NEW CASTLE, Del. — A neat stack of 79-cent bananas and rows of colorful fruit flanked the bilingual alternative pop band Luna Luna as they performed for a small audience at Fiesta Fresh Market, a family-owned Latino grocery store in northern Delaware that has turned its produce aisle into a music stage.
The April show was part of the store’s monthly Mercadito sessions, which owner Jose Luis Aguilar Garcia launched to spotlight creativity in Latino communities at a time when such communities are often covered only in the context of immigration crackdowns, he said.
Large piñatas hung from the ceiling above the group as they performed — a vastly different ambiance from the stages and lights that normally set the scene for Luna Luna’s hypnotic, indie-pop ballads. The performance was illuminated with fluorescent grocery-store lighting as customers shopped in the background while Luna Luna sang in both Spanish and English.
MSI previously reported that the Mercadito sessions grew out of Garcia’s experience with NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. In 2023, an artist on Garcia’s label — DannyLux — was invited to perform at the Tiny Desk Concert, a semiprivate music series filmed in the middle of the radio station’s bustling Washington, D.C., bureau. Garcia said that experience showed him the special appeal of an unconventional, acoustic setup.
“I found that super interesting that no matter who the artist was that was playing, people would gather to hear,” Garcia said.
Born in Mexico, Garcia grew up in an apartment adjacent to where he would eventually open Fiesta Fresh Market. He worked at farmers markets and grocery stores since he was a teenager and ran a photography and videography company that also produced regional Mexican music like mariachi, corridos tumbados and banda.
“We did a lot of quinceañeras, weddings, that sort of thing. Music was always like something I wanted to do as a passion project, but especially here in Delaware, there’s really no industry for that,” Garcia said.
With the capital his label earned from producing DannyLux’s music, Garcia opened the store in 2024 with his sister and father. He eventually used his experience with the Tiny Desk Concerts at the store as well, merging the two otherwise disparate aspects of his life.
Garcia initially hoped the shows would attract business, but it was hard to sell local artists on performing in such a quirky context. Soon, the premise caught on. All of the acts in the April show had heard about the small store on social media before they were asked to perform.
While the shows initially featured almost exclusively the Spanish-language music that Garcia produced with his label, the Mercadito sessions now showcase a broad range of artists and genres.
Luna Luna, which has earned recognition from outlets like Billboard and Rolling Stone, was one of three bands performing at the late April show. It was a vastly different stop from the other dates on their sprawling United States tour.
The unconventional platform was part of the appeal for lead singer Kavvi Gonzalez, along with many in the series’ rapidly growing fanbase, for whom the unique venue evokes a kind of nostalgia.
“I actually grew up shopping at stores like this, so to be able to play in one is kind of crazy,” said Gonzalez, who was born in Colombia and moved to Texas when he was 6.
The charm is in the surprising romance of the mundane, Gonzalez said.
“To see people just actually be shopping around and just living regular life while we’re doing a performance here, you know, it’s cool. It’s combining real life and music culture,” Gonzalez said.