When you think of concerts in El Paso, you think of the local venues like Lowbrow Palace, the Plaza Theater, the Sun Bowl and the Don Haskins Center, but what if there was a chance to shine a light on other places in El Paso?
Founders Enrique “Kiki” Cervantes and Johnny Escalante did just that as they formed their promotional company, J&K Present, in 2010, with the shared goal of bringing big-named artists to El Paso to “unconventional” event locations.
“We created this new concept ‘J&K Detour,’ to give our community some fresh and something worthy of the creativity and energy [artists] bring here,” Kiki said. “We’ve been local promoters for a while now and we wanted to take that experience learning that energy we got from the city and really try to push the boundaries.”
Their first volume show “Detour: Under the Spaghetti Bowl,” was held on Oct. 5, 2025, featuring artists such as Disclosure and special guests such as Channel Tres, Pete Soul and La Flaquita. The event had positive feedback and encouraged Kiki and Escalante to continue and build their upcoming volume two project.
“With our first Detour [show], we did it at Lincoln Park, and it was somewhere we’ve always envisioned having a show there. It just seemed so unbelievable, so it was something we always had in mind,” Kiki said. “[We wanted] to see how everything would line up and what it would take to create the experience we were planning on.”
With support from the city, J&K began to lock in dates for their shows and narrowed down which artists would fit the vibe of each location they planned on picking out.
“Taking these places and turning them into a full-on experience is not really about the hardness, but really immersing people into really beautiful landscapes,” Kiki said. “Turning them into an experience we haven’t really had the chance to, is something we’re really trying to build the Detour brand on.”
When announcing their shows, they release the details one by one, starting with the “secret” event locations and later revealing the artist. Each tier of release allows followers to buy tickets, and on Feb. 13, J&K announced the show’s location to be at McKelligon Canyon in the Franklin Mountains.
“With the Franklin Mountains we’ve been a fan of the area, and it is a beautiful place. McKelligon Canyon is a place that holds events, but we always wanted to do one of our events there,” Kiki said. “We talked to El Paso Live to see if we were able to have a what we would call a ‘full out mini festival,’ and we got their support and reached out to artists.”
It wasn’t until Feb. 19 that they announced Brazilian DJ Mochakk would be performing on April 24. Having debuted in 2018, Mochakk became popular in 2022 and was ranked among the world’s top DJs on DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs list.
He also launched his own label, MOTRAXX and opened a multidisciplinary club space in his hometown of Brazil, OBLIQO. With bringing a big-named artist like Mochakk, there is more anticipation for what artists and locations J&K will bring to El Paso.
“It’s always exciting to have a vision and getting accepted by the artists to play in El Paso,” Kiki said. “It is always exciting to see El Paso on the same lineup such as Miami and New York, so it is amazing being able to bring that to the community.”
Tickets are still available on their website and can be purchased until the show date. With volume one and two being announced, there is now volume three in the works for the J&K Detour project. Kiki encourages viewers and followers to keep an eye out for details that will be revealed soon for their event on June 6.
Abigail Pedroza is the Arts & Culture editor at The Prospector and may be reached at [email protected].
