About the SCPS

¡Bienvenidos! Welcome! You are now entering the realm of the Stearns County Pachanga Society.

Based in St. Cloud, Minnesota, the Stearns County Pachanga Society (SCPS) is an ever-evolving, ever-growing organic musical experiment that aims to combine the participatory musical spirit of Cuban Cabildos, Brazilian Samba clubs, and Spanish Charangas with danceable rhythms from all over the globe and a certain psychedelic rock-n-roll ethos.

At a typical Pachanga Society "meeting" the stage members lay down songs and Latin/Afro-Caribbean/Rock rhythms while members of the audience play the percussion instruments that the group distributes or those they bring from home. Everybody else just dances and/or revels in the spirit of pachanga, which in Spanish means something like "get down, get loose, party, whoop it up and have a good time together".

There will be music from Cuba, Colombia, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Spain, France, Brazil, Bolivia, England and the USA and it's all there to make you feel good. Combine one cohesive and powerful percussion unit with a solid rhythm section of guitar, bass and keyboards, add one part searing lead guitar, one part haunting Andean pan-flute or wooden flute, and a whole bunch of decent voices, shake vigorously and you've got the sound of the SCPS.

If you can't come to a meeting to participate with us, pick up our new CD and call some friends and Pachanga right there in your own home. Remember, the spirit of Pachanga needs to be shared to be most effective. In the words of a member, "Pachanga Society is the best shared rhythmic-experience you can have in public!" C'mon in and check us out some more.