Ruido Fest Credit: Maria Madrigal

From Friday, June 21, though Sunday, June 23, the fifth annual Ruido Fest comes to Union Park to serve up contemporary Latinx sounds and tasty treats that go well beyond typical festival fare (with any luck, the zucchini-blossom tacos in handmade tortillas will make an appearance again this year). Latinx music has 21 Spanish-speaking countries, the U.S., and a multitude of musical heritages past and present to draw from, so it’s as wildly eclectic as they come. It’s also trilingual—Spanish, English and Spanglish are all sung and spoken here. This year’s headliners include the rock-en-español veteranos behind pan-Latino hits of the 70s and 80s, among them Argentina’s Enanitos Verdes and Mexico’s El Tri, but overall the three-day festival shares a fascinating present-day perspective on the artists and sounds that make up the Latinx musical identity. There’s something for everyone: acts rooted in tradition, such as all-woman New York mariachi band Flor de Toloache, crowd-pleasing Colombian swing-pop balladeers Monsieur Periné, and rising Chilean reggaeton star Tomasa del Real, as well as artsy experimental sounds, including the smart multihued dream pop of Ecuadorian-American Helado Negro, the political performance art of Brooklyn-based Dominican Jarina de Marco, and the vocal electronica of Colombia’s Ela Minus. The bill features up-and-coming locals too, most notably soul-R&B singer-songwriter Tatiana Hazel. And closing down Ruido Fest on Sunday night is a longtime favorite on both sides of the border, founded in Sinaloa, Mexico, in the late 60s and transplanted to San Jose, California: the kings of norteño accordion, Los Tigres del Norte.   v