A peña is an informal Latin American folk music gathering where people come together to enjoy music, dancing, good food, and community. Peñas, especially those organized by musicians, are often more participatory than a normal concert and feature more than one group, participatory singing, and invited performances by community members. By design peñas are intended to be inclusive community events open to music lovers of all ages. While peñas can be found throughout Latin America, they are most common in Argentina and Chile. Peñas played a particularly important role during the socially conscious song movements of the 1960s and ‘70s as places of cultural exchange during times of violent political repression.

We generally host peñas one Friday a month during the academic year (August-May) at The 4th Avenue Coalition Space in downtown Tucson (311 E 7th St, Tucson, AZ 85705). Please send us your contact if you would like to be added to our mailing list.

At each peña, our Argentine/Chilean band El SurCo performs a 30 minute set, we invite another featured Latin American folk/popular music group to perform a 30 minute set. The rest of the time is filled with pre-selected guest performances by artists from the community and performances by the peña ensemble.

Our peña is open to amateur and professional musicians of all ages and backgrounds. If you are interested in sharing a song or poem or something else at a peña please contact Jennie Gubner (jgubner@arizona.edu) prior to an event so she can add you to the list of performers. If professional or semi-professional groups are interested in being featured at our events, please also be in touch!

La Peña del SurCo is a Latin American folk music gathering. We welcome any music that you understand to be folk or popular music, and are especially welcoming of songs that personally connect you to communities that are important to you. In the lineage of the nueva canción movement, we ask performers to be thoughtful and intentional about their song choices and to use the peña to promote critical thinking about issues and topics that are of social value to our community. We also ask performers to avoid songs with mysogynist lyrics or lyrics that are descriminatory in other ways.

We have empanadas for sale each month at our peña, provided by John and Dante of Che Empanadas. They sell soft drinks and we also provide free water. You are welcome to bring other drinks with as long as you are of legal age to do so. We also often run out of chairs so feel free to bring a camping chair!

Everyone! We work hard each month to create a space that is inclusive, age-friendly and welcoming to all. We have a big open outdoor patio for kids to run around, and we also set up paper and stickers/drawing material for those who might ilke to draw as they listen. Our venue is ADA accessible (through the patio). If anyone ever experiences other barriers of accessibility to our event, please let us know so we can help!