Ironically, or not, mariachi music, the great American genre born in Jalisco in the mid-19th century, has its long weekend in the sun, Mexican style, during Old Spanish Days. Downtown, roaming mariachi bands keep the music rippling through the festive aura of the city in Fiesta mode. Meanwhile, up in the mythic hillside haven of the Santa Barbara Bowl in the prime-time slot of Saturday night during Fiesta, the widely acclaimed Mariachi Festival presents some of the finest artists in this genre in the world.
This year, the festival, a nonprofit organization that funnels profits to scholarships for local Latino students, reaches the significant milestone of its 25th anniversary year. The four-and-a-half-hour concert/festival boasts a suitably high-caliber roster for the occasion, featuring Pedro Fernández, Natalia Jiménez, and Mariachi Estrella de México.
Each year, the festival hosts full-fledged mariachi bands but also showcases special guest vocalists. The spotlight this year goes to famed Spanish singer Jiménez, winner of Grammy and Latin Grammy awards and with a sales tally upward of 30 million. The singer nimbly switch-hits between Latin pop and Mexican regional styles, including mariachi with modern twists, as heard on the two volumes of her fairly recent and impressive México de Mi Corazón project.