Helen Brown looks at a festival enjoying a decade of success

LATINO music legends Kid Creole and the Coconuts are blowing into the North-East in June to headline the 2015 ¡Vamos! Festival.

They’ll be joining Mexican wrestlers, Peruvian street artists, Mardi Gras partygoers, world music premieres, flamenco dancers and chocolate heaven as the home-grown multicultural festival goes to town to celebrate its tenth anniversary.

With events, exhibitions and hot rhythms scheduled from June 4-14 in Newcastle and North Tyneside, it’s promising to be the liveliest event yet, according to organiser Nik Barrera.

“We’ve come a long way in the past ten years and built up a huge following – and this year the festival’s going to be hotter than ever,” he says.

¡Vamos! is putting down real roots this summer and permanently taking over the former Venue nightclub, in Newcastle, where some of the festival’s events will take place.

The festival celebrates all that’s great about world culture, with a particular focus on the Portugese and Spanish-speaking countries.

“We’re extremely excited about our line-up for this year, and we’re delighted to have Kid Creole and the Coconuts hosting our Summer Evening Party on Saturday, June 13, with a special Latino set. And we’ve a vast array of other artists and attractions lined up to make sure we get the biggest audiences we’ve ever had – we’ve even got a special fiesta for chocolate-lovers,” Barrera says.

A Mexican-themed Mardi Gras parade will fill Newcastle’s Northumberland Street with sound and colour on Saturday, June 6, with the help of children from more than ten local schools, organised by Sara Lourenco, and building on the success of last year’s event.

The festival will culminate in a beach party at Tynemouth complete with the sensational sounds of Havana Club 5. There will be screenings of Argentinian icon Isabel Sarli’s The Female and a free series of low-budget "Mexploitation" films from the 1960s and 1970s at the Tyneside Café, complete with Mexican beers and a Latin-inspired menu from chef Tom Adlam.

Other attractions include street art, dance, print-making, flamboyant wrestling with international superstar Cassandro at the popular Boiler Shop Steamer event and an album launch by Gran Canaria flamenco musician Paco Bethencourt.

Kid Creole – aka Bronx-born August Darnell – will be appearing with the Coconuts on Saturday, June 13.

Barrera, who was inspired by his father’s Colombian roots to start the festival in 2005, says the North-East is leading the way in celebrating Latino culture in all its glory.

Visit vamosfestival.com for more details.

Kid Creole tickets at seetickets.com/go/kidcreolevamos