For 34 years, the Puerto Rican festival, El Dia De San Juan, has brought traditional Puerto Rican foods, dance and music to San Jose. For music, that of course means salsa and meringue, but the folks behind the event didn’t want the festival to only feature traditional Puerto Rican music.
That’s why they’ve included a second stage, dubbed the “Youth Stage,” which has been in the festival the past four years.
“We wanted to touch base with the younger crowd. The main stage is the salsa stage. That’s for the older folks. On the youth stage, we have a lot of the younger performers, kids from the community,” says Rene Baez, the booker for the youth stage.
Most of the performers they’ve booked on the youth stage this year are hip-hop, and quite a few of them live here in San Jose. The headliners are an East Bay group called Los Rakas. Originally from Panama, the duo moved to Oakland when they were in high school, so they have musical influences from both countries. They rap primarily in Spanish over traditional hip-hop club beats, but mix in loops and samples from Latin music.
Baez hopes to continue to expand the music genres and cultural diversity represented on the youth stage. Already this year, he’s booked Mexican American musicians and African American musicians.
“It’s not just a Puerto Rican Festival. We reached out to a lot of people. A lot of folks didn’t want to get involved because they kind of saw it as a Latino kind of festival, which isn’t true. We are looking to reach out to everybody. This is an event that people in the bay area and San Jose really look forward to every year, just the same as the jazz festival,” Baez says.
The Western Region Puerto Rican Council (WRPRC) is the organization behind El Dia De San Juan. Baez is also hosting an after party at the Agenda Lounge with KMEL’s Rick Lee that will feature Mayhem the Don.
El Dia De San Juan will be held in San Jose’s History Park on Saturday, June 23, 11am; $20 adv/$30 door.
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