You have heard the falls roar. You have probably heard the fireworks. You have almost certainly never heard either of them keep time with a conga line.
That changes on the twelfth.
Salsa at Niagara Falls arrives this September for its very first outing, and it is not doing things by halves. It is taking over Clifton Hill and the Niagara River Parkway for two entire days, noon until ten at night, on Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th. Ten hours a day, two days running. We are beyond thrilled.
It is happening inside the park. Not down the road from it. Two of the three dancing areas are inside Niagara Parks itself, at Oakes Garden Theatre and in Queen Victoria Park. Those are the gardens directly at the falls, the best-kept ground in the region. Handing them over for a weekend of live music and dancing is not a small thing, and it is a large part of why this will feel different from a festival held in a field somewhere.
Arranging it took some doing. The festival comes from the Canadian Salsa Festivals Project, the people behind Salsa in Toronto, working with the Niagara Parks Commission, Niagara Falls Tourism and Fallsview Casino Resort.
What is waiting for you, you ask? Two stages, running live music straight through both days. The bill includes Frankie Negrón, Orquesta Cali Salsa Power, Andy Rubal, Alexis Martínez and Santiago Moa, with DJ Yesii and DJ Bane filling in every gap between them.
Three hot spots of non-stop dancing, spread across the Niagara River Parkway, Oakes Garden Theatre and Queen Victoria Park, with Jaguar Dance Company, Araguacu and Soul2sole among those performing.
Now, a confession is probably in order. Some of you are reading this thinking it sounds wonderful, and also that you personally dance with all the natural rhythm of a filing cabinet. Good news. There are lessons. Salsa, bachata and rueda cubana, taught on site and followed by social dancing where absolutely nobody is keeping score. You do not need a partner. You do not need to have ever done this before. You need roughly the same quantity of courage required to get into the Whirlpool Aero Car, which is to say some, but not a great deal.
There is food as well, proper Latin cooking, along with vendor markets and cultural celebrations of Bolivia, Mexico and Cuba, all of it built to work for every age in your group.
And then, at ten o’clock…a fireworks show. Choreographed to salsa. We feel obliged to point out that this region has been setting off fireworks above that gorge for a very long time, and in all those years nobody thought to put them on a clave rhythm. Somebody finally has.
A little advice from the locals: Ten hours a day is a great deal of festival. Do not attempt to conquer it. Go in the afternoon. Wander off for dinner when you need a sit down. Come back for the fireworks. If you are staying anywhere around Fallsview or Clifton Hill, all three of those are a walk rather than a drive, which is rather the point of being up there. And wear shoes you can dance in. You will be on your feet far longer than you are currently planning to be.
Salsa at Niagara Falls
Saturday, September 12th and Sunday, September 13th
12 p.m. to 10 p.m. both days
Clifton Hill and the Niagara River Parkway, Niagara Falls
Visit HERE for full lineup and details
Coming for the whole weekend? Of course you are! Use our free planning tool HERE to curate the best weekend experience.
