Hundreds of people turned out for Puerto Peñasco’s 1st International Salsa Festival
To the rhythm of Luisito Rosario from Puerto Rico, Carlos Rivas from El Salvador, along with Pata de Palo from Hermosillo, hundreds of couples danced for more than three hours this past weekend across the malecón with thousands of families taking in the city’s first salsa festival.
From the moment the first group started around 8 p.m., the dance floor soon opened up to the first couples – it didn’t matter how the couples were made up as men danced with women, women danced with women, mothers danced with children, children dancing with children, etc. – all to the sounds of salsa.
The Malecón served as a dance floor, though couples soon took to the street in order to show off their best moves while both locals and tourists viewed the event from the venue’s steps.
Participants in the salsa festival also enjoyed the footwork of salsa instructors Raziel Gutiérrez and Araceli Villanueva, who showed off complete salsa routines.
This first international salsa event, organized by event promoter Lalo González in coordination with the City of Puerto Peñasco, aims to become a traditional end of the summer event. The evening also served as an attempt to break a world record for the number of couples dancing salsa, goal which was not quite met. After quite a bit of online research, it would appear the record is currently held by Cincinnati, OH that gathered more than 2000 people to break the record in 2014. Other attempts to surpass this record have been made in Cuba and Pennsylvania, among other spots.