Salta is where Argentine folk music lives, and it lives in the peñas: restaurants where musicians play zambas and chacareras between the tables, people get up to dance, and the night ends with everyone singing. This evening takes you through five of them with a guide who knows which door to open and when, with a dance lesson so you can join in, and dinner where the locals eat.
A peña is a folk music house: a restaurant with a stage, or just a room with guitars, where people eat, drink and sing the music of the Argentine north-west. Salta has the most famous ones in the country, and the difference between walking into one as a tourist and being taken through five of them by someone from here is the whole point of this evening.
The night starts at eight in the centre of the city and ends well after midnight, when you are taken back to your hotel. It runs Wednesday to Sunday, as a regular service or as a private one for your group alone, with the guide in English.
The first stop is the most famous peña in Argentina, the one Mercedes Sosa sang about. You go in with the lights up, before the show, to hear its story from the walls and understand why the people of Salta gather to sing: the zamba written for this place is the first thing you hear.
Near the old railway station, the first of the peñas on the Balcarce street: a short, loud welcome with the best dancers in town, drums and all.
At the third peña you stop being the audience. A folk dance workshop teaches you the steps of the zamba and the chacarera, with a handkerchief in your hand, and two empanadas and a glass of Torrontes or Malbec from the Calchaqui Valley to keep you going.
Dinner is at the largest peña in the country, with its show and a full menu of Salta cooking. Then the last stop, a peña with no stage at all, where the guitars go round the tables and you put the lesson into practice: dance, sing with the words in your hand, and learn how coca leaves are chewed, if you want to. The night ends when it ends, and you are taken back to your hotel.
You do not need to know how to dance or sing. The lesson is short and friendly, the songs come with the words, and nobody in a peña minds a beginner: joining in is the whole idea. Dress as you like; it is a restaurant night, not a formal one.
It is a late night. The circuit runs past midnight and most groups go on later at the last peña; plan an easy morning the next day rather than a 7 am excursion. If you would rather leave early, the guide arranges your way back.
No. It is an evening we add to your Salta package. 01Argentina arranges the whole trip — flights, hotel, transfers and the days you choose — and this is one of the evenings you can choose. When you write, we send you the detail for your dates.
It can be. The night runs as a regular service in a small group or as a private one, with the guide for your group alone. Tell us when you write and we quote it either way.
Yes. The night is guided in English.
Wednesday to Sunday. Friday and Saturday are the fullest nights in the peñas; midweek is calmer and easier to get a good table.
No. Plenty of people come for the music and the dinner and stay in their seats. But the lesson is the part most travellers end up talking about, and the zamba is slower and gentler than it looks.
A gathering to play and sing folk music, and the place where it happens. In Salta the peñas are restaurants with live music every night, some with a stage and a show, some with musicians wandering between the tables, and the public sings along. The music is the zamba, the chacarera and the other dances of the north-west, played on guitar, bombo drum and violin.
Tell us when you are travelling and how many days you have in Salta, and we will come back within 24 hours with the whole trip laid out — this day included if it fits.
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