By José Gandue @spinning zone

Today is Bogotá's birthday, and the truth is that I've been thinking a lot about the city's music scene for a while now., about its public policies, and thinking, as always, about the possibilities of truly turning this city into an international capital of music. And I decided to retrieve an old article I wrote during 2019, which I have revised and updated to talk about the subject. I feel that much of what was said on that date is still valid and can still help to start the conversation. Here we go:

I'm going to launch, and I hope you'll understand, a series of reviews in which I explain Because I believe Bogotá is a city with great potential in the musical field that has yet to be fully realized. Yes, there are a lot of international concerts, which the city's public appreciates., But there are still significant shortcomings when it comes to connecting with local talent. Still, in many cases, the capital's scene remains, with notable exceptions, a group of artists who don't get a piece of the pie. The public that consumes contemporary music knows almost nothing about the entire soundscape of this city. And in that respect, the state institutions have been losing ground for quite some time. Someone will immediately jump in to tell me that what I'm saying is blasphemy, that the offerings have been growing, that they've added joropo and vallenato to the park festival catalog, but, without intending to insult them, These are proposals that only close small gaps between different communities within our geographical area., But they fail to fulfill the true task of effectively increasing the number of people who decide to attend and listen to something different from what their urban tribe has always offered. We are diverse, but separate, and that is an immense waste. 

Bogotá needs more large public festivals, with an eclectic spirit, Open to all ages, taking place during long weekends, with different stages, all located in Simón Bolívar Park, where it is proven with certainty how varied the music is in the Colombian capital and confirms its creative and experimental spirit. All of this would be intended for the benefit of national folk rhythms, jazz, salsa, and, on the other hand, those sound expressions that we left out., when it came to giving it the title "To the Park", of the events organized by the Mayor's Office.

Around 2015, if my memory serves me right, after an intense period of preparation, the music management team of the District Institute of the Arts (Idartes) introduced the director of the institution at that time an interesting idea that proposed bringing together three of the five popular festivals of the moment organized from their offices, in pursuit of a result that went beyond the mere sum of spectators. The idea was to put together, in the same long weekend, the Salsa, Jazz and Colombian music festivals, in the same way that Rock al Parque does. It was an event with a sure future of growth, as it would have been an open-sound competition, seeking to evolve in accordance with what was being produced musically day by day, without needing to confine itself to labels, and where, finally, It could accommodate urban genres scorned by traditional circles, and where, at the same time, experimentation and new trends could have an interesting showcase.. A festival for the whole family, with an outstanding richness of sound textures, which, after a few editions, would have the possibility of becoming the most popular event in the city and, why not say it, of greatest international relevance. All of this, under the name of Bogotá Suena. 

The idea was good, But it fell into the hands of a director ill-equipped to execute it. The idea was accepted, but the various musical guilds were never consulted to support it. It was launched with a simple press release, untimely, confusing, and riddled with errors, without any immediate endorsement from the promoters themselves to defend the concept. What could have been a ceremony that inspired enthusiasm and celebration, with all the arguments and presentation tools at its disposal, was instead an excessively timid letter sent to the media at an inopportune time. All that caused was discouragement and rejection.  And faced with criticism from some musicians and journalists who never understood what was happening, Idartes remained silent, offering no response. Things worsened when the mayor at the time, Enrique Peñalosa, who knew nothing about the matter and had not been told what this whole project was about, went to a television interview with María Jimena Duzán, believing he was going to talk about mobility and other city problems, and found himself debating the end of Jazz in the Park, disregarding the fact that Duzán is the wife of one of the country's most renowned jazz musicians, Oscar Acevedo. The mayor's responses were pathetic, since, instead of admitting his lack of knowledge on the subject, He started saying all sorts of nonsense about it.

As a result of that disagreement came the mayor's call to the Idartes team at that time to demand an explanation for this misinformation and the immediate cancellation of Bogotá Suena. A few months later, after several failed attempts during his administration, the then-director of Idartes was dismissed. Since then, the three festivals in the park (Colombia, Jazz, and Salsa) have survived individually, each attracting a niche audience specializing in that genre., without intelligently provoking the significant growth of a new audience. 

It's 2024 in a cosmopolitan city of eight million inhabitants, eager to show the world what it's made of. Bogotá needs musical events where, on a massive scale, The public, free of charge and open to all social strata, can listen to world music in its most outstanding breadth, alongside artists from our neighborhoods. Where, on the same day, on one stage you can see Wynton Marsalis and Inner Groove, on another Herencia de Timbiquí and Ana Tijoux, and on yet another La 33, and in the middle of all that, Tego Calderón, Rosalía, LCD Soundsystem, and Julio Victoria. To some it might seem like a shapeless hodgepodge (a hodgepodge, to put it colloquially), but What we're doing now isn't working, it's not going anywhere, and it doesn't even benefit the genres that are currently in fashion. The Bogota audience still views jazz as a distant, incomprehensible style, made for a pretentious elite. Salsa is seen as an antiquated art form, outdated and only drawing crowds when a classic artist performs. Colombia al Parque has interesting foundations, and the curation improves year after year, but it doesn't quite manage to attract the expected number of attendees. A unified festival, in due course, would truly increase interest in what is being done in those spheres and, incidentally, It would provide new clues to resolving the city's musical landscape. 

At that time, the opportunity to develop this project was lost., which could have been his great contribution to the culture of the Colombian capital. The city has a portfolio of artists, primarily showcased in alternative venues and small stages, It is prolific and captivating. And if we only depend on what a couple of private companies organizing events do, with tickets impossible for the vast majority of the population to acquire, and where the Colombian representatives allege lack of attention and non-compliance with requirements for their presentations, There will be no progress. Local talent, as I've said many times, is just filler in big shows, and its inclusion under these conditions..., They do nothing to help strengthen our scene. We need to foster connections, monitor activities throughout the year, invest money and strategy in promoting the artistic community and think in terms of a real cultural industry.

It is time to give the city, from the Mayor's Office, effective tools that will put Bogotá even more on the map.  Let's put aside the glitz and glamour and instead implement clear policies to achieve real growth.