From 25 to 30 May 2022, Aruba will host the Soul Beach Music Festival once again. The headliners for the event are already known, Mike Epps will present Friday for Comedy Night, Mary J. Blige will perform Saturday, and New Edition Sunday. Jointly with them, there will be various other artists that will perform and the 20th edition of the Soul Beach Music Festival will be celebrated.

ATA sees the return of the Soul Beach Music Festival as an indicator of recovery for Aruba’s tourism. The 20th edition of the festival was supposed to be taking place in 2020, but due to the pandemic the 2020 and 2021 Should Beach Music Festival did not take place.

ATA measures the economic impact of an event like this that brings for Aruba, and in that form can calculate how profitable the investment can be. In 2019, the last time the festival took place, it had an economic impact of $12 million for Aruba, attracting 6,530 International visitors, who spent an average of $372 per person per day, and there was an average of 6.3 nights stay. Comparing the numbers with the ones from the previous year, 2018 saw a growth of $3 million in 2019. The number of visitors also grew to 1000 visitors, while the payout average per person per day came out to $22 more than the previous year, and the visitor average stayed 0.3 days more in Aruba in 2019 compared to 2018.

Based on a poll in 2019, it was indicated that 78.8% of international visitors who attended the festival, came with a specific purpose to attend the festival. 87.5% of festival entries were bought by the North American market. 77.5% of visitors stayed in a hotel and there was a strong indication from the loyal visitors for the destination and the festival.

ATA hopes that the festival can grow again and reach the level of 2019, seeing the speedy recovery that is already happening in Aruba.

Tickets for locals will be on sale, starting at the end of the week at the special price of $70 a night at various locations on Aruba.