The South Bronx has always been where music is born — 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.
South Bronx Culture Festival 2026
Casita Maria’s Bronx culture street fair
Mambo Legends Orchestra, Bronx Banda with Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Telmary, Berta Moreno & La Troupe, Kalí Rodríguez-Peña & Mélange, Maria Raquel
Father Gigante Plaza
Longwood, The Bronx
Fri, May 29 | 4-7pm
Sat, May 30 | 11am – 7pm
FREE
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’s going.
South Bronx Culture Festival 2026 ~ Friday
Bronx Banda with Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra
Big Band Latin Jazz | 5:30-7pm
Multiple Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning pianist and composer Arturo O’Farrill leads Casita Maria’s own Bronx Banda — an 11-piece improvisational ensemble rooted in the daily life of the South Bronx community — alongside his 18-piece Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra for Friday’s headlining set.
With special guests Bombazo Dance Co. and NYC Salsa Dance on stage, this is the Bronx’s 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.
Young Artists & Teaching Artists of Casita Maria
Puerto Rican bomba and salsa, African American hip hop | 4-5:15pm
The festival opens Friday with the students and teaching artists of Casita Maria’s K–8 Arts Studios, showcasing ballet, bomba, hip hop dance, choir, Latin dance, and musical theater — the next generation of Bronx artists proving that staying rooted and dreaming big are not opposites. They are the same thing.
South Bronx Culture Festival 2026 ~ Saturday
Mambo Legends Orchestra
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’s golden age.
Saturday’s closing headliners perform the music of Machito, Tito Rodríguez, and Tito Puente with mambo dancers Suci Kurniati Frohman and Franck Muhel — born in Indonesia and Martinique respectively — bringing the diaspora full circle on the dance floor.
Kurniati was born in Indonesia. In colonial times, there was a significant migration of laborers from Dutch Java to Dutch Suriname. It’s one of the unusual mixes that is part of the culture of the Americas.
Telmary
Cuban rap | 3:30-4:30pm
One of Cuba’s 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.
She has performed across North America, Europe, South America, and Japan, collaborated with Los Van Van, Arturo O’Farrill, and the late Dr. John, and earned her place as a defining force in contemporary Cuban music.
Berta Moreno & La Troupe
Afro-Latin Jazz | 2-2:45pm
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.
Her tenor saxophone tells stories with precision and passion — DownBeat called her “driven and determined,” and WBGO called her “a storyteller.” Both are right.
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.
Kalí Rodríguez-Peña & Mélange
Afro-Cuban Jazz | 12:30-1:15pm
Latin Grammy-nominated trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Kalí Rodríguez-Peña 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.
He has shared stages with Wynton Marsalis, Arturo O’Farrill, Chucho Valdés, and Esperanza Spalding. His set with Mélange is one of the weekend’s must-see moments.
Maria Raquel
Colombian salsa | 11-11:45am
Colombian singer and composer Maria Raquel has been a fixture of New York’s 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.
She opens Saturday’s main stage with the kind of vocal authority that commands full attention from the first note.
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It’s all free.