The South Bronx has always been where music is born \u2014 and every spring, the South Bronx Culture Festival, by the Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education, takes over Father Gigante Plaza to celebrate that living legacy. <\/p>\n
South Bronx Culture Festival 2026
Casita Maria\u2019s Bronx culture street fair
Mambo Legends Orchestra, Bronx Banda with Arturo O\u2019Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Telmary, Berta Moreno & La Troupe, Kal\u00ed Rodr\u00edguez-Pe\u00f1a & M\u00e9lange, Maria Raquel
Father Gigante Plaza
Longwood, The Bronx
Fri, May 29 | 4-7pm
Sat, May 30 | 11am \u2013 7pm
FREE<\/p>\n
The 2026 Festival themed Dream Big, Stay Rooted, brings together Latin jazz, Afro-Cuban hip-hop, Palladium-era mambo, salsa, bomba, and African soul for two electrifying days of free outdoor performance in the heart of Longwood and Hunts Point. This is the Bronx at its most powerful: honoring where it came from, dazzling you with where it\u2019s going.<\/p>\n
South Bronx Culture Festival 2026 ~ Friday<\/p>\n
Bronx Banda with Arturo O\u2019Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra<\/p>\n
Big Band Latin Jazz | 5:30-7pm<\/p>\n
Multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning pianist and composer Arturo O\u2019Farrill leads Casita Maria\u2019s own Bronx Banda \u2014 an 11-piece improvisational ensemble rooted in the daily life of the South Bronx community \u2014 alongside his 18-piece Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra for Friday\u2019s headlining set. <\/p>\n
With special guests Bombazo Dance Co. and NYC Salsa Dance on stage, this is the Bronx\u2019s own musical legacy performed at the highest possible level: a living tribute to the jazz greats who came before and the young artists still rising.<\/p>\n
Young Artists & Teaching Artists of Casita Maria<\/p>\n
Puerto Rican bomba and salsa, African American hip hop | 4-5:15pm<\/p>\n
The festival opens Friday with the students and teaching artists of Casita Maria\u2019s K\u20138 Arts Studios, showcasing ballet, bomba, hip hop dance, choir, Latin dance, and musical theater \u2014 the next generation of Bronx artists proving that staying rooted and dreaming big are not opposites. They are the same thing.<\/p>\n
South Bronx Culture Festival 2026 ~ Saturday<\/p>\n
Mambo Legends Orchestra<\/p>\n
Featuring former all-stars of the Tito Puente Orchestra under the musical direction of percussionist\/arranger Jose Madera and saxophonist\/flutist Mitch Frohman, The Mambo Legends Orchestra transports you straight to the Palladium Ballroom\u2019s golden age. <\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s closing headliners perform the music of Machito, Tito Rodr\u00edguez, and Tito Puente with mambo dancers Suci Kurniati Frohman and Franck Muhel \u2014 born in Indonesia and Martinique respectively \u2014 bringing the diaspora full circle on the dance floor.<\/p>\n
Kurniati was born in Indonesia. In colonial times, there was a significant migration of laborers from Dutch Java to Dutch Suriname. It\u2019s one of the unusual mixes that is part of the culture of the Americas.<\/p>\n
Telmary<\/p>\n
One of Cuba\u2019s sharpest voices in hip-hop and urban music, Telmary fuses spoken word, jazz, and Afro-Cuban rhythm into something that feels urgent and timeless at once. <\/p>\n
She has performed across North America, Europe, South America, and Japan, collaborated with Los Van Van, Arturo O\u2019Farrill, and the late Dr. John, and earned her place as a defining force in contemporary Cuban music.<\/p>\n
Berta Moreno & La Troupe<\/p>\n
Afro-Latin Jazz | 2-2:45pm<\/p>\n
Madrid-born, New York-based saxophonist and composer Berta Moreno leads her Afro-Jazz Soul Project in a performance where contemporary jazz meets African rhythms and soul improvisation. <\/p>\n
Her tenor saxophone tells stories with precision and passion \u2014 DownBeat called her \u201cdriven and determined,\u201d and WBGO called her \u201ca storyteller.\u201d Both are right.<\/p>\n
Latin and Spanish musical traditions go together well, maybe because Afro-Cuban traditions blended Indigenous, Spanish, and African traditions into what we now call Latin. <\/p>\n
Kal\u00ed Rodr\u00edguez-Pe\u00f1a & M\u00e9lange <\/p>\n
Afro-Cuban Jazz | 12:30-1:15pm<\/p>\n
Latin Grammy-nominated trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Kal\u00ed Rodr\u00edguez-Pe\u00f1a grew up in Havana and came of age in New York, absorbing both worlds into a sound that swings between Afro-Cuban folkloric rhythm, jazz harmony, and contemporary groove. <\/p>\n
He has shared stages with Wynton Marsalis, Arturo O\u2019Farrill, Chucho Vald\u00e9s, and Esperanza Spalding. His set with M\u00e9lange is one of the weekend\u2019s must-see moments.<\/p>\n
Maria Raquel <\/p>\n
Colombian salsa | 11-11:45am<\/p>\n
Colombian singer and composer Maria Raquel has been a fixture of New York\u2019s Latin music scene since arriving in 2016, performing at festivals from Tel Aviv to the Stowe Jazz Festival and lending her powerful voice to groups spanning salsa, cumbia, and Afro-Peruvian son. <\/p>\n
She opens Saturday\u2019s main stage with the kind of vocal authority that commands full attention from the first note.<\/p>\n
More Information<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The South Bronx has always been where music is born \u2014 and every spring, the South Bronx Culture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-243297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}