More than 80,000 festivalgoers attended the inaugural two-day Latino music festival Sueños in Grant Park last year during Memorial Day weekend, which created nearly 1,000 jobs and contracted dozens of local food and beverage vendors, organizers announced Tuesday.
More than 75% of the overall festival operations in 2022, including artists, employees and contracted vendors were Latinos, said Jaime di Paulo, president of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
This year, he expects that percentage to be surpassed.
“Even the fencing company, the security company is (Latino-operated); everything about this event is all about our community,” said di Paulo.
The festival, featuring Latino artists from different genres around the world, including reggaeton and regional Mexican music, will be held May 27-28 in Grant Park.
Sueños, or Dreams in English, was launched last year as a tribute and celebration of the reggaeton music and Latino culture; and as a way of recognizing the culture of the city and supporting Chicago’s economy. Organizers said the festival brought in $120.9 million to the local economy, according to a study of its economic impact by AngelouEconomics and C3 Presents.
[ First Sueños Music Festival of Latin reggaeton draws a huge, fans-only crowd in Grant Park ]
The economics not only highlight the Latino buying power in Chicago but throughout the Midwest, organizers said.
The mission of the festival goes beyond uplifting the Latino music scene and catering to the growing bilingual and bicultural populations in the Chicago area, they said. It also aims to create opportunities for local artists and invest in Latino youth in the community, said Tuba Smith, C3′s festival director for Lollapalooza and director for Sueños.
Last year, organizers collaborated with the Pilsen Neighbors Community Council to provide their annual Fiesta Del Sol scholarships for first-generation Latino and students in country without legal permission.
Monica Gonzalez, a junior at National Louis University and one of the winners of the scholarship said that she was proud to support the event as it creates more opportunities for students like her at the same time that it celebrates her culture.
For Brenda and Omar Torres, leaders of the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural, an arts center program in the Hermosa neighborhood, funding and support from the festival has helped them expand their youth programs, including adding a recording studio to encourage youth to create music.
The festival said Brenda Torres, “is also a sign of healing of our communities.”
The headliners include Wisin Y Yandel, Grupo Firme, Feid and Nicky Jam. Other artists scheduled include Becky G, Junior H and Chencho Corleone.
Chicago local DJ Miriam will be returning. Last year, she said, it was a dream for her mother to see her perform alongside top Latino artists.
Afternoon Briefing
Daily
Chicago Tribune editors’ top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon.
“A sense of pride has been lifted for Latinos in Chicago,” she said.
larodriguez@chicagotribune.com
