By Santiago Rivas @rivas_santiago Photo by Karin Richter @karinrichter
It's coming a new edition of Rock al Parquee, and with it, a new Zonagirante special. More and more festivals are filling our year, and more and more artists are playing in our country. Before, the festival was practically the only highlight on our calendar, but now it seems to be competing with all the other concerts we have each year, at a disadvantage. That's how it seems, but it's not the case. The truth is that this new proliferation of shows brings many possibilities for Rock al Parque (and its audience).
The most important thing is that Let's begin to understand Rock al Parque as part of a festival system, With its particular characteristics – whether these are defects or virtues – and with a role that must be fulfilled, beyond the expectations of the public, the needs of the mayor in charge and how little or much the person in charge of Idartes cares about the organization of this festival; Rock al Parque does not have to be Estéreo Picnic, or Cosquín Rock, or Almax, or anything like that. Rock al Parque is Rock al Parque, and that has advantages and disadvantages.
The disadvantages are obvious. The natural disadvantages, at least: there isn't enough money to bring in artists who are at the top of the charts, and on top of that, because it has to be done at the end of June, lest we be up to our necks in the October rains, we're in the middle of summer, so there isn't a wide enough range for negotiation either. The non-natural disadvantages are also well known, although they represent a more complex problem: the negligence of institutions that don't care about the festival but must continue to do so, the eternal suspicion of corruption that hangs over the head of any Colombian public official (whether founded or not), clientelism, the Jurassic bureaucracy of our country and, apparently, Julio Correal.
The main advantage of the festival is that It doesn't need artists who are at the peak of their commercial popularity. It doesn't even need rock legends, because the truth is that year after year, top-tier artists come (and some third-rate and even fifth-rate ones too, but what can you do?). Rock al Parque doesn't have to aim for the "top" artists of each season., because that is not the essence of this festival. On the contrary.
It may no longer be the highest point a band in the district can aspire to, nor a training ground for groups or a platform through which real support is given to the local and national scene, But Rock al Parque is the space where all Bogota residents have the opportunity to go for free to enjoy music and educate themselves as an audience. Many of the discoveries we make at the festival will surely be invited to Estéreo Picnic, or any other festival, in a few years, and that allows for a knowledgeable audience, more likely to spend their money on concerts, when they know what the new sounds sound like.
This year's poster proves that We don't need to define rock, nor close its borders.. An interesting program from beginning to end, in which we may or may not like most of the proposals, but in which we will always find something worth discovering, or with which to rediscover. It's a diverse lineup, which pleases each of the sectors of the public who year after year come to their appointment at the Simón Bolívar.
But that's not all. Rock al Parque is what it is because it sometimes manages to erase the invisible borders to which we so stupidly submit. The point isn't that Chucky García, or whoever the curator is, is there to please each and every one of us. Rock al Parque fulfills a mandate; it provides a public service. It's worth it, because it's there for all of us. It's not free to spoil us, nor to give us an excuse to cancel it in the future, nor to justify not bringing "that band you wanted and asked for a thousand times on Twitter.". It's free, because it's an opportunity for everyone., including the organizers of private festivals, to meet with the music, and with the rest of the city.
So, I'll see you in the park., And may it be a great Rock al Parque.
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