Latin alternative favorites Ozomatli return to Stern Grove Festival with their genre-spanning, high-energy sound. Opening the afternoon is Malian hip-hop trio SMOD.

In their fourteen years together as a band, celebrated Los Angeles culture-mashers Ozomatli have gone from being hometown heroes to being named U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassadors.

Their music—an urban-Latino-and-beyond collision of hip-hop and salsa, dancehall and cumbia, samba and funk, merengue and comparsa, East LA R&B and New Orleans second line, Jamaican ragga and Indian raga -- has long followed a key mantra: it will take you around the world by taking you around L.A.

SMOD

Malian group SMOD formed in 1999 with childhood friends Sam (the son of Malian musical duo Amadou and Mariam), Mouzy, Ousco, and Donsky (SMOD is an acronym of their first names).

Inspired by early 90’s hip-hop icons like Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, Notorious B.I.G, and The Roots, the four friends created their own hybrid sound; they dubbed it “Afro-Rap,” a melding of afro-centric instrumentation and rhythms with the lyrical flow of American hip-hop.

About the Stern Grove Festival

Stern Grove Festival Association is a non-profit organization committed to providing the people of the Bay Area with admission-free access to diverse performing arts.

Every year since 1938, the organization presents Stern Grove Festival, an admission-free performing arts series, in Sigmund Stern Grove, a beautiful outdoor amphitheater located at 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard in San Francisco.