The 3-year funding will help LatinoLife deliver a range of activities that contribute to the Arts Council’s ‘Let’s Create’ strategy. Specifically, we will deliver:
- LatinoLife in the Park
The UK's largest Latin music festival brings together Latin music lovers and people who've never listened to music in Spanish or Portuguese to a major London park, every summer, to enjoy the very best Latin music and dance. It is the only UK festival to be included in Europe's '10 Most Inclusive Festivals', published by FestSpace, an EU funded research group involving 5 universities across Europe. Our 2023 edition became the biggest ticketted Latin music event ever held in the UK, selling 14,000 tickets and without bringing any big international artists, only homegrown talent. We do all our own marketing and PR in house. Find out more about the festival here
- Live Artist Showcases
We produce intimate concerts on a monthly basis to showcase new, young or emerging UK Latin artists to industry decision-makers, consumer tastemakers and the public. Our 'Candela Sessions' present young artists fusing London and Latin urban sounds such as reggaeton, grime, hip-hop and drill in diverse venues, including the Adidas Flagship Store in Oxford Street (April 2023) and the iconic Ministry of Sound (May 2023) while our 'Intimo concerts' showcase artists of diverse genre from jazz and folk to classical and rock in alternative venues, private houses and even gardens!
- The LatinoLife Incubators
Our 'Incubator' events are industry events for all those with a professional interest in the creation, promotion and distribution of Latin Music in the UK. They consist of panel discussions, networking sessions + live music showcases - a chance for everyone with a passion for Latin music - musicians, DJs, dancers, promoters, venues, labels, distributors and media - to get together, rub shoulders, make and activate big plans! Find out more here
- LatinoLife Mentoring Scheme
We've been supporting young Latin creatives on an informal basis for 20 years, ever since we showcased the first homegrown Latin urban artists at our Reggaeton Festival back in 2004, the first ever reggaetón ever in the UK. Since then we've built institutions that have developed the UK-Latin Music industry and mentored many young Latinx creatives. We also deliver an outreach programme in schools. Now we're making it formal. Our Mentoring Programme supports 18-25 year olds who have embarked on a career in Latin music and media but need guidance and expertise to further professionalise themselves, increase quality of output, provide opportunities and help them access pathways into the industry. If you would like to apply for our mentoring scheme please contact us here
- The Latinolife Hub & Radio
Our 'open-door' studio provides a home for young creatives interested in the creation or promotion of Latin music and/or pursuing a professional career in it. It also is the home of LatinoLife radio - the UK’s first bi-lingual 24 hour Latin radio, including 8 hours live programming a day dedicated to Latin culture and music as seen through the UK-Latin lens. It will play music currently ignored by mainstream, essential to advancing UK Latin music industry and includes training of new generation of Latin radio professionals.
MORE ABOUT US
Since 2004 LatinoLife has produced media, music and events - from club nights, concerts and magazines to festivals, award ceremonies, music conferences and a record label - which have helped improve the profile, quality and relevance of UK-produced Latin music and arts. Through the institutions that we've been from scratch, we've helped increase under-represented artists’ access to the industry, media and audiences, as well as opening up the general public's access to high-quality Latin culture.
In awarding LatinoLife its prestigious status as an NPO, the Arts Council clarified:
"LatinoLife has been delivering media and events and developing as an organisation since the early noughties. These first events began with their pioneering Reggaeton Festival in 2004 and their urban Latin Club nights 'La Bomba', which began in 2005 at Ministry of Sound, and toured to Ibiza, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. In 2006, in the absence of mainstream media coverage, LatinoLife launched its own magazine, online and in 2010 in print. In 2012 it launched The LUKAS, Europe's only Latin entertainment awards. It has run Latino Life in the Park since 2016 at Finsbury Park. The festival model includes outreach in advance of the event and The Candela Sound System, a touring show of homegrown Urban Latin artists being nurtured by LatinoLife's new record label Candela Records - the UK's first ever dedicated to UK-produced urban Latin music. This same year has also seen it touring Candela Showcase Sessions, the launch of a mentoring scheme (formalising an informal programme) as well as opening the 'LatinoLife Hub' - providing free studio access for 18-25 year olds."
In rationalising its support for LatinoLife, the Arts Council said:
"LatinoLife contributes to making the portfolio's leadership and governance more representative of contemporary England in relation to race, sex and socio-economic background."
The Arts Council added:
"All this activity helps the organisation in its mission to help the Latin community express itself/gain more recognition through the arts; enrich, educate, bring joy to and inspire the wider public; raise the quality and professionalism of UK Latin arts; access skills, education, expertise, media, funding, venues for underrepresented creative people to forge and advance their professional careers; foster collaboration between individuals and organisations within and beyond the Latin community, to integrate it into UK society. This all makes for a compelling case in support of the need for an organisation deeply connected with the Latin community, with lived experience and knowledge of the culture."
On receiving the award and being the first Latina to run an NPO, LatinoLife's Buenos Aires-born founder Amaranta Wright said:
“Being an NPO is a badge of honour. It means that the UK Government, via the Arts Council, recognises the work we have been doing for many many years, supporting and nurturing UK Latin creatives and growing the UK Latin Arts Industry. More importantly, it’s a recognition of the huge amount of talent in our community which has been bubbling under the surface of British society, creating and working for decades whilst ignored by mainstream British media, ready to explode. This grant will allow us to unleash that talent onto the public. It means we can find the Latin stars of the future, take artists on tour and bring our culture to more people who wouldn’t normally access it.”
On its 2023-26 selection of NPOs, Sir Nicholas Serota, Arts Council England Chair, concluded:
"This portfolio will support the next generation of visionary inventors, makers, performers and artists. In particular, the growth of our funding for organisations that support and develop work for children represents a profoundly important long-term investment in our country’s talent.”
THE FOUNDING DIRECTORS
AMARANTA WRIGHT, CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR
Born in Argentina and brought up in Haringey, Amaranta Wright is a journalist, author, magazine editor and social entrepreneur who founded and runs Latinolife – Britain’s leading Latin media, events and music company. It produces LatinoLife magazine and numerous music and arts events that have been fundamental to developing the Latin music and arts industry in the UK. These include LatinoLife in the Park (the UK’s largest Latin music festival) The LUKAS (Europe's only Latin Entertainment Awards), LoLaMC (The London Latin Music Conference) as well as many showcase events, club nights and concerts throughout the year. In 2020 she launched Candela Records, the UK’s first label dedicated to Urban Latin Music, in partnership with Warner-Atlantic.
Amaranta Wright came to the UK from Buenos Aires at the age of seven, attended Fortismere Comprehensive School and went on to read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford University. After graduating in 1993, she returned to South America and became correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph, San Francisco Chronicle, The Scotsman, and The Toronto Globe and Mail and was short-listed for The Jane Packenham Journalism Award. Amaranta then worked for Levi Strauss in a job that took her across Latin America researching youth culture. She wrote about her experience in a critically acclaimed book 'Ripped and Torn: Levi's, Latin America and The Blue Jean Dream', published by Random House. On returning from Latin America in 2001, and in reaction to the war on Iraq, she created BULB magazine, the award-winning global issues youth publication, which she ran for 5 years, before founding LatinoLife in 2006.
JOSE LUIS SEIJAS – Director of Music
Since his arrival from Caracas at the age of 19, Jose Luis has established himself as one of Europe's leading Latin DJs and events promoters, and has become a central reference point for Britain's Latino community. He pioneered the Urban Latin music and club movement in Europe in the early noughties, taking his creation, La Bomba – the UK’s most successful Latin club night at the Ministry of Sound – to Ibiza and Germany, South Africa and Hong King. As well as starting some of London’s most innovative club nights, Jose Luis has directed the UK's biggest Latin festivals, such as Latin Splash, Carnaval del Pueblo and the Latin Stage at The Notting Hill Carnival. He now programmes and runs all LatinoLife's live music events. Rooted in a deep love of Latin music, years of expertise and loyalty to his roots, Jose Luis always has his finger on the Latin pulse.
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