After several hours of intense storms delayed the start of the second day of the Sueños Music Festival in Grant Park, organizers finally made the announcement everyone wanted to hear: the festival will go on.
While many of Sunday’s afternoon shows have been canceled, the four evening shows – Jowell Y Randy, Mora, Maluma and Peso Pluma – will go on as planned barring further weather incidents, organizers said. The doors to Grant Park opened at 4 p.m. with the first performance of Delilah, scheduled for the same time. Gabito Ballesteros, Bad Gyal and Alexis y Fido will also perform later in the evening.
Earlier Sunday, festival organizers announced the delay on social media, advising attendees to wait until further notice before traveling to Grant Park.
UPDATE: You spoke, we listened ✨
We’ve been working really hard behind the scenes to add so many artists to the lineup. Thank you to the artist teams for working with us!
Thank you so much for your patience family, we are ready to make third year legendary ❤️🔥 pic.twitter.com/ku6hVBj981
– Sueños Festival (@SuenosFestival) May 26, 2024
Fans line up at the festival gate awaiting an announcement on the fate of the rain-delayed Suenos music festival on Sunday morning. Some good news arrived around noon with the news that the evening sets would continue as planned.
Alex Wroblewski/For the Sun-Times
That didn’t deter die-hard fans of the two-day event from showing up despite the rain. A group of fans at the front of the line start chanting “open the door!” ” to security guards, followed a few minutes later by an a capella rendition of “Ella Baila Sola” by Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma.
Lizeth Valle, 21, said she goes to Sueños rain or shine. She had been preparing for the festival since 5 a.m. with her friend Ashley Lopez, 21. The two men lined up behind the crowd, using their Mexican flag as a shield against additional rain.
“Night and day, we are still here today,” Lopez said. Since 9 a.m., she had been waiting outside in the rain to see the old-school reggaetón group of the day: Alexis y Fido. This was one of the acts that was originally scheduled to be cut due to the delay, but was later rescheduled.
The weather also affected the The Maxwell Street market on the other side of town closed hours earlier than expected.
The market, which opened for the first time this year at 9 a.m. Sunday along Maxwell Street between Halsted Street and Union Avenue, was closed at 11 a.m. after a patchy drizzle turned into a heavy downpour.
The rains stopped around mid-afternoon, but are expected to return Sunday evening between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., the NWS said.
For those attending outdoor events like Suenos, Yack advises people to “keep an eye on the weather and listen to event organizers regarding potential shelters.”
“We’re still expecting additional showers and storms, and when those occur, they could explode quickly,” Yack said.
Before the downpour, guitar music blared from speakers at West Maxwell and South Union streets as a band played to a handful of spectators.
Vendors sold plants, bracelets, shoes and other items. Among the vendors was Jawi Opara, who sells vinyl and handmade artwork, among other things.
The Maxwell Street Market “is Chicago, it’s Chicago history,” Opara, 72, said. “It’s a great place to go shopping, see friends and meet new people.”
The Randolph Street Market Festival at 1341 W. Randolph St., a weekend antiques market since 2003, remained open Sunday despite the weather. Most of the vendors were inside.
The White Sox game against the Baltimore Orioles scheduled for 1:10 p.m. was late, according to the team. The game started around 2:50 p.m.
More than 65,000 people from the Chicago area and across the country were expected to attend Sueños this weekend, making it one of the largest Latin music festivals in the United States.
Contributor: Violet Miller
The set, scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Grant Park, was canceled due to problems on both sides, organizers said.
Yet headliner The Sueños filled Grant Park for the first night of Chicago’s biggest annual Latin music event.
A crowd gathered in Grant Park to enjoy the city’s largest Latin music festival, which is expected to draw a joyful crowd again on Sunday.
They were detached at times, but fans showed they knew all the words to “LISA” and “Riri.”
This 25-year-old producer and performer is behind some of the hottest, catchiest tracks around.
His set included “La Diabla,” which made him the first Mexican artist to top the global Spotify chart, and his latest hit, “Corazón de Piedra.”
Rels B, the 30-year-old rapper and record producer from Mallorca, Spain, opened his Saturday set with his 2019 hit single “A Mí.”
There are more than 30 food and drink options in Grant Park through Sunday during the third edition of Chicago’s largest Latin music festival.