Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Coachella begins today, but the massive Southern California music festival isn't the only big event happening this weekend. Thirty minutes up the road in Palm Springs, Desert Gold is also starting. It's a collaboration between the Ace Hotel and the folks from Mexico's Festival Nrmal.
The multi-day event is all about featuring up and coming artists from Mexico and other parts of Latin America.
Festival Nrmal, which began in 2010, features music events in Monterey and Mexico City, Mexico. Monica Saldana, one of the founders, says she wanted to create a platform where emerging artists from Latin America could perform.
Now, she's brought the festival north to Palm Springs.
"There's a very big electronic music trend in Mexico and Latin America," says Saldana. "It's very interesting the way that the Latin American artists are mixing the more regional sounds with global sounds."
As an example, Saldana said to look at the Tijuana trio Los Mocanos.
"They understand a lot the context and the background of regional music from Mexico, but they also like to create something new out of it and mix it with new sounds from around the globe," Saldana said.
Desert Gold begins tomorrow. Check out the set list here.