The three-day event is the first Latin festival to sell out during the pandemic.
A Latin and Reggaeton festival in South Baja gives hope to festival promoters after a strong sell out.
Earlier today, organizers of the Baja Beach Fest announced that they had sold all available tickets for the festival – finally to run from 13-15 August 2021 – in its first year as an extended three-day event. In total, 35,000 three-day passes, starting at $ 329, were sold in about four weeks by a strong lineup headed by Ozuna, Anuel AA and J Balvin. That makes it one of the first sellouts of a 2021 festival during the pandemic.
Launched in 2018 by Aaron Ampudia en Chris Den Uijl and held at Papas and Beer in Rosarito, Mexico – a small beach town, just an hour’s drive south of San Diego, – Baja Beach Fest drew 15,000 attendees in its first year. In addition to celebrating Latin music and culture, the festival was created to promote tourism in the coastal areas of Baja California, which was once a popular destination for vacationers, retirees and real estate. That changed in 2009 after a major economic recession and what Ampudia described in a 2018 interview with Billboard as a “sensationalized media frenzy” over violence between the warring Sinaloa and Tijuana cartels, as well as thousands of soldiers and federal police deployed by former president Felipe Calderon.
Today, the beach is still struggling with violence – a report by Citizen Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice found that Rosarito Beach still has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country – but Ampudia said Billboard in 2018 that the tourist area around the festival grounds was safe and has the support of local officials.
In 1983, the parents of Ampudia created Papas and Beer, a beachside club and canteen that embraced its wild reputation as the ultimate adult playground. The space flourished in the 80s and 90s, but, in the mid-2010s, she struggled to attract patterns that were tired of the nightclub scene. Ampudia, who went to school in San Diego, started busing friends across the border for shows.
Uij and Ampudia have also been hired by Mexican promoter Ocesa to book events, including Mexico City’s annual Flow Fest, one of the largest reggaeton and stair festivals in the world.
This year’s Baja Beach Fest also includes Karol G, Sech, Farruko, Becky G and more. See the full lineup below and try it out bajabeachfest.com for more information.
