La Feria International Festival of Latin American Arts & Culture returns to Liverpool this year, once again filling the city with music, dance, theatre, food, and visual arts.
Created by Francisco Carrasco, CEO and Creative Director of Luma Creations, the festival has grown into a highlight of the cultural calendar, offering audiences the chance to experience the richness and variety of Latin American cultures.
With the 2025 theme “Experience, Belong, Celebrate,” La Feria invites everyone to immerse themselves in the programme, connect with community, and enjoy the joy of cultural exchange. We spoke with Francisco about the festival’s spirit, what’s in store this year, and its impact on both artists and audiences.
For those who may not have experienced La Feria before, how would you describe the spirit of the festival in your own words?
La Feria International Festival of Latin American Arts & Culture is LUMA Creations’ flagship event and a celebration of the richness of Latin America, its cultures and its people. La Feria aims to share the depth of quality and diversity of the continent and create platforms for Latin American artists to present their work.
This year’s theme is Experience, Belong, Celebrate. What inspired this theme, and how does it run through the 2025 programme?
The Latin American community is spread throughout the Liverpool city region – we don’t have a geographical hub so the Festival is a way to bring our community together to raise our voices and celebrate our culture. Create a sense of belonging and share our wonderfully rich culture with the local communities.
The programme is incredibly diverse—music, theatre, visual arts, food, dance. Which events do you think will surprise audiences the most?
We hope all the events surprise audiences, I do think Wednesday 1st of October at Unity Theatre will be a powerful moment that presents inspirational women artists and delves into issues that are universal from a Latin American perspective. Both, the Thursday at the Music Room, RLPH and the Friday evening at The British Music Experience will present a diverse range of first class music artists that show that Latin American music is so much more than you expect.
The breadth of work this year is remarkable and of such high quality. Our “Entrada” (procession) and take over of the World Museum is going to be spectacular. And the Music groups we have this year are breathtaking.
Can you tell us more about the month-long Visual Arts Exhibition at Stable Gallery and why it’s such an important starting point for this year’s festival?
THis year we did a call out to Latin American artists and were amazed by the range of work we received – All the artists are based in the UK and are from Cuba, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. The Exhibition is in two parts. One part is composed of the work of the chosen Latin American artists and the second part is made up of photographs from past La Feria festivals.
The exhibition promises to be a wonderful presentation of Latin American arts, artists and cultures as well as showing a little of the history of the festival.
We are always looking for ways in which to show our culture on different platforms as well as giving Latin American artists those platforms to present their work. We have found that the exhibition is a perfect way to launch the festival.
The finale, A Taste of Latin America at The Black-E, promises to be a vibrant, family-friendly day. What’s new for 2025’s edition?
This year we have partnered with the Black-e and will be providing a packed day of culture, with some incredible artists. We have a number of new performers from Ecuador, Peru and Colombia on the finale. We will also have more young people participating and as our engagement continues to grow, we hope to increase the range of work and number of artist and community groups we feature.
What impact have you seen the festival have on audiences, artists, and communities over the years?
The response from audiences and communities throughout the years has been phenomenal. We have many returning audiences and a lot of our new audiences come from word of mouth. We consistently receive positive feedback and artists continue to want to come back to our events in general and specifically La Feria. We pride ourselves in the quality of work we present and in the way we look after our artists and communities. The value we place on them is immeasurable.
Which moment are you personally most looking forward to in the 2025 programme?
This is such a hard question to answer. This year is tainted with sadness as my wife passed away in April and she was my most ardent supporter. I hope that as we engage the communities, artists, partners and audiences her incredible spirit soars as it has done throughout all the festivals we have delivered. I think there will be many moments I will treasure and it would be wrong of me to highlight one.
La Feria runs from 1 – 5 October. Find out more about the programme of events and follow @lumacreationsorg on Instagram for updates.