If last year’s Bésame Mucho lineup was a Latino mom’s cleaning playlist, this year’s festival is that plus a Latino dad’s go-to songs on his way to work. On Tuesday, Bésame Mucho announced the lineup — including headliners Maná, Los Bukis, and Gloria Trevi — for its second consecutive festival.
Hosted at Dodger Stadium on Dec. 2, the massive festival is set to return with a stellar list of performers, including Alejandro Fernández, Pepe Aguilar, Natalia Lafourcade, Reik, Camila, and Belinda. It also features a number of returning acts from last year’s celebration.
“Historic event,” wrote Aguilar on Instagram sharing the lineup. “Those who get it, get it.”
The performers are divided into three sections depending on genre: ¿Do You like Pop?, The Classics, and the Rockero Stage. And tickets for the festival go on sale on Friday, with general admission access starting at $250, GA+ beginning at $500, and VIP tickets starting at $550.
The Las Clásicas stage features acts such as Los Bukis, Aguilar, Fernández, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, La Arrolladora Banda El Limón, Paquita La Del Barrio, Conjunto Primavera, and Los Lobos. Bukis’ headlining act comes after the group ended two massive stadium tours in Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca after reuniting after 25 years. (Frontman Marco Antonio Solís announced a solo tour last month.) And returning to Las Clásicas from last year’s festival are Los Ángeles Azules, Banda El Recodo, Ramón Ayala, Banda Machos, and Mi Banda El Mexicano.
As for the Rockero stage, new acts set to perform are headliners Maná, which recently held a residency at the Kia Forum, La Ley, Bomba Estéreo, Natalia Lafourcade, and Molotov, who pulled out of last year’s festival due to visa issues. Hombres G, Café Tacvba, Enanitos Verdes, and Mago de Oz are performing at the fest once again.
The pop stage comprises legacy acts completely new to the festival, including headliner Trevi, bands Camila and Reik, sibling duo Jesse & Joy, and other acts such as Emmanuel, Amanda Miguel, Belinda, Magneto, Mala Fe, and Ilegales.
Trevi’s return to the stage in the U.S. comes as she faces a lawsuit, first reported on by Rolling Stone, that revives old claims that she allegedly groomed underage girls in the early 1990s for sexual exploitation by her ex-producer Sergia Andrade. (She was acquitted in 2004 for such allegations after a judge said there was insufficient evidence to support the claims.) “Being a victim of physical and sexual abuse is one of the worst things that can happen to a human being,” Trevi said in a statement following the lawsuit’s filing. “I say it, and I know it, because I am a survivor.”
Last year’s Bésame Mucho Fest — headlined by Juanes, Los Tigres Del Norte, Elvis Crespo, and Alejandra Guzmán — faced slight backlash from attendees and performers who wished the festival was either divided into two nights or that it featured fewer performers to allow for longer set times, better logistics, and more time and space between each stage and set.
This year’s event includes two more artists on the lineup compared to last year’s festival, which was divided into four different stages, and with all of the festival’s headliners performing on different stages at the exact same time. “Fucking shitty festival,” said Zoé’s Léon Larregui onstage last year. “How do they expect so many people to perform with so little preparation? This is what I call ‘fast money.’ This festival is shit.”
