When Sueños Music Festival first came to Chicago it promised to be the reggaeton party of the city. Four years later, Puerto Rican artists still draw crowds to Sueños and reggaeton culture, sources said.
Sueños has consistently featured Puerto Rican artists including: Wisin y Yandel, Myke Towers, Eladio Carrión, Rauw Alejandro, Young Miko, Álvaro Díaz, Mora and Jowell y Randy.
The lineup of Puerto Rican artists this year featured both the past and future of reggaeton music with veteran performers like Don Omar and Arcángel and up-and-coming artists like Omar Courtz and Dei V.
Seven out of the 22 artists that performed on the main stage were Puerto Rican, making nearly a third of the setlist.
Omar Courtz performed on Sunday and his set included songs from his first album “Primera Musa” (First Muse), released in September 2024.
Before concluding his performance, Courtz went backstage to get a Puerto Rican flag to sing “VeLDÁ”, one of the top songs from Bad Bunny’s album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”
Flags were one of the main accessories for the event in Grant Park. Attendees sported flags from all over Latin America and, at times, displayed more than one flag to represent their mixed heritage.
Bryan Santiago, a Puerto Rican festival-goer, flew from Boston to hear Omar Courtz, Dei V and Don Omar perform at Grant Park.
Sporting a Puerto Rican flag on his back, Santiago said that Latines enjoy Puerto Rican music because of the way the artists employ slang in their songs.
“They enjoy how we express ourselves,” Santiago said.
Sisters Leslie and Lucián Santiago Malavé, who emigrated from Puerto Rico to Miami at five years old, travelled to Chicago to represent Puerto Rico at Sueños.
“We came for the Puerto Rican artists, but especially Omar Courtz,” said Leslie Santiago Malavé.
Many other festival-goers also credit Puerto Rican artists for attending the festival, like Karla Reyes, a Detroit resident from Puerto Rico.
She was certain, she said, that the generation made Puerto Rican artists popular during the reggaeton boom in the 90s Reyes said that the artists and culture are misunderstood by some Latine people.
“People [not from Puerto Rico] complain that we swear a lot, but that’s just how we are,” Reyes said.
While some attendees shared that the Puerto Rican artists’ representation was the reason they came to the festival, Alyssa Montañez, a festival-goer, said that she has seen representation decreasing over the years.
Montañez has been attending the festival since its inception in 2022.
“It used to be like a reggaeton festival, ” she said. “It’s more of a Michelada Fest vibe, now it’s more of a cultura festival.”
Michelada Fest, also known as Miche Fest, is a music festival in Oakwood beach on the Southside of Chicago that aims to highlight Mexican culture with their traditional micheladas – a traditional drink made with beer, lime juice, assorted sauces, served in a glass with a salt or Tajín-rimmed glass.
Earlier this month, the Michelada Fest team announced that “because of the uncertainty around artist visas and the shifting political climate,” Michelada Fest was cancelled and refunds would be issued to the attendees.
According to Montañez, the music and artists’ selection have not made the festival conducive to dancing.
“You can’t twerk to that,” she said.
Despite the yearly decrease of Puerto Rican artists, she said she will still always come equipped with her VIP tickets.
“I’m still gonna come, I’m still gonna represent. I wear my flag every year. I’m a proud Puerto Rican, so I’m gonna be proud no matter what, if there’s one of us, or 100,000 of us,” Montañez said.
Even for up and coming artists like the Latino boy band Do Not Disturb (DND) – reggaeton from Puerto Rican artists continues to inspire their own music.
“This new generation [of artists] is doing amazing things too. I really like Omar Courtz’s sound,” said Emilio Villalobos, singer and dancer for DND. “Doing a Latin music festival in the U.S. is different, and you see how many Latin people are here, representing their music, their culture.”
