Cabo’s status as a music vacation spot has lengthy performed second fiddle to its status as an grownup playground and spring break hotspot. However in San José del Cabo, Lodge El Ganzo has spent greater than a decade constructing a special sort of id, one rooted in recording classes, intimate performances and a perception that hospitality can operate as artistic infrastructure.
That philosophy comes into focus by means of Viva El Gonzo, the resort’s annual music and humanities pageant. Whereas the occasion brings a lineup of artists to Baja California Sur, its deeper context lives within the property itself, which was initially conceived as an underground recording studio earlier than evolving right into a resort, artist residency program and cultural platform.
By its artist-in-residence program, over 90% of El Ganzo’s visitor rooms double as interactive artwork items, the resort tells EDM.com.
Credit score: Picture courtesy of Lodge El GanzoFor Paco Rosas, Music Director at Lodge El Ganzo, the mission is just not merely to ebook artists and musicians into an attractive vacation spot. It’s to create the situations for them to jot down, file, relaxation, collaborate and join with audiences in a setting faraway from the same old pressures of the music trade. Previous visitors and performers embrace RÜFÜS DU SOL, Khruangbin and Polo & Pan, amongst others.
El Ganzo can be a part of Puerto Los Cabos, an artwork and tradition hub owned by the native Sanchez Navarro household. The group contains the resort together with a number of occasion areas, amongst them the putting Crania venue the place Viva El Gonzo is held, designed by Mexico’s MAXA Burning Man Camp.
Forward of this yr’s pageant, we caught up with Rosas about how the resort is working to broaden Cabo’s musical id.
Credit score: Picture courtesy of Lodge El GanzoEDM.com: Lodge El Ganzo was initially conceived as an underground recording studio earlier than evolving right into a resort. How does that origin form the best way artists create and carry out there immediately?
Paco Rosas: Lodge El Ganzo was born as an area for creative creation, and that DNA continues to be alive in each nook of the property. You possibly can really feel it within the acoustics, within the format, in the best way the studio sits on the coronary heart of the whole lot; not as an amenity, however as the rationale the place exists.
Our mannequin is constructed round eradicating the strain that often suffocates creativity. There’s no clock working, no value per hour, no expectation to ship a completed product by checkout. What we provide as an alternative is time; actual, unstructured time for artists to discover, experiment, and observe their instincts. That sort of freedom is uncommon, and artists really feel it the second they arrive.
EDM.com: As Music Director at El Ganzo, what does your function seem like day-to-day, and the way concerned are you in shaping the artist expertise on the property?
Paco Rosas: As Music Director at Lodge El Ganzo, my function has a number of layers that form not solely our artist residencies, however the total imaginative and prescient of the music program. On any given day, I transfer between being a curator, promoter, producer, musician, and likewise working inside the construction of a resort.
An enormous a part of my duty is constructing bridges—between the artist and the house, between creativity and hospitality, and guaranteeing that the whole lot we do is aligned with our id as each a model and a cultural hub. It’s about ensuring the expertise feels intentional, cohesive, and true to who we’re.
On the core of all of it, my foremost focus is to present artists the liberty they should totally be themselves and create at their highest degree throughout their time with us. When that surroundings is correct, the remainder tends to fall into place—the magic occurs as a pure consequence.
Credit score: Picture courtesy of Lodge El GanzoEDM.com: Plenty of inns incorporate music into the visitor expertise, however El Ganzo feels constructed round it at each degree. What are a few of the particular ways in which philosophy reveals up in how the property is designed and programmed?
Paco Rosas: Our imaginative and prescient permits us to function as a platform the place artwork can broaden and have the liberty it wants to actually flourish. That philosophy reveals up each in how we design our areas and the way we program them.
A transparent instance is our weekly reside music sequence on the Hearth Pit, the place we deliberately showcase rising and authentic initiatives—native and worldwide. Many of those artists are used to enjoying cowl gigs, typically enjoying “Lodge California” thrice an evening. What we provide as an alternative is an area the place they will carry their very own music, their very own voice, and share one thing that’s genuinely theirs.
Making a platform that welcomes, helps, and actively seeks out authentic expression is a core worth for us. And for our visitors, that interprets into one thing deeper than leisure—it creates a way of connection and belonging, as a result of what they expertise feels actual, uncooked, and genuine.
EDM.com: If you’re deciding on artists for the musicians-in-residence program, what are you in search of past simply expertise? Are there particular qualities or mindsets that are inclined to thrive on this surroundings?
Paco Rosas: Expertise is necessary, in fact—however expertise can take many alternative kinds. What I’m actually in search of are genuine voices, that intangible je ne sais quoi you possibly can’t fairly outline however instantly acknowledge. I additionally contemplate cultural relevance inside the present musical panorama, however not in a trend-driven means—extra by way of how sincere and intentional a mission feels.
I’m typically drawn to misfits—artists whose id and voice really feel totally shaped, no matter style. Music, to me, is a common language that goes past ideas of “good” or “unhealthy.” It’s about expression, goal, and connection.
When you’re an artist who’s looking for that means by means of your work—making an attempt to know your house on the earth by means of music—you’ll probably discover one thing particular at El Ganzo. It turns into a sort of protected haven, an area the place you possibly can really feel at house and totally step into your artistic course of.
EDM.com: El Ganzo is about in a really distinct bodily surroundings between the ocean and the arid Baja panorama. How does that setting affect the best way artists method writing, recording, or performing whereas they’re there?
Paco Rosas: There’s undoubtedly an intangible magic to this place that turns into very actual as soon as your mindset aligns with the surroundings. Being surrounded by the ocean and the uncooked, arid panorama of Baja has a means of grounding you whereas additionally opening you up creatively.
You can begin your day swimming within the sea—typically even listening to whales within the distance—after which head into the studio with Vitamin D in your system and an excellent breakfast behind you. That alone places artists in the suitable way of thinking to do what they love most: make music.
Anybody who understands the method of writing a music or discovering a sound is aware of {that a} huge a part of it comes right down to your emotional state and your power. Right here, there’s a pure recharge that retains that power flowing. It’s virtually just like the surroundings helps you tune into that inside antenna—and most of the time, one thing comes by means of.
Credit score: Picture courtesy of Lodge El GanzoEDM.com: What does a typical residency seem like from the artist’s perspective, from arriving on the resort to recording within the studio and performing?
Paco Rosas: I’ve been lucky to expertise either side—as a part of the staff at El Ganzo and likewise as an artist in residence—so I can communicate to it from a really actual place.
One of many largest benefits for artists is the power to be totally collectively in a single place. You step away out of your each day routine, depart your consolation zone, and enter a brand new surroundings that’s deliberately designed so you possibly can focus your power on no matter you want most.
For some, which means going all in on the music—writing, recording, experimenting. For others, it’s about resting after a protracted tour. Some take the chance to discover Baja—browsing, diving, watching whales. And for some, it turns into an area for one thing deeper, even a spot to heal.
That’s why I don’t assume there’s such a factor as a “typical” residency. Every one is completely different, formed by the artist and the place they’re of their journey. To me, each residency looks like a singular romance—and I simply occur to be the one holding house for it to occur.
EDM.com: Are you able to share a selected second or story from the residency program that actually captures what makes the expertise distinctive for artists?
Paco Rosas: Each residency carries its personal story—its personal expertise, its personal Ganzo Session, and its personal reside present. No two are ever the identical.
However there’s one which feels particularly near my coronary heart proper now. The residency we had with Taylor Kirk from Timber Timbre, who not too long ago handed away, is one thing I’ll at all times carry with me.
He was a type of artists who arrived right here and embraced the house not only for music, however for one thing deeper. He used his time at El Ganzo to work by means of private issues—to heal in his personal means. Figuring out that this place might maintain that for him, even in a small means, means extra to me than any present or recording.
Past the music, past the stage, that’s what I’ll at all times bear in mind.
EDM.com: The Viva El Gonzo pageant brings that very same community-driven power into a bigger occasion setting. How does the pageant replicate or broaden on what you’re constructing by means of the residency program?
Paco Rosas: Viva El Gonzo is an ideal instance of how an concept—initially envisioned by our founder, Pablo Sánchez Navarro—can manifest in a really possible way. It carries that Subject of Desires spirit: “construct it, and they’ll come.” And over time, that’s precisely what has occurred—artists and audiences from all over the world have been drawn into what’s been rising right here.
It’s no coincidence that Viva El Gonzo resonates so naturally with what we’ve been constructing for practically 15 years. The pageant is admittedly an enlargement of those self same values—group, authenticity, and a deep dedication to authentic expression.
A transparent instance is that this yr’s lineup, the place we had been in a position to embrace La BOA, certainly one of our artists in residence. They initially got here by means of Ganzo Radar in 2025, an open name the place they had been chosen for a residency amongst greater than 140 candidates. Seeing that journey—from discovery, to residency, to acting on a bigger stage on the pageant—completely captures what this ecosystem is all about.
EDM.com: Cabo is historically generally known as a tourism and partying vacation spot. What does it take to construct one thing like El Ganzo right into a refined cultural hub for music and the humanities inside that surroundings?
Paco Rosas: The excellence actually comes from understanding the vacation spot past the floor. Cabo San Lucas is essentially the most broadly recognized a part of the area, and sure—that’s the place the party-driven id is most seen.
However we’re positioned in San José del Cabo, which has at all times had a special rhythm. It’s extra native, extra grounded, extra linked to the group. Over time, it has naturally advanced into a spot that pulls a special sort of traveler—somebody who values browsing, snorkeling, whale watching, nice meals, and cultural experiences.
From the very starting, the imaginative and prescient behind Lodge El Ganzo was to change into a sort of cultural lighthouse—to carry one thing significant into what, on the time, felt like a cultural desert. It wasn’t about competing with the present id of the vacation spot, however about increasing it.
Constructing one thing like this takes consistency, intention, and a transparent standpoint. It means investing in tradition not as an add-on, however because the core of the expertise—and trusting that the suitable viewers will discover you.
EDM.com: As extra music creation strikes into digital and distant areas, what function do bodily locations like El Ganzo play in the way forward for how artists create and join with audiences?
Paco Rosas: I feel we’re in a really distinctive place. By nature, we function as a hybrid—a sort of artistic laboratory and residential studio, however with the infrastructure of a totally skilled recording studio. As a result of we exist inside a resort, we don’t operate like a conventional studio, and that adjustments the whole lot.
We’re in a position to bridge a spot for artists who don’t essentially want the size or complexity of large-format studios—42-channel consoles, a number of rooms, extremely structured workflows—however who do want a second in time and house to focus, get impressed, and create with out that degree of strain.
What exists right here is artistic freedom in its purest type, inside an surroundings that feels supportive reasonably than restrictive. It’s an area that holds you, as an alternative of pushing you.
And finally, that power finds its means into the music. The reference to an viewers doesn’t come as a compelled goal—it occurs as a pure response to one thing that was created truthfully, in the suitable situations.
