The BIG Salsa Fest San Antonio - 2027

Wave One of the 2027 lineup is announced. More artists coming throughout the year.

In 2027, The BIG Salsa Fest returns as the flagship event of RISE, the Ritmo Institute for Salsa Education. Same heart, same community, and the biggest celebration we have ever put on.

July 22 to 26, 2027, at The St. Anthony, a Luxury Collection Hotel, in the heart of downtown San Antonio. Music until five in the morning every night, which almost no hotel in a downtown market allows.

Four nights of social dancing, workshops, and performances with artists from across the country and around the world. Two social rooms every night, salsa and bachata, running until the sun is close. Days are for learning from the artists you admire. Nights are for dancing until the early morning.

Misaki, returning from Tokyo. Tropical Gem, the Milan company directed by Fernando Sosa and Tatiana Bonaguro, bringing six dancers to San Antonio. Eloy J Rojas from Amsterdam. Nando Lasso. Margarita Skarlee. Sophia Safran. Ilias Thermos. Karina Riquelme. Gonzalo Riquelme. More names announced soon.

A six-hour bootcamp with Misaki, limited to fifteen dancers per role. A pool party Saturday and Sunday afternoon. A Wednesday night pre-party before the festival opens. Meals in the building, sold as a three-day add-on. Competition programming announced later this year.

Alongside the festival, we are hosting the Ritmo Conference on the music and dance of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, July 20 to 22. Panels, paper sessions, and movement workshops with the people who study this tradition for a living.

Every festival pass includes a free seat Thursday morning at the Ritmo Academic Awards Breakfast program and the plenary panel that follows. Your access code arrives in your order confirmation. If you want the full three days, or the whole Thursday morning with breakfast and the early social, festival passholders get a discounted rate on the Ritmo Conference listing, and that code is in your confirmation too.

Whether you have danced for twenty years or are about to take your very first step, there is a place for you here.

One room block covers both the festival and the conference, starting at $169 a night. Book your room here. Set your own check-in and check-out dates before selecting a room, since the block runs July 18 through 27. Reserve by June 21, 2027. Cancellation up to 48 hours before arrival.

Or bundle it. King Stay Packages combine four nights in a Superior King with your festival pass, the Friday VIP pool party, the pre-party, and an exclusive shirt. From $555 per person, or $130 down and $50 a month. Only 40 rooms at the early price.

Founding passes are on sale now at our lowest price of the year. The price rises on August 24 and four more times before the festival, and it never comes back down. Save your spot, and watch for more artists and the full schedule in the months ahead.

Questions? Reach us at [email protected] or visit risesanantonio.org.

Info: The night before the festival opens. A casual social to meet dancers before day one, whether you flew in early or you live here. Presale includes one drink. Location and final time announced closer to the festival.

Info: Location: Peacock Alley

Wristbands, pre-ordered merch, VIP laminates, and conference credentials. Open all day. Bring your order confirmation.

Congress attendees: any festival pass
Conference attendees: any conference pass

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom, with breakouts in the Morrison, Naylor, Jones, and Swearingen rooms

You have been dancing to this music for years. This is the morning you find out where it came from, from the people who study it for a living. Three blocks of panels and workshops on the music, movement, and Afro-Caribbean traditions behind salsa. No academic background needed, and every session is built to be understood by dancers.

If you are already in town Thursday morning, this is the best thing you could be doing with it.

Congress attendees: add the Thursday Crossover pass or the full conference on the Ritmo Conference listing
Conference attendees: included with any conference pass

Info: Location: Draper Room

A scholar and a working dancer in conversation, over lunch. Two people who love the same thing and came to it from opposite directions, talking it out in front of a room that is half academics and half dancers.

This is the one hour all week where both sides of this music sit at the same tables. Lunch is included, and it is worth adding even if you skip everything else that morning.

Congress attendees: add the Keynote Luncheon on its own, the Thursday Crossover, or the full conference on the Ritmo Conference listing
Conference attendees: included with any conference pass

Info: Location: Poolside and the Cascade Room

Nothing scheduled, nothing required. The pool is open, there is music, and there is nowhere to be until the evening. The room off the deck is open for social dancing all afternoon, salsa and bachata.

Small on purpose. Come sit down, meet somebody, and settle in before the weekend starts. This is where you find the people you have only followed online.

Congress attendees: Full Pass for the pool. Any festival pass for the social room.
Conference attendees: included with any conference pass

Info: Location: Cascade Room

Thirty minutes on how the weekend actually works. What happens in each room, how to ask someone to dance, how to say no and hear no, and how to take care of each other on a crowded floor at two in the morning.

Bring a friend who has never done this. Bring yourself if you have done it for years and want to hear it said out loud.

Congress attendees: any festival pass
Conference attendees: included with any conference pass

Info: Location: Draper Room, Peraux Room, and Cavalier Room

The studio directors and instructors who built this community, teaching the thing they teach best. Two blocks in each room.

Salsa for absolute beginners · Draper
Bachata for absolute beginners · Peraux
Kids classes, ages 6 to 17 · Cavalier

No experience needed. No partner needed. If tonight is your first time on a dance floor, this is the night built for you, and by nine o'clock you will know enough to use it.

Congress attendees: Full Pass or Thursday Day Pass
Conference attendees: included with any conference pass

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom

Thursday night performers only. Closed to attendees.

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom

The young dancers open the festival. A short set from the kids performing across the weekend, and the room they walk into is the one you fill.

Congress attendees: Full Pass, Thursday Day Pass, Thursday Evening Pass, or Performance Supporter Pass
Conference attendees: included with any conference pass

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom

Tonight's theme is work clothes, done properly. Think cute summer office fit, the one you wear when you know you look good in the meeting.

Sharp lines, good fabric, a dress that moves. Ties worth loosening. Slacks that fit. Dance heels if that is your thing, and flats in your bag either way. Skip the full suit, it is July in Texas and you will regret it by eleven.

Salsa and bachata in one room, floor open until two.

The rest of the weekend you dress like a dancer. Tonight you dress like you are getting away with something.

Congress attendees: Full Pass, Thursday Day Pass, or Thursday Evening Pass
Conference attendees: included with any conference pass

Info: Location: Draper Room

Hot breakfast in the building before the first block. Two hours, so come when you wake up.

Meals are sold as a three-day add-on for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and they are not sold at the door. The hotel needs final counts by July 8, so this is one of the few things you cannot decide on the day. Add it with your pass.

Congress attendees: Meals add-on required
Conference attendees: Meals add-on required

Info: Location: Peacock Alley

Wristbands, pre-ordered merch, and VIP laminates. Bring your order confirmation.

Congress attendees: any festival pass

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom, Draper Room, Peraux Room, Cavalier Room

Three hours, four rooms, and the first real day of the weekend. Salsa on2 and on1, bachata, shines, partnerwork, body movement, and ladies styling running side by side.

You will not get to everything. Pick the rooms that scare you a little.

Full grid and room assignments announced closer to the festival.

Congress attendees: Full Pass or Friday Day Pass

Info: Location: Draper Room

Sit down, eat, and get your legs back before the afternoon.

Downtown has plenty of options, but you will spend most of your break walking to them. The meal add-on keeps you in the building, and it closes July 8 with the hotel's catering deadline.

Congress attendees: Meals add-on required

Info: Location: Poolside and the Cascade Room

Private, and the only time all weekend the artists are somewhere they can actually sit down. Instructors, international artists, and VIP holders, poolside, with the room off the deck open.

The VIP Social Experience is limited to 40 and includes this, the VIP lounge every night, front-row seating at every show, Hopscotch admission, and the festival shirt and tote.

Congress attendees: VIP Social Experience

Info: Location: Cavalier Room

The first of three afternoon sessions building one piece toward Sunday night's stage. Fifteen leads, fifteen follows, nine hours across the weekend, and a performance at the end of it.

Same time all three days, ending before tech, so you can still perform with your team every night.

Registration closes Thursday and is capped at thirty dancers. Once it fills, it is gone.

Congress attendees: Bootcamp registration plus a Full Pass or Friday Day Pass

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom, Draper Room, Peraux Room, Cavalier Room

The long stretch. This is where people find the class that changes how they dance for the next year.

Anacacho closes at 5:30 for tech, and the last blocks run in Draper, Peraux, and Starlight.

Congress attendees: Full Pass or Friday Day Pass

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom

Friday night performers only. Closed to attendees.

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom

Teams and artists from across the country and around the world. Ninety minutes, one room, everyone in it.

Front-row seating is held for VIP holders. Reserved tables for four are available in both social rooms for all four nights.

Congress attendees: Full Pass, Friday Day Pass, Friday Evening Pass, or Performance Supporter Pass

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom and Peraux Room for salsa, Draper Room for bachata

Wear white. All of it, any of it, whatever you have.

Two rooms until five in the morning. Salsa opens across Anacacho and Peraux together, bachata runs in Draper all night. Music does not stop until the sun is close.

Reserve a table for four in either room and have somewhere to put your bag and change your shoes, held for you all four nights. Eight tables per room.

Congress attendees: Full Pass, Friday Day Pass, or Friday Evening Pass

Info: Location: Buffet in Peacock Alley, seating in Gallery on the Park

Hot breakfast in the building before the day starts. Come through Peacock Alley for the buffet, then sit down in the Gallery.

Meals are sold as a three-day add-on for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and they are not sold at the door. The hotel needs final counts by July 8.

Congress attendees: Meals add-on required

Info: Location: Buffet in Peacock Alley, seating in the Cavalier Room

Same buffet, quieter room. Up the marble staircase on the mezzanine.

Congress attendees: instructors, artists, and VIP Social Experience holders

Info: Location: Peacock Alley

Wristbands, pre-ordered merch, and VIP laminates. Bring your order confirmation.

Congress attendees: any festival pass

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom, Peraux Room, Draper Room, Starlight Suite

Four rooms, three blocks, everyone teaching. If there is a class you have been circling all weekend, take it this morning, because the afternoon belongs to the competition and the pool.

Full grid and room assignments announced closer to the festival.

Congress attendees: Full Pass or Saturday Day Pass

Info: Location: Peacock Alley and Gallery on the Park

Eat before the competition. You will not want to leave the building once it starts.

Congress attendees: Meals add-on required

Info: Location: Cavalier Room

Congress attendees: instructors, artists, and VIP Social Experience holders

Info: Location: Peraux Room and Starlight Suite

Two rooms running alongside the competition for anyone who would rather be dancing than watching.

Congress attendees: Full Pass or Saturday Day Pass

Info: Location: Draper Room

Session two of three. The piece starts to hold together today.

Congress attendees: Bootcamp registration plus a Full Pass or Saturday Day Pass

Info: Location: Poolside and the Cascade Room

WRISTBANDS CHECKED AT THE POOL ENTRANCE. If you hold a day pass or an evening pass, you need the Pool Party Access add-on to get in. There is no on-site sale and no exceptions at the gate.

Three hours at the pool with a DJ, and no workshops running anywhere in the building. This is the one afternoon everybody is in the same place with nothing scheduled.

Included with any multi-day pass. Cabanas seat six, three released per day, and once a day sells out it does not come back.

Add Pool Party Access before you arrive. One purchase covers both Saturday and Sunday.

Congress attendees: Full Pass, or Pool Party Access add-on. Day and evening passes do not include pool access.

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom

Saturday night performers only. Closed to attendees.

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom

The biggest night of the weekend. Teams and artists from across the country and around the world, ninety minutes, one room.

Front-row seating is held for VIP holders. Reserved tables for four are available in both social rooms for all four nights.

Congress attendees: Full Pass, Saturday Day Pass, Saturday Evening Pass, or Performance Supporter Pass

Info: Location: Anacacho and Peraux for salsa, Draper Room for bachata

Wear red, wear black, wear both. The biggest night of the weekend, in the colors of the studio that started this.

Red and black is Semeneya's, and has been for twenty-seven years. RISE honors that legacy every fall at the RED & BLACK event in San Antonio, and tonight we carry it onto the floor here.

Two rooms until five in the morning. Salsa opens across Anacacho and Peraux together through the French doors, bachata runs in Draper all night. The VIP lounge is open in the St. Anthony Club with food, drinks, and air conditioning.

Congress attendees: Full Pass, Saturday Day Pass, or Saturday Evening Pass

Info: Location: Buffet in Peacock Alley, seating in Gallery on the Park

Last morning. Come eat something.

Meals are sold as a three-day add-on for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and they are not sold at the door. The hotel needs final counts by July 8.

Congress attendees: Meals add-on required

Info: Location: Buffet in Peacock Alley, seating in the Cavalier Room

Same buffet, quieter room. Up the marble staircase on the mezzanine.

Congress attendees: instructors, artists, and VIP Social Experience holders

Info: Location: Peacock Alley

Wristbands and pre-ordered merch. Last day to pick up anything you bought.

Congress attendees: any festival pass

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom, Peraux Room, Draper Room, Starlight Suite

Four rooms, three blocks, last chance. Every artist teaching this weekend is in one of these rooms this morning.

Full grid and room assignments announced closer to the festival.

Congress attendees: Full Pass or Sunday Day Pass

Info: Location: Buffet in Peacock Alley, seating in Gallery on the Park

Congress attendees: Meals add-on required

Info: Location: Buffet in Peacock Alley, seating in the Cavalier Room

Congress attendees: instructors, artists, and VIP Social Experience holders

Info: Location: Poolside and the Cascade Room

WRISTBANDS CHECKED AT THE POOL ENTRANCE. If you hold a day pass or an evening pass, you need the Pool Party Access add-on to get in. There is no on-site sale and no exceptions at the gate.

Recognizing the studios that built this community: Semeneya, Salsa On2 School, and Esta Noche. Their directors have been teaching in this city for a collective of decades.

Included with any multi-day pass. One Pool Party Access purchase covers both Saturday and Sunday. Cabanas seat six, three released per day.

Congress attendees: Full Pass, or Pool Party Access add-on. Day and evening passes do not include pool access.

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom

Closing night performers only. Closed to attendees.

Info: Location: Anacacho Ballroom

The last show, closing with the Misaki & Eloy bootcamp dancers taking the stage after three days of work.

Front-row seating is held for VIP holders.

Congress attendees: Full Pass, Sunday Day Pass, Sunday Evening Pass, or Performance Supporter Pass

Info: Location: Anacacho and Peraux for salsa, Draper Room for bachata

Wear your BIG shirt. Any year, new or old.

If this is your first festival, wear the 2027 one. If you have been coming for a decade, wear the oldest one you still own and let people ask about it. By midnight the room is a timeline of who has been here and for how long.

Two rooms until five in the morning. Salsa across Anacacho and Peraux, bachata in Draper. The last song of the weekend happens in this room.

Congress attendees: Full Pass, Sunday Day Pass, or Sunday Evening Pass

Event venue & nearby stays

The St. Anthony, a Luxury Collection Hotel, San Antonio, United States

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