In a letter to the Michelada Fest community posted on the festival’s website, organizers blamed “the rapidly changing political climate” for the cancellation of this year’s two-day festival, previously scheduled for Saturday, July 19, and Sunday, 20, at Oakwood Beach. Organizers called the 2024 event its “most incredible celebration yet,” but reason, “as independent organizers, we can’t afford to take on a big risk with so much uncertainty ahead.”
Although we tried to push through, it became clear that we wouldn’t be able to deliver the full lineup as planned…. Your trust, time, and hard-earned dollars mean everything to us, and we believe in giving you the experience you deserve,” a portion of the letter reads.
The letter also emphasizes that organizers will begin issuing refunds to ticket holders through the website or via Ticketon while noting the many vendors, artists, and community partners integral to the event. Organizers wrote they’re “heartbroken by the gr impact this will have on our involved community” and local economies.
Organized by Big Indie, Zamora Live, and VivaTuMusica, and founded by Fernando Nieto and partner Miguel Torres, the festival promoted a lineup of some of the most iconic Latin entertainers in the Americas. Last week, the same organizers held their inaugural Michelada Fest in downtown El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, May 3.
Miche Fest organizers declined an interview with Eater via email on Wednesday, May 7, but did respond to a question regarding possible next steps for the event. “We are going to reconvene over the next few months to strategize how to come back stronger next year, while keeping an eye on the climate of things,” says the response.
Among the headliners for the Chicago festival that had previously been lined up to perform were Mexican regional acts Grupo Firme and Luis R. Conriquez, prominent Brazilian singer Anitta, and Venezuelan reggaeton sensation Danny Ocean. Tuesday’s cancellation comes amid mounting concerns about how the Trump administration’s immigration policies will impact the global live music industry, as visa fees and wait times continue to escalate. Tensions are particularly high in Latino immigrant communities across the country, with organizers of Cinco de Mayo festivities in Chicago and Philadelphia canceling events that typically draw in crowds in the hundreds of thousands. On Monday, February 3, small business owners all over the U.S., including many restaurants, demonstrated with “a day without immigrants” by closing for the day in protest of the current administration’s immigration policies.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department has notably denied entry or detained outspoken artists trying to enter the country for performances, including British bassist Alvin Gibbs for punk band U.K. Subs, while revoking the visas for regional Mexican act Los Alegres del Barranco, known for singing narcocorridos — a style of music that critics say glorifies narco culture — which was set to perform in California’s Silicon Valley in April.
Online reactions coincided with the general sentiment of many in immigrant communities, with users like @nessa on TikTok saying in a post “You know it’s a bad time to be a Latino/a in the U.S. if Bad Bunny skips the U.S. on his upcoming world tour and Chicago’s Michelada Fest cancels due to ‘uncertainty’ around artist visas and ‘political climate.’” Bad Bunny’s forthcoming world tour, announced on Monday, May 5, did not include any U.S. tour dates.
What started as a street festival on a parking lot in Pilsen in 2019, the festival in 2024 outgrew its original environment and landed downtown at Oakwood Beach, drawing in upwards of 15,000 visitors per day for a lineup of renowned Mexican American regional artists, along with chart-topping headliners that included Kali Uchis, Los Angeles Azules and Junior H, and more than a dozen local michelada-makers selling outlandish sweet, spicy, and sour presentations of the beer cocktail from a central hub of the event space called Michelandia.
Part of the appeal of the festival among vendors is the opportunity to collaborate with other Latino entrepreneurs, part of a thriving DIY michelada economy, who make and sell bespoke mixers, flavored chamoy pastes, and tamarindo candies on the internet or neighborhood pop-up shops for the enjoyment of a largely Latino fanbase.
