MisterLatinJazz Goes to… Jazzaldia! The San Sebastian Jazz Festival

Join Arturo Riera, MisterLatinJazz, as we voyage to the 60th annual Jazzaldia Festival in San Sebastian, Spain from July 20 to July 27, 2025! This exciting trip will not only feature access to great festival concerts in ancient, historic settings, but will also be a gastronomic and cultural tour of the Basque region of Spain.

Activities will include:

• A culinary tour featuring Basque specialties
• Wine tastings at a venerated estate
• An excursion to Bilbao
• Tour of the Guggenheim Museum
• An architectural walk of San Sebastian
• Talks on the history and culture of the Basque country
• Exchanges with community-based arts and music groups
• Private performance curated by MisterLatinJazz
• Evening jazz events

Arturo Riera spent 25 years in Artist Relations for Latin Percussion LP and has developed deep ties to the world’s top percussionists. He is Board Chair Emeritus of Yerba Buena Gardens Festival and San Jose Jazz, where he was also Latin Curator of San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, booking 25 acts a year. He is co-founder and managing director of the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco, which has been free to its musicians and families for 22 years. In 2022 he was chosen by the San Francisco Arts Commission as the Cultural Ambassador to the Latinx Community–responsible for guiding artists through the grant application process and growing the number of diverse artists receiving grants from the City and County of San Francisco. In 2022 he was chosen by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts to be a development consultant to grantee organizations. Riera is acting Development Director for the 45-year-old Carnaval San Francisco, the largest multi-cultural event on the West Coast. He blogs about Afro-Latin music as MisterLatinJazz on Facebook and YouTube.