Los Dells: A Deep Dive

(Full disclosure, I got a press pass and an additional two-day ticket in exchange for writing about Los Dells. All images ©2019 Federico Hernandez Nater unless otherwise noted. Contact at federico@pizza.fm to inquire about using or purchasing images)

On Labor Day weekend of 2018, I drove up with my mom to a music festival in Wisconsin. Going with one of your parents to a multi-day music festival instead of with friends would normally be a little strange, but this was different. After all, my mom and I both enjoy Latin music and Los Dells was a family-friendly Latin music festival; it seemed only natural to bring a family member along to enjoy the music across the two-day adventure that was Los Dells.The surprisingly broad lineup of the festival was appealing to many Latin audiences in different age groups and of different nationalities: older Mexican rock bands went on the same stage as Reggaetón superstars. You saw it reflected in the crowds, too: lots of families went together to see their favorite acts. The Saturday/Sunday Mauston-based festival proved to be a great experience, and I admittedly had more fun than I thought I’d have in covering it for Pizza FM. For anyone interested in Latin music, I highly recommend going next year to check out an impressive collection of artists in an unlikely location: the suburbs of the Wisconsin Dells.In this article, I hope to provide a unique perspective as both a festivalgoer and a behind-the-scenes observer.

Festival Logistics

Los Dells had caught my attention the year before with its shocking Latin artist lineup that put some of the biggest names in Latin music in a Wisconsin-based music festival. There was a phrase that I kept hearing time and time again from the artists who played the festival during their sets: “I didn’t know there were Latinos here [in Wisconsin]”. Pew Research Center says that in 2014, only 6% of the population of Wisconsin was Hispanic (http://www.pewhispanic.org/states/state/wi/).The location isn’t an obvious choice, but it’s one that works within the context of Wisconsin: Mauston’s location in the Dells area (the festival’s namesake) makes it as easy to drive up to Mauston as it is for a family to go to a waterpark in the Wisconsin Dells. From the C-U area, the drive to Mauston is just under five hours, but it’s well worth the trip.The announcement of the lineup was actually quite interesting in and of itself. Unlike many big-name festivals where the lineup is announced all at once, the Los Dells lineup mainly came out in two phases, with multiple alterations following. Matching the star-studded lineup of the first year seemed like a daunting task, but the folks booking for Los Dells delivered at the end of the day. Big names in Latin music such as Bad Bunny, Wisin & Yandel, and Banda MS were front and center; on-the-rise artists like Karol G, Cuco, and Mau y Ricky were also in attendance.As mentioned earlier, changes and additions were made beyond the initial announcements. Most notable of those changes was the Toyota Música den, personally curated by Wisin. The artists at this surprise fourth stage weren’t announced until shortly before the festival started, but featured some smaller, but powerful acts in a more intimate setting than the main stage. During the festival, it was announced that Bogotá group Monsieur Periné could not perform due to visa restrictions (https://twitter.com/losdellsfest/status/1036388295683530753). But there was one large surprise in the lineup: the final Saturday headliner wasn’t a Latin artist at all.Cardi B was initially slated to headline the festival alongside Bad Bunny, Wisin & Yandel, and Banda MS. She was announced during phase two, but later cancelled her appearance. Los Dells responded to me in a Facebook message asking for clarification when she was first taken off of the setlist saying,

“Cardi B announced on Instagram that she is canceling her tour so she can spend time with her family and we at Los Dells Festival fully support her decision because we know how important family is. Stay tuned as we update our festival lineup with new artists we hope you will enjoy.”

Her replacement: Flo Rida. He was an odd inclusion in the final lineup. Sure, Flo Rida released a song with Maluma the year before, technically making him part of the Latin music scene; still, it was strange as to why he was placed towards the top of a finalized lineup and performed on Saturday’s final timeslot (outside of the assumption that this was Cardi B’s former timeslot). Some festivalgoers I spoke to, myself included, thought that Flo Rida’s inclusion could have been better handled if Flo Rida was placed earlier in the day and another group was moved up to the empty spot. Audience turnout ended up being lower for his performance compared to the following day’s end-of-the-night act.While the festival setup changed between years, and might change again during its third iteration, I wanted to touch on how the festival is set up. Four stages on the festival grounds (two large stages on the outside and two smaller ones on the inside) alternate musical acts, with some overlapping of sets. Organizationally, it’s a great way to book a lot of acts for one festival, but I was a little sad not to be able to catch all of Víctor Manuelle’s set after seeing the entirety of Bad Bunny’s set. It’s the same as with any other festival, but some festivalgoers I spoke with thought that some of the performers on smaller stages deserved a spot on the larger stages. Each stage also had a name: from largest to smallest, the stages were called the Dells stage, the Woodside stage, the HWY (sic.) 90 stage, and the Toyota Música den.The artists at each of these stages were all great to see. I ended up particularly liking the Toyota Música den as the artists were very close to the audience, the stage was tented, there was room to dance, and some artists had photo opportunities afterwards. Here I am with Descemer Bueno:What can you eat at the festival? There’s actually a large and varied selection of food throughout the park. Since I was reporting mostly on the music, I stuck to snacks throughout the two days of the festival, but my mom and I shared some jibaritos when we saw them at a Chicago restaurant’s booth on the festival grounds.As an alternative to staying in a hotel in the area, most of which are either booked by Wisconsin Dells vacationers or festivalgoers who booked well in advance, Los Dells offered the option of camping on the festival grounds. A $99 charge for parking and camping all throughout the festival was much more affordable than paying for parking separately and finding a hotel. Camping is the most cost-effective solution and ended up being a great way to stay near the festival grounds. While all surrounding hotels were booked by that time, I was still able to purchase a camping pass shortly before the festival date to be able to attend both days without a longer journey from a neighboring town’s hotel, making it a convenient option for anyone who wants to stay for both days but is willing to sleep outside in a tent or in their car.

Performances

There were so many performers spread out across four stages and two days, enough that I can’t talk about them all here. I’ll go through my personal favorites of the festival, but I think that the wide variety of Latin genres represented at the festival allows for different kinds of listeners to enjoy music more suited to them.

Songwriters

Across genres, songwriters were an interesting focus in the Los Dells lineup. The bilingual, bedroom pop sensation Cuco was the first performer on Saturday. His dreamy songwriting and use of Spanglish might be what draws in his listeners, but his performance made it apparent just how musically talented Cuco is beyond his writing; in addition to singing his iconic tunes quite impressively, Cuco whipped out a trumpet on multiple occasions. Not to mention, every piece of his backing band was stellar. I like listening to Cuco’s stuff on my own, but hearing his music live with the band backing him made Cuco all more enjoyable. He also premiered a then-unreleased song, now known as “Feelings” off of his upcoming first album Para Mí (he’s performed it elsewhere since, notably at Pygmalion here in the C-U Area). The song, and the rest of his performance, pushed his bedroom-pop envelope a little into a psychedelic rock realm; his live performance seemed more musical, more expressive. To top it off, Cuco covered the Hombres G classic “Devuélveme a mi chica” to a responsive crowd. If I could have a bootleg of any performance at Los Dells, it would definitely be this one.Descemer Bueno, part of the Toyota Música stage, is as an accomplished Cuban songwriter who recently has worked closely with Enrique Iglesias on a few of his projects. His small stage performance showed how much he could hold his own as a singer, performing songs he’s written in an intimate setting. He had an energy about him, something that made everybody in the tented stage area want to dance; I sure tried to dance, even while I was taking pictures. The performance was so well received that Eliades Ochoa, of Buena Vista Social Club fame, gave him a shout-out during his own set on a larger stage, thanking him for being a promoter of real Cuban music.The Miami-based Venezuelan brother duo, Mau y Ricky, also highlighted some of their songwriting in live performance; during the set, they stopped performing their own hit music and instead played songs that they wrote for others. Outside of their notable songwriting for high-profile Latin artists, Mau y Ricky knew how to give a good show. They brought the energy of a large-stage performance and used it to fill the smaller stage.But Mau y Ricky’s presence at Los Dells didn’t stop at their show: they were spotted backstage supporting arguably the biggest act at the festival, another powerful duo: Wisin y Yandel.

Headliners

After performing separately for several years, Wisin y Yandel first started performing together again for their “Como Antes” Tour. Mauston, of all places, was selected to be the third stop, following the opening date in La Romana, Dominican Republic and the second performance in New York’s Madison Square Garden. It was a well-planned, well-rehearsed, and well-executed show. As a commercially successful group in Latin America, Wisin y Yandel had hit after hit to sing for the strong audience of fans. They started together, performed smaller solo sets, and then reunited for the last portion. Their set was high energy, hit-filled, and had the highest attendance of the night. Not only were they a strong selection to headline, but Wisin had performed the year earlier as a solo act as was enjoyed enough to be booked a second year in a row, something that Los Dells did not do for any other performer.Later that night was Flo Rida. While his inclusion in the lineup was somewhat unorthodox, the set was well enjoyed by those watching. His energy was certainly on display during his performance of his hit songs over the past two decades; he sprayed the crowd with champagne at least twice, and he crowdsurfed, too. While it was a little surprising to see him at this festival, his set was enjoyable and got a great reaction from the crowd. As he did replace Cardi B, he was technically a headliner, though some of the promotional material didn’t feature Flo Rida’s name as he was a late inclusion.The youngest headliner, Latin Trap star Bad Bunny, took the penultimate timeslot on the big stage Sunday night. Whether he was alone on the Dells stage or had backup dancers behind him, the audience went wild for his spirited performance. His spoken introductions to his bigger songs pumped up the audience for hit song after hit song, and he made sure to rap his verse on his (at the time, recent) Cardi B collaboration “I Like It”. While American audiences might be more familiar with him after releasing “Mía”, he had an amazing reception from the festivalgoers at Los Dells. After taking pictures, I definitely sang along to the songs I knew, and it was one of the highlights of Sunday’s sets.While Wisin, Yandel, and Bad Bunny are well known throughout Latin America, the inclusion of Banda MS was a surprise. For a festival that markets itself toward all the Latin community, it was an interesting choice to select Banda MS as one of the four headliners, a decidedly Mexican group playing Banda music. However, the risk certainly paid off. As mentioned previously, the difference in attendance between Flo Rida and Banda MS was astounding. Though some had left following the performances of Bad Bunny or Víctor Manuelle Sunday night, a surprising amount of people stayed, enough to hear fans singing along from everywhere on the festival grounds.

Other favorites

Karol G, a rising star within Latin music at the time, also performed on the Dells stage. She’s since established herself a bit more over the past year, but her success at the time still warranted putting her on the main stage. “Pineapple” was the fourth song in her set, a song that introduced me to her as an artist, but she ended the set with “Mi Cama”, which featured an electric dance alongside her backup dancers, well received with the crowd. I knew Karol G’s performance was one I couldn’t miss coming into the festival, and I was right.I mentioned this performer earlier, but Eliades Ochoa and his backing band were great to listen to. I went straight to his set after Descemer Bueno; his music was truly a great representation of the music of his country. While Buena Vista Social Club is no more, there was still amazing talent from Ochoa and his backing musicians.Víctor Manuelle, the last performer on the Woodside stage Sunday night, was a strong Salsa presence at the festival. He performed many of his own songs, alongside famous Salsa covers that kept the crowd dancing. While I didn’t get to see his whole set as it overlapped with Bad Bunny’s, the liveliness he and his musicians brought towards the end of the set was something that got him in a bit of trouble. His set went well over his scheduled time and when he was told to stop via his earpiece, he took it off and continued the song for several minutes afterwards. He even improvised lyrics about having to get off the stage, met with cheering fans begging him to stay. Chants of “otra” following that final song were met with silence when Víctor and his group rushed offstage after overstaying their welcome. After only catching a glimpse of this artist and his incredible musicians, I really would have liked seeing more of the performance after he had to hurry off the stage.Sidenote: Víctor Manuelle had recently released a song with Bad Bunny, whose set finished well into Manuelle’s. While Bad Bunny didn’t appear on Manuelle’s set, he did perform the song they collaborated on. I definitely encourage Los Dells to encourage collaborations between artists while booking in the future.Some other performers I got the chance to see included the young Trinidad Cardona of “Jennifer” fame, the all-female and amazingly talented Mariachi group Flor de Toloache, EDM star Boombox Cartel, and Latin pop duo Zion & Lennox. I wasn’t able to see Omar Apollo, whose music I later came to enjoy, but would definitely see him if I got the chance to again.

Final Thoughts

This festival to me seems like the Latin Lollapalooza: different genres, ages, and nationalities came together to celebrate Latinidad with amazing music. For anyone looking for a different sort of festival experience, or if you’re a fan of Latin music and are located in the Midwest, Los Dells is the festival for you. For information on this year’s festival, please visit losdells.com.

Note: I'll be publishing a breakdown of this year's lineup next week, stay tuned!