World premiere · Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Superbowl Salsa
The NFL half-time show, rebuilt for a stage in Edinburgh. Swing Latino fly in from Cali, the salsa capital of the world, for sixty minutes of acrobatic Colombian salsa danced to Bad Bunny, Karol G, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin and J Balvin.
- 14×World Salsa Champions
- LIVSuper Bowl half-time show
- 5×Scotsman Fringe Firsts
- 60minutes, no interval
Assembly Hall, Mound Place · 2pm daily · 6 to 30 August · ages 5+
Why this is not another dance show
- 14× World Salsa Champions. Swing Latino come from Cali, a city of two and a half million people that treats salsa the way other cities treat football. Fourteen world titles have gone back there with this company.
- LIV Super Bowl half-time show, 2020. Jennifer Lopez flew twenty-four Swing Latino dancers to Miami to perform alongside her and Shakira in front of the largest television audience of the year. Dancers from that night are in this show.
- 5× Scotsman Fringe First Awards. Won by director Toby Gough, along with two Herald Archangels and two Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe awards for lifetime achievement.
In performance
Photographed on stage in Colombia, before the company flew to Edinburgh.
An NFL half-time show, three metres in front of you
The half-time show is the biggest stage in entertainment. Thirteen minutes, a hundred million people watching, no second takes, and a budget most theatre companies would not see in a decade. Superbowl Salsa takes that idea and strips out the stadium.
What is left is the part that actually made those shows famous: the dancers. Sixty minutes of Cali-style salsa, danced to the music of Bad Bunny, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, J Balvin and Karol G. Lifts that finish with someone horizontal at head height. Drops caught late enough to make the front row flinch. Footwork fast enough that most audiences give up trying to follow the feet and simply watch.
There is no interval and very little talking. The show runs at the pace of the music and the music does not slow down, which is why sixty minutes is the right length and why it ends with the whole house on its feet.
It is rated 5+ and it starts at 2pm, which makes it one of the few things at the Fringe that genuinely works for a family, a group of friends and someone who came to Edinburgh on their own, on the same afternoon.
A world premiere. First reviews land from 6 August.
Swing Latino, from Cali
Cali calls itself the salsa capital of the world, and it has the trophies to argue the point. Swing Latino won most of them.
Cali-style salsa is defined by one thing above all others: speed. The footwork runs at roughly double the tempo of the music, which is why the style travels so badly in description and so well in person. Nobody has ever been sold a ticket by the phrase "rapid footwork". Everybody understands it about four seconds into seeing it.
Add the aerial work this company is known for, the lifts and the drops and the catches, and you end up with something closer to gymnastics set to a clave than to social dancing. These are not people who learned salsa in a class. Most of them have been competing since primary school, in a city where that is a normal thing to do.
Fourteen world championship titles sit behind them. So does a night in Miami in February 2020, in front of the largest television audience either they or anyone they danced with will ever perform for.
Toby Gough builds shows where the music lives
He does not stage a country from a rehearsal room in London. He goes there, finds the artists who are already the best at it, and builds the show around them.
It is a method he has run for three decades, in Cuba, Colombia, Sri Lanka, India, Brazil and Ireland, and it has won him five Scotsman Fringe Firsts, two Herald Archangels, and two Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe awards for lifetime achievement. Very few directors have that record at this festival, and none of them got it by staying home.
Lady Salsa opened at the Fringe in 2000 and has been touring more or less ever since. Children of the Sea was made with Sri Lankan children who survived the 2004 tsunami, and won a Fringe First. The Bar at Buena Vista put Cuban musicians in their eighties on stage in front of audiences who had only ever heard them on record.
Superbowl Salsa returns him to Colombia, and to the company he has been working towards for years.
Selected work
- Lady SalsaCuba. Opened at the Fringe in 2000, touring ever since.
- Children of the SeaSri Lanka. Made with child survivors of the 2004 tsunami. Fringe First.
- The Bar at Buena VistaCuba.
- Havana RumbaCuba.
- Salsa RevolutionColombia.
- Brazil! Brazil!Brazil.
- The Merchants of BollywoodIndia.
- Taj ExpressIndia.
- Irish Celtic, Spirit of IrelandIreland. Touring since 2011.
Times & tickets
- Dates
- 6 to 30 August 2026
- Time
- 14:00 daily
- Duration
- 60 minutes, no interval
- Venue
- Assembly Hall, Main Hall
Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LU - Tickets
- from £13.25
- Ages
- 5+
Booking is handled by Assembly Festival.
Book at Assembly assemblyfestival.comAssembly Hall is a five minute walk up the Mound from Princes Street. Check the box office for any days off during the run.
Follow the company
Rehearsal clips from Cali, backstage at the Assembly Hall, and the run itself once it opens on 6 August. Both accounts post daily through the festival.