Wisconsin’s Los Dells Latin music festival sets 2019 lineup
Los Dells, the music festival held outside the Wisconsin Dells, continues to make a strong case that it’s the Coachella of Latin music with another stacked lineup for its third year.
Reggaeton superstar Ozuna — who has more videos with more than 1 billion views on YouTube than any other artist — tops the bill, with versatile Mexican rock band Café Tacvba, reggaeton star Farruko, and actor and vallenato singer-songwriter Carlos Vives.
And in line with booking Flo Rida last year, this year’s Los Dells will feature another act that doesn’t primarily perform in Spanish: rapper Logic.
Taking place on a 1,500-acre site in Mauston that’s home to the Woodside Sports Complex, Damon Zumwalt, the property’s owner and the founder of live-event security firm Contemporary Service Corp., invested between $11 million and $15 million for the first two installments of Los Dells.
It shows in the lineups. Year one featured reggaeton superstar Daddy Yankee, fresh off the massive success of “Despacito”; Mexico’s Mana, the U2 of Latin rock; and crossover pop artist and actress Becky G. Last year’s lineup included Latin trap pioneer Bad Bunny, the first Midwest performance for reunited reggaeton duo Wisin y Yandel in five years, and the debut festival performance for Banda MS, an arenapacking Mexican regional group playing Fiserv Forum this November.
Zumwalt told the Journal Sentinel last year that he had yet to make a profit, but he said Los Dells would be a “10- to 20-year commitment,” stressing that it took Coachella, arguably the most successful music festival in the world, six years to break even.
Latin music is also the world’s fastest-growing genre. Latin music streams skyrocketed 37% in 2018, according to Nielsen SoundScan, amounting to 69.8 billion audio and video streams in the U.S. alone. And Latin music videos made up 18.4% of the total video streaming marketplace in 2018, according to Nielsen, with eight of the 10 most-viewed music videos on YouTube last year from Latin stars.
Los Dells takes place Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. “Early bird” tickets go on sale at
losdells.com beginning Friday, with prices ranging from $159 for generaladmission two-day passes to $675 for a hotel and VIP four-person package. Single-day tickets and a schedule will be available at a later date.
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
Piet also talks concerts, local music and more on “TAP’d In” with Jordan Lee. Hear it at 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9), or wherever you get your podcasts.