In its third year, Sueños has the largest crowd yet. Nearly 70,000 people attended the Latino music festival on Saturday in Chicago’s Grant Park, bringing Latinos from all over the country together. The headliner for Sunday, Grammy winner Peso Pluma, promised to galvanize a larger crowd, though weather after the expected noon start.
The festival on social media it would open at 4 p.m. What started as a festival to celebrate Latino culture and to create a unique space for reggaeton music has transformed into a festival highlighting the rise of regional Mexican music over the last years.
Artists like Pluma and young Mexican American singers like Xavi and Ivan Cornejo, who performed to a thrilling crowd on Saturday, have crossed over into a more mainstream market. , Junior H and Grupo Firme performed on closing day, putting on a unique show that left the crowd wanting more. Cornejo’s sweet melodies have made him a Gen-Z favorite.
Cornejo, 19, taught himself to play the guitar by watching videos and says he began songwriting after enduring a heartbreak. On Saturday, the young Mexican American singer passed out red roses to girls in the crowd as the strings of the guitar playing pierced a cheering crowd. Amid sparkling and vivid outfits, hundreds wore cowboy boots and hats, honoring a genre that had long been somewhat neglected.
The sounds of accordion or the guitar, which characterize regional Mexican music, now intertwine with Latin trap and reggaeton at the festival as mo.