Community Arts

We achieved most of are artistic goals. The music and dance were great. We had to cut one of the open rehearsal events due to a double booking but those sessions were interesting for performers and attendees. The original intent at Salsa Fiesta was to also include world premieres of new music at the rehearsals and this event as part of a supporting award from the Jerome Foundation. That funding was pending though and didn't come through. On the other hand, the core band Charanga Tropical exceeded expectation by returning from a tour to Cuba with a new CD of music. The event became a Salsa Fiesta and CD release event which was very cool and attracted a different kind of attention and word of mouth. What worked was the project design, the idea of gathering the best musicians from the best Latin bands and putting them all onstage. The mix of energy and talent was incredible. What didn't work so well was trying to coordinate so many performers. Two of the three dance groups couldn't put enough members on the floor the present a show. We overbooked the evening of music and dance and some of the numbers that were practiced didn't get played. A lead guest singer called the night of the performance to say she was in Houston, Texas and wouldn't be there. Both the strength and weakness of this project is the variety and number of performers. It creates amazing music but can cause logistical problems. If done over again, would select repertoire and have rehearsals earlier in the Spring. Would consider paying some performers a deposit to have them lock in the date. We did reach our community. We came up just a few dozen short of our attendance goal but our mix of Salsa music fans was right on. Our estimation of population benefiting was correct. Our outreach efforts were a combination of new media (Facebook, emails, etc.) and old media (handing out flyers at other salsa events). This mixed worked really well. We kept our ticket price low, $15/$20 and had a great mix of people to participate. We had some challenges giving away 70 tickets to those who would attend but could not otherwise afford a ticket price. In the future we will start early, in late winter, to identify the best organizations or individuals to receive the comp tickets. Quantitative: we had an audience of 439 plus more than 27 musicians. Qualitatively: we received positive reviews from fans, venue management, and participating musicians and dancers. Salsa Fiesta is one of the highlights of the Latin music and dance calendar for the Twin Cities.