Country Music Festivals Are Exploding in Mexico — And They’re Not Just Catering to American Fans

“Down south” has lately taken on a new meaning for country artists looking to expand their audiences and geographic reach.

Over the last few years, there has been a burst of new country music festivals in Mexico that prominently feature American country music acts.

They fall into two categories: festivals that serve as luxury destinations for American travelers, and multi-day music events away from tourist centers that cater to Mexican fans.

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“It needs to be more international because country music artists are oversaturated in America.” Graham compares the explosion to similar growth for the genre in non-English-speaking European countries like Germany: “It feels like it’s on the precipice of being bigger,” he says.

WME Nashville partner and co-head Jay Williams , who books Luke Bryan , works with the country superstar on his Crash My Playa festival in Cancun, and is seeing more activity in Mexico for country artists across the board.

“We’re having a lot of conversations,” he says.

“There’s two or three promoters that are becoming a lot more active in that space.

There’s a lot of potential in interior Mexico, border Mexico, where real country fans are, not just these resort towns.” In the destination festival category, the newest entry is Country Splash Cabo, which debuts this Labor Day weekend (Sept.

4-6).

Headlined by Riley Green , Tucker Wetmore , Jon Pardi and Diplo , it will take place in Cabo San Lucas at the Paradisus resort.

Country Splash Cabo co-founder Robert Fried , who fell in love with country music after he started attending Stagecoach 10 years ago, “realized there really wasn’t anything west of Texas that combined country music and water or the beach,” he says.

“Cabo is really the only luxury beach location I could see doing something like this.” (Jam band Goose holds its Viva El Gonzo festival in neighboring San José del Cabo.) Fried says Country Splash Cabo, which features a wellness element, including yoga with Diplo, capped attendance at 3,000 people per day, with plans to scale up to 5,000 people per day in year two.

“One of the core concepts was to be the opposite of a major field festival,” Fried says.