14th Philadelphia Tango Festival

May 22-25, 2026

THANK YOU, EVERYONE, FOR AN AMAZING EVENT!

If you attended, please tell us what you thought by filling out the
FESTIVAL SURVEY

I am so grateful to everyone who participated in any and every way! Many people below participated in multiple ways in the festival. I tried to include each person only once. Let me know if any names are missing!

HUGE THANKS TO…

TEACHERS / PERFORMERS
Octavio Fernandez & Carolina Giannini
Rino Fraina & Graziella Pulvirenti
Andres Amarilla & Olesya Kershaw
Pablo Garcia Gomez & Iwona Ionescu
Ignacio Ondartz & Meredith Klein
Amelia Foss

LECTURERS
Matias Mauricio
Luli

MUSICIANS
Duo Villarreal Crom
Típica Messiez
Mariano Castro
Emiliano Messiez
Sergio Reyes
Javier Sanchez

DJs
Maria Valentina
Gabriel Gaumond
Octavio Fernandez
Ignacio Ondartz
Manuk Colakyan

CHEF
La Luli

STAFF
Monica Moya

SOUND ENGINEERS
Frank Silva
Al Creedon

PHOTOGRAPHERS & VIDEOGRAPHERS
Eddie Arrossi
Jose Hernandez
Krissy McFadden
Lian Wang
Sergio Reyes

LITHUANIAN MUSIC HALL
Vytas Maciunas
Tadas Brusokas
Bartenders

SECURITY
Hank Collins

SAFER SPACES COORDINATORS
Kate Donohue
Karen Johnson

VOLUNTEERS
A Jean Arnold
Alicia Brodersohn
Amanda Reese
Andrea Gaitan
April Dunleavy
April Marinell
Attila Reinhardt
Bob Bridges
Dan Dehner
Dawn Kane
Eric Cho
Gerardo Razumney
Heather Ramsay
Huaou Yan
James Newman
Jennine McKenna
Jorge Fernandez
Jovanka Milivojevic
Juan Riquezes
Julia Turovskiy
Kerian Pearson
Leda Colakyan
Len Livits
Lisa Endlich
Luis Romero
Malcolm White
Mary Carmel Etienne
Mary Garbesi
Mary Jane Pahls
Melinda Jenkins
Pat Jackson
Phoebe Choi
Rain Ross
Rock Williams
Ross Alexander
Sandra Eng
Santosh Hodawadekar
Sophie (Weizhen) Li
Vicky Rodriguez
Wilber Valdelomar
Yulia Kuzmina
Zoey Pizzo

HOSTS FOR ARTISTS & VOLUNTEERS
Maria Park, Eric Cho & Sebastian Cho
April Dunleavy & Ross Alexander
Daniela Castejon
Sandra Eng, Tom Swanson, and Dax
Sean Ericson, Jackie Pham, and Sophia

The 14th edition of the Philadelphia Tango Festival will take place May 22-25, 2026 (Memorial Weekend). Each year, we choose a theme to unite the various activities of the festival: the workshops, seminars, practicas, milongas, concerts and more.

This year’s theme is CONSCIOUS IMPROVISATION. At the heart of this theme is a paradox: through deep study of tango’s structure and components, we can achieve greater freedom, fluidity and musicality in improvisation. This is conscious improvisation, rooted in tango structure, but exploring the infinite possibilities that this structure affords. Our festival activities develop this sense of conscious improvisation by honing our understanding of musicality, technique, movement combinations and the subtleties of lead-and-follow communication.

We have assembled an extraordinary team to guide us on this exploration…

LECTURERS
Matias Mauricio
Luli

MUSICIANS
Duo Villarreal Crom
Típica Messiez
Mariano Castro
Emiliano Messiez
Sergio Reyes
Javier Sanchez

DJs
Maria Valentina
Gabriel Gaumond
Octavio Fernandez
Ignacio Ondartz
Manuk Colakyan

Festival Offerings include:

A total of more than 40 different activities, including workshops (complete beginner through advanced), in-depth seminars, live music milongas, practicas, concerts, and a lecture.
Two intensive seminars on the festival theme, taught respectively by Rino & Graziella, and Octavio & Carolina
Three workshops on Argentine folkloric dances & music, culminating in a Gran Peña Folklorica, a participatory folkloric celebration
Live music every night, including seated concerts and live music milongas
A four-workshop Beginner Track, taught by Pablo & Iwona, open to everyone. No experience or partner required.
Presentation of multiple hot-off-the-press new tango albums, produced by our Bochinche Records.
An on-site cafe run by extraordinary Chef / Poet / Performance artist, Luli.
Three afternoon practicas
Great vendors selling a variety of tango shoes & clothing, from Argentina, Italy and beyond.
And so much more!