Who has had more of a global impact on the music scene recently than Latin artists? ‘Despacito’ by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee remains in the top five most-viewed YouTube videos, having clocked up an astonishing eight billion views in five years – it’s currently at No. 2, behind ‘Baby Shark Dance’.
And Latin music is a guaranteed money maker: Music Business Worldwide were reporting in the middle of 2022 that the recorded music market for Latin artists in the US was on course to generate over $1 billion in revenue for the year.
Speaking with MBW, Alejandro Duque, President of Warner Music Latin America, said, ‘Latin music has gone mainstream in the US, and is having a huge creative and commercial impact.’ Duque said that it currently represents around 6% of the market, so there’s still plenty of room for growth – including crossovers and collaborations. Brazilian superstar Anitta, for example, has featured guest artists from Cardi B to Ty Dolla $ign and Saweetie – the latter on her hit ‘Faking Love’:
High streaming numbers and winning new fans around the world – together with cross-cultural collaborations, not just with Anglo stars but also with African music artists – mean that Latin genres will continue to lead the way. And, of course, live music and festivals are a big element of awareness and success for Latin artists and producers. So, which are the best Latin music festivals to book tickets for this year?
Latin Music Festivals 2023
Rio Carnival
Can anything beat a trip to Rio for the annual carnival? The world-famous event, from February 17th-25th, is billed as ‘the greatest show on Earth’, is the biggest event of the Brazilian cultural calendar and is surely on many a bucket-list. The parades at the Sambadrome are the main attraction – the stadium seats more than 80,000 and can accommodate more than 5,000 participants.
The samba is at the heart of the Carnival, and the top samba schools are judged by 40 judges whose eagle eyes aren’t just looking at the dance moves, but also the costumes, which form part of the story.
It’ll definitely take you longer than five minutes to perfect your moves, but if you want to shake a tailfeather along with the performers, then watch this video explainer:
You’ll need to perfect your ‘samba bounce’ to join in with the street parties – no two are the same.
Lollapalooza Chile
This year’s line-up has everyone from indie darling Billie Eilish to Lil Nas X, Drake, Armin Van Buuren and The 1975, alongside Latin artists Polo & Pan, Elsa Y Elmar, Danny Ocean and Alvaro Diaz. The festival takes place at the Parque Cerrillos in Santiago from the 17th-19th March. Get your tickets now!
Suenos
New reggaetón and Latin trap festival Suenos is going to be headed up by some of Latin music’s biggest stars – J Balvin, Ozuna and Wisin Y Yandel all appeared at the inaugural festival last year. Suenos is taking place at Grant Park in Chicago from May 27th-28th (Memorial Day weekend). Presented by the producers behind Baja Beach Fest and Lollapalooza, the Suenos line up will feature 20+ artist performances, alongside experiential activities.
Suenos will be joined by three-day reggaetón fest Mas Flow in Chicago from July 15th-17th, featuring headliners Don Omar and Ivy Queen. Latinos are the second-largest racial or ethnic group in the city, and can also enjoy Ruido Fest, a Latin alternative music festival that launched in 2015.
Tickets for Suenos will be available from February 11th at www.suenosmusicfestival.com
Calibash
This downtown LA festival is one of the year’s hottest Latin music festivals. Myke Towers, Arcangel, Ivy Queen, Jhay Cortez and Nio Garcia are all on the bill.
The festival takes place January 21st and 22nd at the Crypto.com Arena – follow the link to buy tickets.
Cosquin Rock 2023
Taking place from February 18th-19th in Cordoba, Argentina at the Aeroclub Santa Maria de Punilla, this is a rock and pop festival featuring a massive array of artists, including Bandalos Chinos, Fiesta Katana, Las Pastillas Del Abuelo and Tiesto.
Last year’s festival won the award for Best LATAM Festival at the Fest 2022 Awards, held in Bilbao. This will be Cosquin’s 25th year.
Check out the festival’s Spotify lists for a taster, then grab your tickets.
La Linea
The London Latin Music Festival returns in April and May across Central London. Time Out said that, ‘La Linea has spent years building an impressive international reputation as one of the world’s most eclectic celebrations of Latin music.’ Expect artists such as Emicida and Jorge Drexler and book your tickets through the venues – both are playing at the Barbican.
BigSound Festival
Taking place on the 29th June in Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia, Spain, BigSound will be showcasing Latin, reggaetón and urbano artists including Duki, Lali Esposito, Beret and Juan Magan. Tickets are available through the BigSound website.
Puro Latino Sevilla Fest
Head to the Cartuja Center Cite in Seville, Spain on the 30th June to catch Maluma, Dellafuente, Jowell & Randy and DJ Jose de las Heras.
Baja Beach Fest
Aaron Ampudia is the co-creator of Suenos, and of Mexico’s Baja Beach Fest. He says that, ‘it’s a new era [for Latin music]. There’s never been this big of a crossover. There’s never been a Latin artist like Bad Bunny, crushing all the records in the history of streaming, beating Drake and American artists. That’s never happened for Latinos.’
Ampudio founded Baja Beach Fest in 2018, 20 miles south of San Diego and it was the first of the sole reggaetón and Latin trap festivals in the region. With its mix of established and upcoming musica urbana stars, BBF doubled its attendance from 15,000 to 30,000 in its first two years. It also expanded to two weekends, following in Coachella’s famous footsteps.
Baja Beach Fest 2023 takes place from August 12th-14th and 19th-21st at Rosarito Beach – there’s everyone from Daddy Yankee and Wisin Y Yandel to Maluma, Anuel AA to Natti Natasha on the bill. Get your passes through the website.
Latin Music Festivals 2022
Following the slew of Latin Music festivals 2021 offered up, 2022 proved a bumper year for Latin music fans. Last year, LatinoLife in the Park was billed as the UK’s largest Latin music festival and featured the Candela Stage – Britain’s ‘first and only festival stage dedicated to homegrown urban Latin music’. The La Clave Stage featured classic Tropical Latin Big Bands and there was a Salsa Stage and a Brazil Stage. Artists included Angelo Flow, Ava, Lisey Tigra and Alvarez Funk.
Rumbazo
Kicking off Hispanic Heritage Month in September, Rumbazo proved the quintessential Las Vegas Latin festival 2022. Stars who lined up to celebrate Latin rhythm and pride included Maluma, Prince Royce, Natanael Cano, Ivy Queen, Omar Apollo and Yendry.
Pal Mundo Festival
The Zuiderpark in Den Haag, Netherlands, hosted the Pal Mundo Festival in July 2022. Spanning Latin, Caribbean, Reggaeton, tropical dance and urban genres, Pal Mundo brings the heat of Central and South America to the heart of Holland. J Balvin was the 2022 headliner at what’s billed as ‘the biggest Latin and Caribbean festival in Europe’.
Ruido Fest
The Ruido fest 2022 line up featured Tijuana-based alt-pop-rock artist Bruses, Carmen DeLeon, Nortec Collective, Cuco, Carla Morrison and iconic hip hop trio Cypress Hill. The celebration of alternative music from different Latino backgrounds brings together some of the biggest artists across the Latin music scene to Union Park in Chicago.
Lollapalooza Chile
The Chilean iteration of the famous music festival has been held in Santiago since 2011. O’Higgins Park plays host to alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands from both Chile and abroad. It was the first edition of Lollapalooza to take place outside of the US and was followed by Lollapalooza Brazil in Sao Paulo in 2012.
Lollapalooza Chile has featured everyone from The Killers to the Foo Fighters, Bjork to Calvin Harris and has also provided an important platform for Chilean music, bands and artists. Featured bands have included Chico Trujillo, Los Bunkers and Joe Vasconcellos, many of whom have then gone on to play at the original Lollapalooza in Chicago.
Last year’s 10th anniversary show featured the Foo Fighters, Jane’s Addiction, Jhay Cortez, Miley Cyrus, Pablo Chill-E, Doja Cat, and Princesa Alba among its star-studded line up.
Vibra Urbana
Vibra Urbana, which has positioned itself as ‘the biggest reggaetón festival in the US’ grew from a small backyard event in Orlando to an indoor Miami venue in 2020. Festival co-founder David Adan said that he started it ‘out of love for the music and seeing an empty gap where we felt like we could provide for our city.’ The Miami-born Cuban American revealed that ‘Miami is full of Latinos, full of the love for Latin music. Everywhere you go out, you’ll see clubs playing Spanish language music. We needed to make something happen.’
In the first year of the festival, Jhay Cortez, J Quiles and Myke Towers – all then in the early stages of their US breakthroughs – played sets. The organisers’ ambition for the next five years is to ‘expand it across the globe, to make an impact globally.’
So, as you can see, Latin music festivals are not only experiencing a huge boom worldwide, but also bringing different genres and subgenres into one place for fans. Coachella 2022 saw more Latin acts than ever performing there, (its roster has doubled in Latin acts since 2020) whilst Grammy.com reported that half a dozen exclusively Latin music festivals debuted in the US last year.
Samba, Son & More
Latin music has a huge variety of genres – read our deep-dive blog to find out their roots and rhythms and most importantly, check out our incredible Latin Series collection. These are the diverse musical stories of Latin America. From reggaeton to rumba, son to tango, discover authentic Afro-Latin music shaped by its African, European and Indigenous origins and its evolution in the Caribbean, North, South and Central American continental regions.
If that isn't enough, our World Lifestyle series has even more Latin tracks for you to license for your content, from YouTube videos to TV shows.
Check out our Latin Series collection below -
Want more? Listen to our hand-picked Latin playlist on Spotify:
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