In its third year, Fiesta Cultural has arrived as one of the Bay Area’s leading showcases for Latino performers.
When it comes to Latin American music, San Jose Jazz’s Summer Fest (Aug. 8-10) continues to set the bar high with an expansive array of styles and traditions. But for a broad spectrum of Latino/Latin American cultural expression, from music and dance to cuisine, comedy and theater, Fiesta Cultural is like no other event in the region.
Presented on June 13-14 by the Lesher Center for the Arts and Diablo Regional Arts Association (DRAA), the two-day festival marks the segue from spring to summer with indoor performances and outdoor revelry. It’s an all-ages event designed for families. Centering on the day-long street fair June 14, Fiesta Cultural offers free al fresco concerts and hands-on craft workshops. Inside, ticketed shows activate every Lesher Center venue.
“The thing we learned from the last one is the importance of the street fair as an anchor,” said Kevin Sanchez, a member of the Lesher Center’s board of directors since 2002, on a recent phone call with Peggy White, DRAA’s executive director.
The centerpiece concert on June 13 by the pioneering all-female ensemble Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles is nearly sold-out, “but there are so many other activities to experience,” he said.
“The idea is to use every portion of the Lesher Center,” White added. “We’re hoping we have so many people it spills over to restaurants and stores downtown.”
Presented by the long-running independent comic showcase Best of San Francisco Stand-Up Comedy, the performances June 13 and 14 showcase a rising generation of Latino comics. The suggestion to add comedy into the Fiesta Cultural mix came from past audiences, “and we were listening,” Sanchez said, “letting the community bring us in.”
The comedy shows are recommended for audiences 18 and older, but just about every other offering is intended for all ages, and in some cases the performers themselves are teens. In the Lesher Center’s George and Sonja Vukasin Theatre on June 14 the San Francisco Youth Theatre presents “Dancing Home,” a Spanish-English bilingual production based on the 2012 novel by Alma Flor Ada and Gabriel Zubizarreta.
Adapted and directed by Dyana Díaz with choreography by Pablo Jiménez García, “Dancing Home” tells the story of a Mexican-American girl and her Mexican-born cousin overcoming their differences and bonding through a mutual love of folkloric Mexican dance.
At the same time, outside the Lesher Center on the Locust Street Stage, there’s rich roster of music and dance starting at 12:30 p.m. with Cascada de Flores, the Richmond duo of Mexican guitarist Jorge Liceaga and vocalist, dancer and guitarist Arwen Lawrence. The San Francisco-based dance troupe Chavalos Danzas por Nicaragua performs at 1:45 p.m., followed by Cuban Mexican Dish, the Oakland collaboration between Guadalajara-reared vocalist Gina Madrid and Yrak Sáenz, the pioneering Cuban rapper, at 3:15 p.m.
The street party continues at 4:30 p.m. with Colombian-born, San Francisco-based Chika Di, the cumbia-meets-electronica project of Diana Trujillo, and closes with Cabanijazz Project, the horn-powered salsa band led by Grammy Award-winning conguero Javier Cabanillas.
“What I’ve noticed is that during the festival people start dancing more as the day progresses,” White said. “By 5 p.m. the whole plaza is rocking.”
A variety of craft and arts workshops provide opportunities for hands-on expression, like the Frida-Kahlo-inspired art journal workshop at the Bedford Galley 7 p.m. June 14. Using discarded ephemera like envelopes, magazines and decorative papers, participants will create their own pages filled with texture, layers, and bold colors.
Food vendors include Brisa Kitchen Catering Co., La Marquesita, Pupusas Buen Provecho, Tacos Los 3 Hermanos, Tacos Walnut Creek, and Ice Barbers.
For Sanchez, who hails from a Puerto Rican family, the whole idea was for music, dance and art to bring people together. Joining the Lesher Center’s board on of his long term goals was to increase representation of Latino culture “where there hasn’t been much for the Latino community,” he said.
“What I love about working with Peggy is that she seized on this vision, let’s create something that brings everyone together. Let’s give people every reason to come to Walnut Creek.”
Contact Andrew Gilbert at [email protected].
FIESTA CULTURAL
When June 13-14
Where: Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek
Tickets: Free-$63; LesherArtsCenter.org.
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