La Feria Latina coming to Montreal Aug. 16-18

Montreal will be honouring its Hispanic community with La Feria Latina, taking place Aug. 16-18 with a colourful parade featuring more than 15 Latin dance troops and schools from Montreal as the highlight of the festival.

Headlining musical acts include Kadencia, along with Lengaïa Salsa Brava Salsa Brava, a 12-piece orchestra and one of the rare active international Salsa Brava ensembles.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience,” said Johan Barbosa, a salsa dancer with Kadencia.

“We will be performing and bringing some of our culture to Montreal.”

“We have been collaborating with these artists for a while already,” added Feria Latina spokesperson Luisa Rodriguez.

“Last year we did kind of a small festival in Marie-Courts and this were some of the artists that we selected last year.

“They’re coming with us this year for La Feria Latina and then we’re going to go with Le Moix de l’Héritage Latino-American here in Montreal too.”

Giany Despointes, the founder and musical director of Lengaïa Salsa Brava, said: “Lengaïa has been around for maybe 10 years now and the idea as a concept of the orchestra is actually to play what we call Salsa Dura or Salsa Brava.

“So we actually compose most of the songs that we are playing, actually 99% of the songs, but we are maintaining actually the tradition of big salsa orchestras with the brass section, the percussion rhythm and obviously meaningful songs.

“So this is actually the essence of it, so we try to innovate within this style.”

“People can expect different disciplines, so we’re going to have dance, we’re going to have salsa, we’re going to have cumbia, we’re going to have a parade coming all the way down from Belchasse to Jean-Talon,” added Rodriguez.

“So there’s different activities for all the family, kids, grown-ups, adults and everything is for free.

“We have such rich culture in Latin America, we went to showcase this culture not just in Anglo or Francophone communities but everyone here in Montreal.”

When asked about his favourite part of his heritage, Barbosa said: “I could say our happiness, our joy in the way we interact and the way we dance.”

Tatiana Rivera is Barbosa’s dance partner and said: “We are so excited for enjoy with you, so come with us, enjoy the La Feria, enjoy the people, enjoy the dancing, enjoy the music songs. Come.”

La Feria Latina takes place at Plaza St. Hubert from Aug. 16-18.