The city experienced a historic celebration with the first edition of the Ruta de la Salsa Orchestra Competition, a commitment by Mayor Alejandro Eder that reaffirms the value of Cali salsa as a living heritage and fundamental axis of the cultural identity of Santiago de Cali.

For two days, La Retreta Park was filled with new sounds, tradition, innovation and the talent of the orchestras that build the city’s musical legacy every day.

The contest, organized by the Cali Culture Secretariat in alliance with Bavaria, Detonante and Cocrea, recognized the most outstanding groups in each of its modalities, celebrating the aesthetic richness and diversity that characterizes salsa made in Cali.

Winners of the Ruta de la Salsa 2025 Orchestra Competition

Category B – Antillean: Las Guaracheras
Category B – New Sounds: Our Oxígeno Music
Category A – Salsa Caleña: Héctor Soto and his Orchestra
Category B – Salsa Caleña: Son Mujeres and Marino Luis and his Orchestra
Song of the 68th Cali Fair 2025: ‘Para Cali’ – Marino Luis and his Orchestra

The winning orchestras will be part of the central stages of the Cali Fair 2025, bringing their music to thousands of national and international attendees and strengthening local artistic circulation on a large scale.

“This commitment reaffirms the District’s commitment to the preservation and strengthening of the city’s salsa heritage, within the framework of the Special Plan for the Safeguarding of Salsa Cali. In addition, it is part of the Salsa Route strategy, a public-private alliance that promotes our salsa caleña, circulating artists and bringing this genre to the territories,” said Leydi Higidio, Secretary of Culture of Cali.

The Ruta de la Salsa Orchestra Competition is consolidated as a milestone that contributes to recovering salsa identity and pride, strengthening the musical ecosystem, making new artistic proposals visible and projecting Cali as the world capital of salsa.