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14th Annual Cuban Music Festival
Los Angeles-When the temperature rises, many people flock to air conditioned facilities such as the mall, go to the movies or go to outdoor venues like the beach or parks.
A large crowd blanketed every inch of grass of Jose Marti Plaza in Echo Park, Sunday, May 18, for the 14th Annual Cuban Music Festival sponsored by Western Union, The Annenberg Foundation and made possible through the wonderful efforts of Studio for Social Sculpture. The Cuban Music Festival “Presencia Cubana En Los Angeles” was produced by Duval Productions, in conjunction with Caribe Cultural Foundation.
The Cuban Music Festival celebrates the cultural heritage of Cuba. It is the only major celebration in Los Angeles of Dia de la Independencia de Cuba (Cuban Independence Day), which commemorates this Caribbean island’s freedom from Spain on May 20, 1902. The free family festival featured Cuban music, dancing, food and arts and crafts and fun for all ages.
I arrived thru the northwest entrance of the park near the Jose Marti Sculpture and was greeted by the aroma of Cuban food, Cuban music blasting from the stage courtesy of DJ Saaocco who continued the spinning of sizzling hot Caribbean sounds all day. I began my enjoyment of the festival with a cup of Cuban coffee. You will have less of an appreciation for espresso after you have experienced a cup of Cuban coffee.
The festival was complimented by a drum circle near the children’s playground area. Adrian Treto served as Master of Ceremonies. Los Puros kicked off the entertainment portion of the festival. This is local group with a repertoire of Cuban music.
Popular youth performers LA Salsa Kids are all over the local salsa scene. You can catch them performing at Cuban & Puerto Rican festivals and countless other functions throughout the upcoming summer months. The group debuted a new dance routine of the Broadway play Chicago and spiced it up with some hot salsa music and dances.
The atmosphere at the park got hotter and hotter as the day progressed. The dancers from various ethnicities were situated around the dance floor and continued to dance to the infectious Latin rhythms of Cuban son, mambo, cha-cha-cha and salsa.
The Echo Park Project led by Latin producer and percussionist Carlo Lopez brought together some of the best master Cuban musicians in Los Angeles to perform material from their debut CD “The Echo Park Project: Retro New York Salsa.”
Orquestra Charangoa played a hard-edged brand of traditional Cuban son and different types of rhythms and traditional salsa to keep the salseros on the dance floor.
Chalo Y Su Ache delivered a high energy set of Cuban dance music of mambo, cha-cha-cha with some salsa sounds from the past.
Popular salsa group Timbao closed out the festival. A good time was had by all in attendance despite the hot temperatures. The festival producers would like to thank and acknowledged the generous support from Council District 13, Council District 1, Department of Cultural Affairs, Department of Recreation and Parks, FUZE Energy Drink, General Mills and Patronato Jose Marti.
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