Casino Ritmo Habana Primer Anniversario

Casino Ritmo Habana is a school and community in Mérida, run by Daniel Ríos and Minda Partida, and this is the weekend they built to mark their first year. Worth knowing before you read the lineup: this is an anniversary rather than an established festival, and it is the first edition of anything. The lineup is larger than the occasion suggests. Fourteen teachers from Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, Spain, the United States and Mexico, among them Ramsés Sariol and Sandra Cuenca, Adrián Valdivia and Amanda Gil, Leonardo Esmoris, Miguel Díaz, Yusmely Ayala, Adrián Piña and Luz Camarena, Angélica González, Surelys Moya, Yoryin McBean and Stephania Caro. The content is son, casino, rueda, rumba and reparto, with nothing linear on the programme. The two days run in different rooms: workshops from ten to six at the Salón Kristal in Club Cumbres on the Saturday, then at AME Events on the Sunday. Saturday night is the Fiesta Sonera, nine until three, with Grupo La Siembra playing live and DJ El de la Yunfa. Sunday closes with a social from six to ten in the same room as the day's classes. One thing to plan around: Sunday is not sold as a day pass. Attending it means buying the full pass. The Saturday day pass and the party-only pass are both discounted for the first twenty-five buyers, and there is an optional Monday workshop with Leonardo Esmoris and Daniel y Minda, sold separately.