1st & 2nd
FEBRUARY 2025
Welcome to the twelfth edition!
The 12th Edition of the Chacala Music and Arts Festival, affectionately known as ChacaFest, will take place during the long weekend commemorating the Mexican Constitution Day, and promises thanks to donations, collaborations and sponsorships, a weekend full of free performances and activities in front of the sea. On the afternoons of this Saturday, February 1 and Sunday, February 2, 2025, we will have the confirmed presence of the following artists
The Chacala community has hosted a free-admission Music and Arts Festival every year since 2014. It features children's shows, local visual and graphic artists, bands, soloists, dance groups, and even theater performances. The programming is varied, and the festival is designed to include different nationalities, ages, and origins. Why not organize your trip to Chacala during the Festival dates? For the first time in 2025, the festival will take place in February, marking a new chapter in its tradition.
We are a team of community volunteers from different countries, professions and backgrounds, what we have in common is a love of the arts, faith in its power to enable positive change and passion for this small, traditional community on the Riviera Nayarit. This is our mission for the Festival in Chacala.
Performance:
We are committed to providing an annual celebration and ongoing calendar of wide-ranging artistic performances and events for neighbors and
visitors to Chacala, and thus position our community as a traditional Mexican coastal town with high-quality artistic values and a rich cultural life.
Education:
We seek to complement existing arts education for young people in the community with additional educational and performance opportunities to stimulate, develop and nurture talent in the community.
Building on existing programs such as the El Jardín Montessori Waldorf School and the Changing Lives scholarship program, our intention is for the arts to bridge cultural gaps and give local children a window into a world of possibilities for the future, as well as provide them with a place to express yourself.
The primary goal of the Chacala Music and Arts Festival is to provide arts and music education opportunities for all children in the community.
Additionally, Chacaleños and visitors to our magical town delight in exposing their families to high-quality professional performances at the free 4-day festival. To that end, in the first two years, the festival has benefited local children in the following ways:
1. Provided over 50 local children with weekly music education, rehearsals and stage experience.
2. Exposed over 100 of our youngest children to music through the KinderMusik program. In addition to local preschool children, this program relies on a Rotary-sponsored "travelling library" program involving Jannel Tessari, so the program travels to several remote villages near Chacala, benefiting another 100 children.
3. Provided local high school students with instruction in instrumental rehearsals and performances. Additionally, visiting musicians performing at the Festival typically spend time with students sharing their music, performances, etc.
4. Familiarize local children with the visual arts through exposure and hands-on instruction. The visual art component of the Festival began in 2015, through an exhibition. It has since included teaching by qualified art teachers during and after the two-week Chacala Artist Residency Programme, with more programs being developed this year.
Arturo Padilla
Chairman, Festival de Música y Arte