Celebrating Mexico in 2025!

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is thrilled to showcase Mexico’s vibrant music and culture at the Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion in 2025. 

Mexico’s own Santana, chart-topping Banda MS, and Grammy winner Lila Downs headline Jazz Fest’s tribute to Mexico in 2025, joined by nineteen bands from Mexico and the United States presenting a rich musical landscape that transcends borders. Hailing from various regions of Mexico, Son de Madera brings their string-driven Son Jarocho sound from Veracruz, Las Hermanas García and Mixanteña de Santa Cecilia draw from the rich musical traditions of Guerrero and the Afro-Mexican rhythms of Mexico’s Pacific coast, Pasatono Orquesta reinvents the sound of the Mixtec village bands of Oaxaca, and Marimba Nandayapa showcases the traditional marimba music of the southern state of Chiapas. From Guadalajara, the traditional Mariachi band Son del Coamil contrasts with the horn-driven Mariachi Los Camperos from Los Angeles. Festival favorite Son Rompe Pera returns from Mexico City with their trademark cumbia with a punk attitude, while the Mexican Institute of Sound illustrates the Mexican electronica movement. U.S.-based bands drawing from their Mexican roots include L.A.’s La Santa Cecilia and El Conjunto Nueva Ola, Texas’ Alejandro Escovedo, Los Texmaniacs, La Insistencia Norteña, and “El Dusty.”

Mixanteña de Santa Cecilia
LaPiztola Art

Mexico’s dynamic street culture comes alive with parades featuring Matlachines Los Venados from Aguascalientes during the first weekend and a Oaxaca-style calenda during the second. Both groups will parade daily throughout the Fair Grounds, leading dancing crowds to the Cultural Exchange Village. Inside the Village, visitors can enjoy live music in the Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion or relax under shaded canopies with authentic Mexican cuisine and mezcal cocktails.

 

Next to the Pavilion, the Cultural Exchange Demonstration Tent offers an immersive look into Mexican traditions through craft demonstrations. During the first weekend, visitors can explore Son Jarocho culture with print-making, guitar-making demonstrations, and impromptu jam sessions in the spirit of fandangos, the community gatherings around music, song, and dance so popular in the State of Veracruz. Artists from Oaxaca, including alebrijes-makers, a master weaver, and muralists, provide insight into the cultural richness of their state. From Uriangato, Guanajuato, artists demonstrate the meticulous process of creating ephemeral tapetes—intricate carpets made of dyed sand, seeds, and other natural materials. Other featured demonstrations include basket weaving from the Comcáac community of the Sonora desert, Mojiganga (giant paper-maché puppets), miniature papel picado (perforated paper), and Otomi embroidery.

Son de Madera