As tens of thousands packed Sueños Music Festival for a weekend of reggaetón and regional Mexican music, another sound was steadily taking over the festival grounds: Latin rave.
Across stages filled with flashing lights, a new generation of Latino artists, from Deorro and Roz to Chad and Chicago DJs like AYKID, are blending Latin rhythms like cumbia, reggaetón and regional Mexican sounds while bringing Latino identity to the forefront of global dance culture.
Their rise, alongside acts like Sunday headliner Fuerza Regida, reflects how Latin music and EDM are increasingly colliding in mainstream festival spaces, reshaping what Latino music sounds like for a younger, bicultural generation. Their beats, tied deeply to identity, migration stories and culture, are now reaching audiences worldwide, proving that music rooted in heritage can travel far beyond borders.
This summer’s Sueños runs Saturday and Sunday in Grant Park with music on three stages, opening with headliners J Balvin and Kali Uchis on Saturday.
The crowd at the La Fuente stage, Sueno’s second largest stage, erupted Saturday evening for Mexican EDM duo Roz, with fans packed shoulder-to-shoulder as flashing lights bounced across the festival grounds. From the opening beat, the audience screamed lyrics, waved flags and danced through a set that fused hard-hitting electronic production with Latin rhythms.
For many of these artists, the movement is about more than genre experimentation. It is also about representation.
“I started mixing like Mexican songs with EDM and I started seeing that there was traction with that so I just started doing that heavy,” said Sebastián Oliva, known as Chan, a Mexican-American EDM producer born in Milwaukee. The 28-year-old artist said he began experimenting with the sound during the pandemic while posting mixes online. “Deorro is the top guy, but it’s like a crazy movement right now.”
Chan said the rise of Latin electronic music reflects a broader cultural shift in the music scene as Latino DJs increasingly place their identity at the center of their music. “I think we’re now showing that us Mexicans can do it too,” he said. “It’s not even about mixing Mexican sounds in there. It’s about you being Mexican and creating this music for a broader audience.”
The Milwaukee artist, whose parents immigrated from Guanajuato, Mexico, said showcasing culture is central to his work.
Chan returned to Sueños for a second year on Saturday evening, this time with a later performance slot — a sign, he said, that the movement is gaining visibility.
Chicago’s own Roger Morales, known as AYKID (and a former Tribune multimedia journalist), echoed that idea while reflecting on his first performance at Sueños.
“There’s a lot of artists that could be on that stage and to be amongst a few, is special,” Morales said. “Stay true to myself, stay true to the music that I like playing, stay true to my style.”
His set blended house music, Latin edits, juke and remixes of artists from the festival lineup. Morales said his approach comes from hip hop DJ culture and Chicago’s deep musical roots.
“Duranguense was born in Chicago. Juke was born in Chicago, and I love to tell that story,” he said. “It just reminds us of the music that we grew up listening to from our parents.”
On Sunday night, Fuerza Regida closes Sueños with a performance blending EDM production and ranchera influences. Ahead of the performance, frontman Jesús Ortíz Paz, known as JOP, said the group intentionally pushes beyond traditional regional Mexican boundaries while still honoring its roots.
“We like to keep surprising fans,” JOP said. “We go back and give fans our traditional sounds like with ‘Marlboro Rojo’ but we are always thinking of the future and where we can take the genre.”
That experimentation has led the band into collaborations and production styles outside traditional corridos. They have done production and collaborations with artists outside their genre like Shakira and Young Beef.
JOP said the group’s willingness to blend corridos with electronic music came naturally as the members explored new sounds. But the experimentation, he added, does not mean abandoning the group’s identity.
“When I thought about trying to mix together corridos and jersey, I know I had to go and look for top producers in that space. That’s how we landed with Gordo and produced ‘Pero No Te Enamores’ in Colombia,” he said. “We will always be Fuerza Regida, we stay in our town, we stay out there, but we also experiment.”
As regional Mexican artists continue crossing into mainstream festival culture, JOP said the group feels proud to represent a younger generation redefining the genre.
“We are aware that there is a younger generation watching but that’s why we try to bring out the best music we can make. That’s why we continue to volunteer and help out the community. That’s why we are not out there fooling around, we are working, always at the studio, scheming, practicing, thinking of what’s next and helping the bands and artists that come after us grow and represent as well,” he said.
Their album “111XPANTIA” was the first regional Mexican album to be nominated for album of the year at the American Music Awards, “a testament to what we are trying to accomplish.”
Fuerza was also invited to appear on Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” and on Jimmy Kimmel. The group was also featured on the cover of Rolling Stone.
The band now dreams of collaborating with producers such as Skrillex and Fred Again, while continuing to expand the genre’s reach. For JOP, the evolution of regional Mexican music reflects the bicultural experiences of many Mexican American artists and fans.
“We grew up listening to música mexicana but also to rap and house,” he said. “We are a sum of all those influences and that reflects in the music and the style. We are global and this is just the beginning,” JOP said.
