Welcome tu Las Californias festival to debut in Tijuana on Nov. 4

Alan Lili (center) and the other members of Tulengua

Welcome tu Las Californias debuts Nov. 4 and 5, and is likely the first to be held in Tijuana on its opening day and Valle de Guadalupe the following day.

San Diego Union-Tribune

Oct. 28, 2022 9:20 AM PT

Outdoor rock festivals are nothing new in Tijuana, where the newly reunited blink-182 will kick off its reunion tour March 11 at the Imperial GNP Festival.

For the record:

12:14 p.m. Oct. 28, 2022The ticket price for the Nov. 4 Welcome tu Las Californias festival concert in Tijuana is $15 per person, not $50.

But Welcome tu Las Californias, which debuts Nov. 4 and 5, is likely the first to be held in Tijuana on its opening day and Valle de Guadalupe the following day. It’s also the first I’m aware of here to offer the option of buying tickets with NFTs.

The enterprising festival will feature one act from Rosarito Beach (Lucid Juice), two from San Diego (Kamnari and Sarayu), two from Mexico City (Sonido Gallo Negro and Diles Que Nome Maten), three from Tijuana (Joheel Rodmar, Saoko and DJ Yelram Selectah), and four from Los Angeles (Jazii, Domino, Alec King and Finkel).

The festival is the brainchild of the members of Tulengua, which will perform both days and whose members live in San Diego, Tijuana and Rosarito.

A labor of love, the event is designed to promote the blurring of musical genres and geographical borders. Accordingly, yhe Saturday portion will include a discussion, “Using Art as a Vehicle for Inter-Personal Harmony,” with Tulengua’s Alan Lili — host of KPBS’s podcast “Port of Entry” — and Art Pusher co-founder Seth Sullivan.

If all goes well, the festival will return next year, larger and on both sides of the border, with the goal of becoming a binational version of Austin’s 35-year-old South by Southwest.

6:30 p.m. Nov. 4. La Terraza, 1928 Flores Magón Tijuana. $50 (or $45 if using NFTs); must be 18 or older to attend; 3 p.m. Nov. 5. Bloodlust Winebar Restaurant, Doña Emilia LT 13-2 San Marcos, 22750 Ensenada. $25 (all ages) or $180 (includes dinner, limited to 30 people, by La Bete Noire restaurant chef Diego Hernandez Baquedano). (858) 472-2165. tulengua.mx/festival-22

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George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”