, they received all the publicity they needed. People from all over South Florida came to attend the Calle Ocho festival. The first festival, held in 1978, was a major success.

Music, food, dancing, and smiling faces are some of the many attractions you may find at this festival. Performers such as Willy Chirino, Oscar de Leon, El Gran Combo, Celia Cruz, The Barrio Boys, and Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, among others, have performed during the past twenty years. Salsa, merengue, cumbia, and guaguancó dancers fill the streets of Little Havana every year. They come for the dancing, but also for the arepas and maíces, chorizos and churrascos, mountains of saffron rice, pinchazos, chicharrón, lechón asado, and a gourmet delight called hot dog con bacon. The streets are also lined with beer stands, telephone tents, and T-shirt vendors. 

With the hopes of creating a new Mardi Gras, Pantín and Bermello still organize the yearly event, although they no longer play a major part in its execution. With South Florida's growing Hispanic population, their Mardi Gras dreams may still come true.