Read the latest on FASMA 2025 here.

The third edition of the San Miguel de Allende Festival of the Arts (FASMA2025) is coming in August and will offer more than 100 events from scores of local arts and culture organizations.  Music, theater, opera, film, dance, literary and plastic arts programs will be presented in many of San Miguel’s finest venues, Aug. 1-17.

Individually, these are the kinds of events for which this city is famous around the world.

Collectively, this is an opportunity for San Miguelians to sample the many lively, beautiful, and inspiring performance programs that make up the fabric of this community.

At any other time of the year, these programs are scrambling for your attention. Sometimes, inadvertently competing against each other.

Face it, there are only so many people to put into so many seats.

Eduardo Adame, one-time head of Casa Europa and the founder of the festival, had a better idea.

“Instead of everyone fighting over a cookie, let’s make a big cake,” he said.

Over a glass of wine recently, Eduardo shared his ambitions for the festival, which has slowly been growing into a bigger and tastier cake each year.

A pioneer in the e-commerce field, Eduardo Adame is no stranger to taking risks and dreaming big. It is no coincidence that Guanajuato’s Festival Internacional Cervantino – now in its 52nd year – pops up in conversation. He sees no reason why San Miguel, with its rich traditions in the arts, could not become as famous an international festival.

A destination event for tourists and artists from around the globe.

But first, you start with the world-class institutions that call San Miguel home, and you create a sparkling showcase for their talents.

“It is like a potluck party,” he says. “Everyone is invited to bring the best that they can do – and invite their friends.”

Eduardo is quite deft with the analogies. 

But you can see where he is going.

There will be something brilliant for everyone to enjoy.

Many of the events will be ticketed but there will also be many that are free.

The specifics will be forthcoming in the next week or so but to get a sense of the scope, here is a sampling of the organizations and institutions that will be bringing their best to the festival:

Instituto Allende – which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year – as well as  Ballet Folklórico Tradicional de San Miguel de Allende, Biblioteca Pública, Casa Europa Mexico, El Sindicato Centro Cultural, Biblioteca Pública, Casa Europa Mexico,, El Charco del Ingenio (Botanic Gardens), Chorale San Miguel, Festival de Música de Camara, Festival de Órgano de San Miguel de Allende (Organ Festival), Fundación para la Conservación del Juguete Popular Mexicano (Toy Museum), Galería Diana, Galería Ana Julia Aguado, Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF), Instituto del Bel Canto, National Institute of Fine Arts, La Troupe México, Opera of San Miguel, Operísma México, San Miguel el Grande Pro Música, Art of the Story, and San Miguel Literary Sala and Writer’s Conference.

You might recognize some of the institutions, and some may be strangers. One of the beauties of this festival is that you get to sample the best that San Miguel has to offer.

Civic support for the festival is deep, including the Municipality of San Miguel de Allende, the Tourism office of SMA, and the Office of Culture and Traditions.

The festival held a ceremonial kick-off recently at the Instituto Allende – which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. Representatives from government and many of the participating arts programs were on hand.

“It is an honor to have this festival in such a significant space for the artistic history of San Miguel. We deeply appreciate the Allende Institute’s hospitality and support,” Eduardo Adame told the gathering.

Many of those present signed an agreement, a commitment to keep FASMA thriving for the next several years as it grows into an international event.

Eduardo expects FASMA 2025 to bring in as many as 10,000 attendees. He hopes to attract at least 2,500 visitors from  elsewhere in Mexico and internationally. FASMA is launching a new “word of mouth” strategy to grow the audience, called the Ambassador Program. Simply, they are encouraging residents and artists to invite friends and family from elsewhere to visit San Miguel during the festival.

Every good festival needs a strong and dynamic website to enlighten and inform the attendees. You have to know what’s happening to take advantage, right?

FASMA2025 will have such a site. Soon. Just click over to the webpage https://www.fasma.com.mx/.

Yes, it is a bit of a ghost town right now. Don’t be disappointed. Your patience will be rewarded shortly.

This is the online home of Festival de las Artes San Miguel de Allende 2025 … or FASMA25 for short. Right now, you can see that the festival will take place Aug. 1-17 but little else.

Across the top are links that promise you a day-by-day schedule, access to workshops and exhibitions, and a dropdown list for events – music, plastic arts, cinema, dance, performing arts, literature, conferences.

But for the moment, there is no there there. 

The website sits there like a beautiful and colorful – but empty – circus tent, waiting for acts of wonder and imagination to fill its stages. And fill them they will.  More than 100 events are planned during the first half of August and they will be found in venues big and small all over the city.

Some will be free, some will be ticketed. Ultimately, when the list of events is published – probably within a week – there will be something there for everyone, for every taste, for all ages.

Come one, come all, to the greatest show on Earth – well, definitely in San Miguel de Allende.