La Clave Fest. London's Free Multi-Art Latino Festival

La Clave Fest is a free multi-arts festival that brings the best home grown Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese (Latin) talent in various disciplines including music, dance, theatre, film, literature, sport, gastronomy, visual and performing arts, as well as talks and lectures, into a local community. ​This year we have MUSIC (MAIN STAGE OUTSIDE TOWN HALL) LUKAS Tropical Act of the year, Grupo Lokito fuse Congolese Rumba and Salsa in an exuberant explosion of sound. The band’s live show is an exuberant display where singers shift effortlessly between melodious Rumba and lively Salsa before the band slips seamlessly into “Sebene” with soaring guitars and wild choreographed dance moves. With the quality of its musicianship and its powerful live shows, the band has been making waves both here in London and in Kinshasa and is not to be missed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGotdxGUNow Rene Alvarez and his band, Cuban born multi instrumentalist and band leader, he has been runner up for Musician of the Year at the Lukas with different projects. One of the leading light of salsa in Europe, Rene bring the flavour of the music of Carribean: son , salsa, cha cha cha, rumba and even reggaeton. His 9 piece band will surely rock la Clave! https://www.facebook.com/Rene.CubanCombination Juanita Euka and is a Congolese-Argentine singer-songwriter and LUKAS 2017 vocalist of the Year. The niece of an internationally-acclaimed music legend Franco Luambo, Juanita spent her early years in Buenos Aires and was the lead singer of London base Wara, before going solo with her flamboyant and uplifting blend of contemporary, Latin, hip-hop, soul and jazz. https://www.facebook.com/Juanitaeukamusic/ Luzmira Zerpa, Venezuelan born, london based vocalist, luamira has graced some of the most important stages in the Uk for some time now. With his project Familia Atlantica she has been touring for years and on her solo projects. Luzmira opened to Juan Luis Guerra, one of Latin America’s most famous artists, at the Royal Albert hall in front of 6000 people and she got a standing ovation from the crowd! https://www.facebook.com/luzmira.zerpa JayP and Olimac, LUKAS Urban Act runners up, are among the best of the new generaton of UK Latinos who fuse London’s urban music scene with their Colombian roots. They have a large following amongst London’s growing young Latino community. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7RTerfteRc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haxCw69AeOU La Bomba All Stars, UK’s most loved urban latino party will bring the sound of young latinos, salsa choke reggaeton, merengue and much more! this time Djs Saul Maya, Kevin Gato and Luigi Sanchez will be accompanied by Mike Kalle hosting the in between acts and prepare everyone for a long set later in the afternoon. https://www.facebook.com/LaBombaUK/ STREET PERFORMANCES (TOWN HALL SQUARE) Tribo Band, After his hugely popular mass batucada, which rocked Crouch End last year, Marcos Santana will be back to get Crouch Enders in the rythmn yet again.Founded in April 2008 by Marcos Santana, TRIBO London is a non-profit based music organisation playing samba-reggae inspired from Bahia, Brazil Haze Samba, a children's samba reggae bloco whose members are aged 8-14. Currently the group has thiry-five membersand growing. The bloco has been running for six years and has performed at a number of events in the local area and they perform traditional samba reggae as well as samba funk, samba drum and bass, samba bhangra and a few other musical surprises! DANCE Fernando Montaño’s Foot-Ba Fernando Montaño, twice LUKAS winner, is an international ballet dancer and the first Colombian ever to perform in a principal role at The Royal Ballet. Fernando will give a special performance of his own invention ‘Foot-Ba’ which is a choreography based on moves of Footballers such as Messi, Ronaldo, Bale, Rodriquez, Rooney and Neymar. Fernando performed Foot-Ba for the very first time at the opening ceremony of the 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Cali, Colombia. Fernando, a footballer before discovering his talent for dance, said "I have been studying movements of some of the most renowned players in the world and I am now looking forward to introducing Foot-Ba to the UK.” This debut will be staged at La Clave. Fernando, who was a judge on the first ever Colombian series of 'Dancing with the Stars' earlier this year and the focus of a recent BBC TV documentary, 'Dancing for Peace' whilst on a sabbatical in Bogota after a decade with the Royal Ballet. Montaño was born in Buenaventura , one of the poorest areas of Colombia, but at the age of 14 won a scholarship to the National Ballet School of Cuba, and then joined the Cuban National Ballet. He also trained at La Scala and Teatro Nuovo di Torino, Italy where he was spotted by the Director of the English Ballet School, Jane Hucker and Niurka de Saa and invited to the UK to audition, following which he joined the Royal Ballet in 2006 where he was mentored by Carlos Acosta. http://www.roh.org.uk/people/fernando-montano SAMBA in the STREET Romero de Mangueira London’s internationally renowned Professional Samba Dancer, Teacher, and Choreographer from Rio de Janeiro's famous Mangueira School of Samba, Romero de Mangueira, is widely considered as one of the best and most influential Samba teachers in Europe, and has been teaching across the UK and the continent. A special introduction has been given to Romero's influential career in a documentary on the history of Samba Carioca (Samba from Rio de Janeiro) in Brazil, and to this day Mangueira welcomes him as a guest of honour in their annual Carnival parade. www.sambalondon.org TANGO in the PLAZA Raquel Greenberg one of the UK's leading tango dance teachers and performers (and LUKAS runner up) will perform tango in the square. In the six weeks before Raquel Greenberg, will give tango classes to children, who will also perform on the day. Afterwards, Raquel will give workshops after her performance inside the Hornsey Town Hall. Raquel is an accomplished Tango performer with an impressive international track record. In the UK her performances have included appearances with Tanghetto at the O2, the Orion Philharmonic orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Argentinean Embassy-hosted events during the 2012 Olympics. http://www.raquel-tango.com/ Fine Dining - The Flavours of Latin America Kids: Camilo Menjura’s Spanish Sing-a- long Kids: Futsal Mini-Copa America Singing Workshop: Camilo Menjura’s " Pop-UP" Latin Choir Film: Chocolate of Peace (Dir. Gwen Burnyeat) Talk: A Colombian Community’s Chronicle of War and Peace Film: ‘The Clan’ (Dir. Pablo Trapero) Talk: Latin Noir – The Political Thrillers of Latin America Talk: The Sarayaku - Ecuadorian Amazonians combat climate change Film screening: ‘Beats of the Heart – SALSA’ (Dir. Jeremy Marre) Art installation: Jose Luis Seijas’ Salsoteca Dance Workshop: Salsa for beginners / Intermediates / Advance Dance Workshop: Bachata for beginners / Intermediates / Advance Dance Workshop: Tango for beginners / Intermediates / Advance Samba Workshop: Samba for beginners / Intermediates / Advance After Party: The Latin Takeover for more information and full program go to www.laclavefest.co.uk