A large crowd gathered for Addison’s Vitruvian Salsa Festival which featured salsa dancing and live music provided by the group Latin Swing. The event was held at the Vitruvian Park Amphitheater in Addison on August 8, 2026.
Steve Hamm/The Dallas Morning News
ADDISON — Latin Swing’s driving rhythms rolled through the warm August night as dancers filled Vitruvian Park’s amphitheater, stepping, turning and spinning in time with the band.
Marcela Lara had traveled about 45 minutes from Wylie to join them, returning to a festival she has attended since its first year.
Events run from 6 to 10 p.m. at Vitruvian Park, 3966 Vitruvian Way, with free salsa lessons from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Admission is free. Parking costs $15, cash only, at designated parking lots and the Alfred J. Loos Sports Complex, 3815 Spring Valley Road. Outside food and drinks are allowed, but glass containers are prohibited.
For Lara, the night was both a celebration and a reunion.
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She calls the Vitruvian Salsa Festival a picnic. Families spread out with their own food and drinks as children, parents and grandparents share the park with experienced dancers and beginners learning their first steps.
Over the years, Lara said, she has formed friendships with people from across the United States, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. They reunite in Addison each summer.
“Every year we come, it’s the same group of people,” Lara said.
From experiment to tradition
The festival began not as a regional tradition but as a way to draw attention to Vitruvian Park and the surrounding apartment development.
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UDR Inc., formerly United Dominion Realty Trust, owns the development. It hired Jessica Vetrano, its special events and project manager for Vitruvian Park, to organize events introducing people to the park and surrounding apartments.
Related: Dance the night away at Addison’s Vitruvian Salsa Festival
In 2013, Vetrano tested a dance series featuring different styles. Country-western and salsa proved to be the two most popular nights.
North Texas already had plenty of places for country dancing, Vetrano reasoned. What it lacked was a space large enough to hold a major, family-friendly salsa event.
Dance instructor Luis Delgadillo (center left) leads a group anxious to learn salsa dancing alongside his dance partner Katherine Tovar at Addison’s Vitruvian Salsa Festival.
Steve Hamm/The Dallas Morning News
She called Luis Delgadillo, the owner of Salsa Dallas, who had already been teaching in the D-FW area for more than a decade. Together, they launched the Vitruvian Salsa Festival in 2014.
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The original festival stretched across eight Saturdays in June and July. Vetrano estimated cumulative attendance reached about 24,000 during its first year and doubled the next.
The growth forced organizers to change the format. After dividing the festival between June and August, they condensed it in 2017 to four Saturdays in August, reducing the demands on the park, staff and nearby residents.
The calendar grew shorter. The crowds did not.
The festival was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, making this year’s event its 12th edition. Vetrano said it now typically attracts 4,000 to 5,000 people each week.
“It’s just been so well received,” Vetrano said. “There are people who have been coming here every single week since the very first year.”
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The 2026 festival began Aug. 1 with Dallas band Zone D’Mambo. Dallas band Latin Swing performed Saturday night. Upcoming performances include Houston-based Tumbaka on Aug. 15 and Dallas band Havana NRG on Aug. 22. DJ Ruben Reyes performs each week.
Learning the rhythm
According to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino, modern salsa music emerged in New York during the 1960s and 1970s, blending Cuban and other Afro-Latino musical traditions.
Part of the festival’s appeal is how quickly spectators can become participants. Anyone watching from the lawn can step forward and join the event.
Each Saturday includes a free, 30-minute salsa lesson from Delgadillo. No partner or previous experience is required.
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Mastering the dance is another matter.
“Maybe for you, but no, it’s not,” Delgadillo said when asked whether salsa was easy to learn. “Salsa is a challenge.”
The movements may appear effortless when performed by experienced dancers, he said, but learning the timing, turns and connection between partners requires commitment.
‘It’s a passion’
Rolando Garcia understands that.
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After a relationship ended, Garcia began taking salsa lessons as a way to leave the house and meet people. His first attempts did not inspire confidence.
“Believe me, when I started, nobody wanted to dance,” Garcia said. “Even in practice, I got rejected.”
First came the count: One, two, three. Five, six, seven. Then came the basic steps, the rhythm and the challenge of leading a partner without speaking.
“The dance itself, it’s a communication with your partner,” Garcia said. “It’s a rhythm. It’s a passion.”
Garcia has attended the festival for about 10 years. He still takes lessons and continues finding something to improve.
Ethan Mader spins his dance partner Judy Terraza as they joined a host of other dance couples at Addison’s Vitruvian Salsa Festival. The event featured salsa dancing and live music provided by the group Latin Swing. The festival drew a large crowd and was held at the Vitruvian Park Amphitheater in Addison on August 8, 2026.
Steve Hamm/The Dallas Morning News
Reyes found his way to salsa long before he knew its name.
The El Paso native, whose parents are from Mexico, remembers his sister playing the music while cleaning their home on Saturdays.
“I didn’t know what it was,” Reyes said. “I didn’t know that it was called salsa. I just knew that I loved the rhythm.”
Reyes became a dancer and later a DJ after a knee injury led him to stop dancing in 2012. Working behind the turntables allowed him to remain part of the community. His sets draw from salsa traditions distinguished by their percussion, horns and regional influences.
‘Salsa is universal’
Delgadillo has watched salsa take root during his 26 years of teaching in North Texas. The D-FW scene was much smaller when he arrived from Los Angeles, he said. Now dancers can find classes, clubs and social events throughout the region.
“When you come to salsa, you’re going to see people from India, from China, from Central America, South America, Mexico, the U.S. and Europe,” Delgadillo said. “Salsa is universal.”
Addison Mayor Bruce Arfsten (center) became a rockstar to guests as he graciously posed for photos after giving a welcoming speech to start Addison’s Vitruvian Salsa Festival.
Steve Hamm/The Dallas Morning News
Addison Mayor Bruce Arfsten said he has met festivalgoers from San Antonio and heard about others traveling from Houston and Oklahoma.
“People bring their grandkids, and they’ve been coming here for seven, eight, nine years,” Arfsten said. “It’s a family tradition for them.”
The crowds have fulfilled the festival’s original purpose. UDR still asks prospective residents what brought them to the development, and Vetrano said some report discovering it through the park’s events and later deciding to live there.
But Lara provides a measure of what the festival became.
She no longer lives nearby. She makes the drive from Wylie anyway, returning to the park for the people she has come to know there.
“You meet good people,” Lara said.