Oxnard’s 9th Annual Salsa Festival this past weekend was an all-inclusive event for those who can’t live without salsa (the dance, I mean.)
Not only was there Latin music almost all day long for the two days, but also booths selling hand-made crafts, art, jewelry, garden art and much more, much of it with a Latin flavor. As for the food-there was even a huge salsa tasting tent.
The weekend started at 11 a.m. Saturday in Plaza Park, Downtown, with a flamenco show, then a merengue line dance, followed by lessons and then … salsa bands! My favorite, Orquesta Charangoa, closed the day, going an extra 15 minutes after the crowd chanted “Otra! Otra!” The band, complete with violin and bass, plays Cuban-style salsa. Nuestro played earlier in the afternoon, with a killer sax player.
And to further entertain the crowd, salsa dancers took the floor. A group of salsaholics came up from Los Angeles, and, as everyone in the salsa world knows, Angeles dancers have a salsa flair all their own, which seemed to impress those who were content to sit on hay bales and watch.
Sunday started with a Latin Jazz band called The Estrada Brothers, followed by lessons from the Salsa Brava Dance Company, a cha cha and salsa line dance, and a salsa dance contest. Leslie Paula and The Latin Soul Band ended the weekend lineup.
The event drew thousands of people and filled all the local hotels in the area. (I stayed at the Vagabond Inn, which was conveniently located only a few blocks from the park.)
One thing Oxnard is missing is a place to go dancing at night-several fruitless 411 calls yielded nothing but disappointment to us diehards who wanted to dance till the wee hours in the morning. Oh well, that’s why we have L.A.