2025 Philadelphia Tango Festival

The tango festival offers a wide range of activities, including workshops for beginner through advanced dancers, live music lectures, dance practice sessions (practicas), social dances (milongas) with exhilarating live music, a seated concert, social activities, and more.

“Each year we choose a theme to guide our exploration of tango,” says Meredith Klein, PATs founder and director. “For this, our 13th festival, we honor the great bandoneon player, composer, and orchestra leader Anibal Troilo. Our music and dance offerings will highlight Troilo’s contributions to tango and include a seminar for intermediate and advanced dancers exploring this topic in depth.”

Festival artists and music

This year’s artists are particularly beloved by the Philadelphia tango community. The dance instructors and performers include

• Corina Herrera and Inés Muzzopappa
• Martin Maldonado and Maurizio Ghella
• Ignacio Ondartz and Meredith Klein
• Andrés Amarilla

An outstanding array of musicians will electrify dancing every night, with live music at the milongas provided by two tango orchestras—Tango Bardo and Típica Messiez—and a variety of smaller ensembles.

Recorded music at the milongas and practicas is curated by popular local and international DJs: Rainer Pereira, Gustavo Rember, Karen Johnson, Gabriel Gaumond, Mary Carmel Etienne, Dasha Khripkova, Andres Amarilla, and Ignacio Ondartz.

Classes, lectures, and more

Tango dance workshops are offered at all levels, from complete beginner to advanced, with an additional seminar for intermediate and advanced dancers. No partner is required to register for any of these offerings.

In addition to milongas, practicas, and a seated concert, there will be live-music lectures on the festival theme during the festival. A pre-festival Zoom lecture by tango historian and poet Matias Mauricio will set the stage and help contextualize Aníbal Troilo’s ongoing importance to tango.  Poetry and culinary artist La Luli will present a lecture, “Aníbal Troilo and His Poets,” and run an on-site café providing healthy and tasty food. The café also hosts social events, encouraging people to meet and mingle.

Venue

The tango festival takes place at the Lithuanian Music Hall, 2715 E. Allegheny Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19134.

Registration

Registration information and a complete schedule of all the diverse activities at the 13th Philadelphia Tango Festival are found at www.philadelphiatangofestival.com.  The Early Bird pre-registration deadline is Tuesday, April 15.

The Presenter

Co-founded by director Meredith Klein and dancer Andrés Amarilla in 2008, the Philadelphia Argentine Tango School is celebrating its 17th anniversary. Since its founding, PATS has been working to promote the dance, music, and poetry of Argentine tango as art forms that can enrich anyone’s life. PATS pursues this mission tirelessly through classes, workshops, concerts, social dances, lectures, performances, and more, both in its studio in Fishtown, and throughout the region. In 2024, Meredith Klein became one of the few foreigners designated as an Academic Correspondent by the National Academy of Tango in Buenos Aires.