KXCI is putting faces to the voices of some of the artists we hear on the community radio station’s airwaves.
The station on Saturday, March 22, is hosting a daylong music festival to celebrate “amazing artists from across the Southwest” who the station plays in regular rotation.
That includes regional artists representing a range of voices, from Latin American folkloric traditions to Tohono O’odham waila social dance music that threads “folk rock, psychedelic cumbia and indie pop with rhythms from Latin and Indigenous communities for everyone to connect on the dance floor,” said KXCI Music Director Duncan Hudson, who organized the festival.
“We feel like coming together through dance and music is a way to bring the community together,” he said.
Window Rock singer-songwriter Hataalii is one of the regional artists on the lineup of Saturday’s KXCI festival.
The festival’s goal is to bring together a wide range of styles that celebrate the region’s musical and cultural diversity including Tucson’s own cumbia/Mexican folk band Los Esplifs, the Tohono O’odham waila band Native Creed, Navajo singer-songwriter Hataałii from Window Rock, Oracle singer-songwriter Nicosa and Tucson-raised Yaqui/Mayo trans percussionist and DJ MizSkoden. The lineup also includes the Latin-fusion all female quintet Las Chollas Peligrosas from Phoenix.
“It’s part of our mission to celebrate our local community and we include in that the Southwest borderlands,” said KXCI Operations Director Amanda Shauger.
National touring artist Reyna Tropical, led by trailblazing guitarist and songwriter Fabi Reyna, will headline the festival with music influenced by cultural traditions of Peru, Colombia and the Congo.
Fabi Reyna of Reyna Tropical released “Malegria,” a long-anticipated full-length debut album.
Reyna Tropical became a hit with KXCI DJs and listeners last year with the release of Reyna’s debut full-length album “Malegría.” The album, which marked the transition from a duo to solo project with the 2022 death of musical partner Nectali “Sumohair” Díaz, landed at No. 11 on the station’s Top 100 most-played albums of 2024.
Shauger said she would like to see Baila el Pueblo, KXCI’s first daylong festival since it hosted the annual Festival en el Barrio Viejo a decade ago, to become an annual tradition.
“We would love for this to be an annual festival and build upon it,” she said.
The festival will be at the MSA Annex, 267 S. Avenida del Convento, from 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday; doors open at 3. Tickets are $30 for KXCI members, $35 for non-members in advance at kxci.org; it’s $40 day of show.
Local food vendors will be onsite along with artisans.
