- This festival is organized around a central theme: "La Poesia del Abrazo" (the poetry of the embrace). The festival will allow all attendees, whether you speak Spanish or not, to explore how a deeper knowledge of tango lyrics and poetry can inform and enrich our dancing. We are bringing renowned Tango Poet Matias Mauricio to the United States for the first time to give lectures and workshops at our festival. We will offer our usual range of activities, including tango dance workshops, practicas, milongas, concerts and lectures. Each activity will in some way interweave with or shine light on the festival theme. In addition, attendees will have the chance to study the history of tango poetry and tango poetry as it is being written today. Those who wish will be able to take a workshop to practice writing their own tango poetry. A parallel track will offer musicians the chance to practice writing their own tango compositions. At least one collaboratively written tango will emerge from the four days of our festival.
- The festival will produce a new album of tango music for dancing by the ground-breaking Buenos Aires-based group, Sexteto Fantasma. We are continuing our commitment this year to produce new tango music for tango dancing. We began this initiative in 2023 with "Psicoporteño" by Tipica Messiez, and we couldn't possibly be prouder of the result. Sexteto Fantasma will present the album on the first night of the festival through a live streaming from Buenos Aires, which we will dance to in the festival venue itself.
As in all of our previous iterations, the festival will present world-renowned dancers who are particularly known for their teaching ability and their commitment to their students. The 2024 festival will feature:
- Bruno Tombari & Rocio Lequio (for the first time in the United States!)
- Los Totis (Christian Marquez & Virginia Gomez)
- Felipe Martinez & Ayano Yoneda
As has become our signature, the festival will include LIVE MUSIC EVERY NIGHT, including both seated concerts and extremely danceable live music during the milongas. We are incredibly honored to be able to present some of the best tango musicians and bands currently performing, many of whom are traveling from Buenos Aires to be part of the festival:
- Sexteto Fantasma (by livestream)
- The Tipica Messiez Tango Orchestra, directed by Emiliano Messiez
- Juan Villarreal & Patricio Crom
- Vocalist Eleonora Barletta
- The Horacio Romo - Pablo Agri - Emiliano Messiez trio
The festival will include a rich variety of offerings for tango lovers of all ages and abilities, including dancers at all levels, musicians at all levels, and the general public.
Why to Give
Simply put, we need you. The festival can't cover its expenses on ticket sales alone. Your donation also helps us continue our extremely generous sliding scale policy. (Last year, we were able to allow people to attend for any amount that they could pay.)
Please consider partnering with us to make this wonderful event possible and to bring so many incredible artists to the United States. No fewer than eleven of the featured artists will be in the US on visas sponsored and completed by the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School.
Thank you for considering partnering with us to make the festival possible! Please check out the cool perks available for donors! And if there's something else you could imagine wanting as a perk, please let us know and we'll try to make it happen!