BIG Salsa Festival New York brings top salsa on 2 and bachata instructors from around the world to the New York Hilton Midtown over Memorial Day Weekend.
It’s a full dance festival experience: intensive workshops for all levels during the day, electrifying stage performances each evening, and multiple ballrooms for dancing deep into the night. This is not a concert you attend. It is a festival you live in for the weekend.
BIG Salsa Festival New York 2026 Artists
You can warm up your shines at separate pre-parties at Sensual Movement and Yamulee Dance Company on Wednesday; and Love for Movement on Thursday.
Friday afternoon through Sunday night are intense days of workshops, evening dance shows, and dancing to DJs all night.
There is a Ladies Performance Bootcamp and the Yamuleé Performance Challenge.
Headlining DJs include DJ Alex “El Maestro” and DJ Gonzo.
Teaching artists include:
Why You Should Go
New York City is a great place to study dance. Bachata is from the Dominican Republic, and Dominicans are now NYC’s largest Latin community. Sensual Bachata is from Spain. Europeans love it. Salsa is Cuban music and dance developed in NYC’s Puerto Rican neighborhoods into what we today call salsa. It changed from the Caribbean’s circular movements to dancing in a line, Puerto Rican style. So a lot of salsa is from New York and many of NYC’s big dance studios are present.
If you’ve never been to a dance festival try it. You basically study and practice all day, and dance all night. Your best dances usually happen around 3am, and by the third day you’ll be shining. It’s exhausting, but you’ll be happy you went and ready to dance anywhere. Plus you just might meet your new best friend.
Most professionals recommend that you don’t date within the dance community. But dancers have to dance, and if you’re with someone who doesn’t dance, you’ll both be miserable. Trust me on that one.