By Janelle Retka
Vive Latino music festival in Mexico City represents the variety of the rich music scene of Mexico and bridges the gaps between the various sounds that constitute Latino music.
Music festivals such as Sasquatch! , Lollapalooza and Primavera Sound are scattered across the world and throughout the year. They often feature international music in genres including rock, metal, rap, pop, electronica, and more. These large-scale festivals provide an intrigue to a wide-ranging audience, drawing listeners from all around the world. But they lack intimacy.
Vive Latino offers what these festivals lack.
“It’s mostly for the Latin American people, not for foreigners,” said César Aveleyra , a 24-year-old from Mexico City who has attended the festival at least three times.
Established in 1998, the festival is hosted at Foro Sol , a sporting and concert venue in eastern Mexico City . Each March, the two main stadiums, as well as smaller stages and dance tents, become packed to the brim with crowds from various countries. According to the Vive Latino website, the festival—which ranges in cost from $594 Mexican pesos for one day to $2,199 pesos for a three-day Platinum Ticket—is host to over 70,000 attendees each day and has become the “biggest rock festival in Latin America.”
“I feel a real passionate excitement when I am there. People are really freaked out to be able to see all of these bands,” said William Myers, also known as DJ Chilly, the host of local radio station KEXP’s Latin show, El Sonido, on Monday nights.
Latino music, which includes traditional styles like salsa, bossa nova and tango as well as contemporary music styles such as rock or surf, has a broad range of sounds. Contemporary Latino artists draw from all of this, as well as cultural history and current events to create their distinctive and vibrant sounds, Chilly explains.
The festival lineup represents this spectrum, offering everything from the gentle, feel-good music of Nacho Vegas of Spain to the playful sound of Molotov Jukebox of London
.Unlike other international festivals, however, it maintains a focus on the Latin-American music scene, with less than a third of the performers in the 2015 line-up from outside Latin America.
Aveleyra said that the festival is focused on the culture of Mexico and Latin America as a whole. Wandering among the six stages, festivalgoers will find merchandise for all the different genres and bands in an area resembling a market.
“The point is to have them come together,” Aveleyra said, explaining that within this market setting, all the genres blend together, mirroring a goal of the festival to unite cultural groups.
“It’s a cool way to connect with people who are different to you, and realize that they’re not so different, you know, they’re just music lovers,” Chilly said, reflecting on the array of genres present.
“A lot of new bands have the opportunity to be in the festival,” said Noé Lazcano [cq], a 23-year-old graphic designer and freelance concert photographer from Papalotla, Mexico [cq], who has been attending the festival each year since 2007.
Lazcano explained that leading up the festival, companies like Discos Intolerancia select independent or underground bands to promote at the festival. “After [a few] years, the bands can jump to the principle stage. It’s cool because, if you have a band it’s an opportunity that you can appreciate.”
Lazcano says that the festival not only offers a chance to see popular bands, but also a chance for new bands to get noticed. He can offer a long list of bands that he has discovered over the course of his attendance.
In the 2015 line-up, DJ Chilly says there is plenty to look forward to:
O Tortuga , a band from Mexico City, released their first EP, “Palma Linda,” in May of 2013 Since, they have released two singles, “Tatiana” and “Cool” in September of 2013 and 2014, respectively. This four-piece band offers an engaging blend of garage and surf music, and plans to release its first full album early this year.
“In terms of beats,” Chilly recommends Dengue Dengue Dengue!, who will be the sole representatives of Peru in this year’s lineup. The masked duo from Lima has been around since 2010 , and uses their background in design to provide aesthetically exhilarating lighting and graphic screen imagery to accompany their experimental electronica music.
“There’s just really a lot of stuff,” Chilly said after listing off Monsieur Periné, Aterciopelados , Caifanes, Bomba Estéreo, Babasónicos, El Columpio Asesino, and Los Románticos de Zacatecas as a few bands he was especially excited about.
While Vive Latino has branched out over the past 15 years and this year will feature international artists such as Dave Matthews Band from Seattle, Interpol from New York , or The Vaccines from the UK , it maintains its focus on Latino artists that range from hugely popular to underground.
Tickets for the festival, which takes place March 13-15, are available at the festival website. KEXP is also offering a ticket drawing that ends on Friday, Jan. 23.
