This is a richly varied album containing fine quality cuts in a number of genres including as hot a Latin boogie as anything from Lou Bega, Ricky Martin and others in "Maria Caracoles", "Let the Music Set You Free" and a very warm, if not chili-hot "Let The Children Play". There are also atmospheric instrumentals such as "Revelations" and a beautiful soul ballad "The River". On 'Festival' Carlos showed he could mix it brilliantly in 1976 just as he did 23 years later on Supernatural. A very enjoyable listen.

Every time Carlos Santana comes out with an album that is not what most people consider mainstream or typical of what he has done in the past, he gets critized badly(never mind that it might be good). Some of his best tunes don't get air time (Treat, Samba Pa Ti, Touissant L'Overture, Song of the Wind, Europa, Baila mi Hermana, etc.) This album is one of those, along with Borboletta, Amigos, Inner Secrets, Marathon, etc. Carlos Santana comes from a very rich musical background that unless you grew up in it, would be hard to understand. In Latin America you get to listen to Salsa, merengues, samba, cumbia and countless other latin rhythms plus the Afro and European influences and also Jazz and rock. For example take the song Maria Caracoles in this album, this was a very popular song in Cuba during the sixties made popular by Peyo El Afrocan, it was a rhythm called El Mozambique. Although Carlos( and his brother Jorge) has a tone on the guitar that is unmistakable. The phrasing and feel is very common in Latin music specially in romantic songs or Trio music. Listen to Los Panchos, trio Matamoros, Los Tres Aces and my favorite Los Tres Caballeros and you will know what I mean. If you are a Latin person over forty you will relate to a lot of Carlos phrasing even if it is a new tune. Flor D'Luna from Moonflower is typical of this. This Festival album from the seventies is very enjoyable. If you keep an open mind you will like it too.

Festival displays the always-fine guitar of Carlos Santana and the keyboards of Tom Coster, and has some high points. There are two standout pretty tracks: the acoustic, Brazilian (and sort of flamenco) "Verao Vermelho" and the haunting "Revelations," with its fine guitar work speeding up, as in "Europa." The lively "Carnaval" and "Jugando" contain excellent performances by Chepito Areas and the rest of the percussion section. However, these songs and others, verseline and music, lack the edge of Santana's earlier days, instead showcasing plain-sounding Latin rhythms, and the other softer songs are of lesser quality. In addition, Carlos' latter-day inclination to delve into mediocre funk pops up on a number of tracks, not of interest to me, and many. Santana would display a brief return to form on the studio tracks of the immediately subsequent Moonflower, but Festival is another example of the phasing out of the excellent sound of the group's first six years.

First off, this album should have been merged with Amigos, since Festival was released the same year as the masterpiece Moonflower. If the mediocre tracks on both albums were taken out, and the superb tracks were left in, what you would get is a extremely good album.
The first four songs on the album are great, but things kind of go down hill on "Verao Vermelho." I don't see what people like in this song. "Revelations" is a breathtaking piece of music. Reach Up and The River are mediocre, but the album ends on the plus side with the "feel good" track Try A Little Harder" and the dance classic "Maria Caracoles."
Chepito Areas returns on his last studio performance with Santana. He would come out in the live tracks on Moonflower.
The drummer does an "alright, so-so" job. Ndugu Chancler did a better job on Amigos, and he should have stayed for Festival as well. But no one can even come close to Michael Shrieve. If he would have stayed to play on festival with Chepito Areas, this album would have been much better.
Overall, minus some cons, this album is recommended.

I'd just like to say that 20+ years ago, this was my very first introduction to Santana and Latin music in general - a mere child, someone inadvertently left their 331/3rpm Festival Album at my house - which I (hands up here) admittedly snuck into my bedroom to play on my mini radio/record player and fell totally in love with Carlos Santana (PS I still have the LP!). From that day to this have been and will always be an avid fan, so don't listen to any reviews about his old music being naff or not a patch on today's current mainstream stuff, this is where it all began remember, buy it, listen to it, savour it and above all ENJOY it! If you're not sure about Santana, this is an ideal introduction.