1
- 2 years ago
Presented by Viña del Mar
Learn what goes on behind the scenes of crafting and sustaining a successful Latin music festival from the most successful festival producers in the world.
Learn what goes on behind the scenes of crafting and sustaining a successful Latin music festival from the most successful festival producers in the world.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00 In the US, when we launched Sueños,
00:02 it was incredible feedback.
00:05 We did 45,000 people per day first year.
00:08 And we had no idea what we were going to do.
00:11 And we were just blown away.
00:13 And to go into this year and see that grow,
00:16 there's a huge, huge need for consumption.
00:18 But it's completely different.
00:19 We're learning every single day that what
00:22 we need to challenge ourselves is
00:23 that we don't need to separate ourselves anymore from saying
00:26 we have an inclusive Latin festival versus a multi-genre
00:29 festival.
00:32 My name is John Frias.
00:33 The festival is in Los Angeles and soon to be in Austin.
00:40 It's a quintessential festival of Los Angeles.
00:45 It represents all of the culture that is in LA.
00:52 It's very representative of the diverse crowd and population
00:58 and culture in Los Angeles.
01:00 And we're just having the time of our lives.
01:03 Excellent.
01:04 Next to John is my friend Chris Denow
01:08 from Baja Beach Fest, Sueños, Coca-Cola Flow, Dale Mix,
01:12 La Familia, on and on.
01:13 Chris, can you tell us a little bit about your background
01:16 and some of the festivals you work?
01:18 Hi, everyone.
01:19 Thanks for coming.
01:21 Yeah, so we launched a bunch of different festivals
01:25 over the last 10 years.
01:26 But specific to this panel, Baja Beach Fest
01:30 launched about five years ago.
01:32 And it's really just a celebration
01:34 for Latinos in general.
01:36 We wanted to create an event that really just celebrated
01:39 culture, was a platform for the artists
01:42 to be able to express themselves in a really united way,
01:45 but also bring the same type of production
01:47 that the Anglo festivals that I typically came from
01:52 brought to the Latin culture.
01:53 So trying to build one of the strongest kind of footprints
01:58 for artists to express themselves.
01:59 And as time's passed on, we've expanded that footprint
02:03 into different cities in Mexico, as well as
02:07 launched a festival called Sueños in Chicago two years ago.
02:12 Excellent.
02:12 Daniel, [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:16 OK.
02:18 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:21 [APPLAUSE]
02:24 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:26 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:27 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:28 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:30 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:32 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:33 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:35 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:36 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:38 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:40 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:45 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:46 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:48 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:49 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:51 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:53 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
02:54 the festival. [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:01 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:02 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:04 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:05 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:07 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:09 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:10 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:37 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:48 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:50 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:52 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:53 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:54 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:55 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
03:56 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
04:10 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
04:12 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
04:13 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
04:27 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
04:28 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
04:42 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
04:43 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
05:01 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
05:02 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
05:20 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
05:21 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
05:22 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
05:24 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
05:26 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
05:28 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
05:29 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
05:57 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
06:25 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
06:54 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
06:55 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
06:56 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
06:58 [SPEAKING SPANISH]
06:59 (speaking in foreign language)
07:03 (speaking in foreign language)
07:07 (speaking in foreign language)
07:11 (speaking in foreign language)
07:15 (speaking in foreign language)
07:20 (speaking in foreign language)
07:24 (speaking in foreign language)
07:28 (speaking in foreign language)
07:31 (speaking in foreign language)
07:35 (speaking in foreign language)
07:39 (speaking in foreign language)
07:44 (speaking in foreign language)
07:48 (speaking in foreign language)
07:52 (speaking in foreign language)
07:56 (speaking in foreign language)
07:59 (speaking in foreign language)
08:03 (speaking in foreign language)
08:07 (speaking in foreign language)
08:11 (speaking in foreign language)
08:15 (speaking in foreign language)
08:19 (speaking in foreign language)
08:23 (speaking in foreign language)
08:27 (speaking in foreign language)
08:31 (speaking in foreign language)
08:35 (speaking in foreign language)
08:39 (speaking in foreign language)
08:43 (speaking in foreign language)
08:47 (speaking in foreign language)
08:50 (speaking in foreign language)
08:54, hey Chris, you produce over 300 albums a year.
09:00 (speaking in foreign language)
09:04 (speaking in foreign language)
09:21 Hey Chris, you produce over 300 events annually
09:25 in the US and in Mexico, and you cover Latin,
09:28 electronic, indie, hip hop, R&B, and other genres.
09:31 How different are the audiences nowadays
09:34 versus when you started, and do you see more non-Latins
09:38 attending Latin-themed festivals?
09:41 Let's start with your first question.
09:47 When I first started, I was really, really specific
09:51 in electronic dance music.
09:52 I started producing my first shows back in 2012,
09:57 throwing college spring break parties,
10:01 and it kind of graduated into block parties,
10:03 festivals, touring.
10:05 What I did notice is that something really similar
10:09 to, say, Latin festivals that we've created
10:11 that are very inclusive, very celebratory,
10:14 is this kind of camaraderie
10:15 of the electronic dance music world
10:17 and how everyone comes together,
10:19 all the barriers are broken down.
10:21 What I noticed a lot in electronic music specifically
10:25 is there's a very large Latin community
10:29 kind of engraved into electronic music,
10:31 and how it birthed into the,
10:36 from doing multi-genre shows and whatnot,
10:38 was this kind of need of more inclusivity.
10:42 I think multi-genre's amazing,
10:43 and I celebrate multi-genre shows still today,
10:47 but something I felt I could bring more to life
10:49 that I felt purpose internally
10:51 was the idea of celebrating one thing,
10:54 be it a genre, be it a culture, ethnicity, et cetera.
10:58 So when we launched Baja Beach Fest
11:01 and Coca-Cola Flow Fest around the same time,
11:03 one is in Mexico City, if you're not familiar,
11:05 and one is in Baja, California, very close to San Diego.
11:09 Both of those festivals,
11:11 the whole entire premise around it
11:13 was to take a lot of what we were learning from multi-genre
11:16 of people really wanting some more inclusivity
11:19 and really nailing into that.
11:22 So from every touchpoint, food, culture,
11:26 flags, what each Latin country
11:30 really symbolized around music,
11:32 and wanted to create a footprint and a platform
11:34 that we could spread out,
11:35 that kind of celebrated those tones.
11:39 And so, yeah, I would say the big difference
11:41 that I see now is that what's really growing,
11:45 especially in North America and Mexico,
11:46 is that inclusivity.
11:48 So we've branched out.
11:50 When we first started, it was only in reggaeton.
11:53 And then we started sprinkling a little bit of pop.
11:57 And over the last three years,
11:59 we kind of started seeing it.
12:00 Being on the West Coast,
12:01 it's much different than in Miami.
12:03 There's 41 million people in California,
12:07 17 million of them are Mexicans.
12:10 So we really saw, my partner, he's not here today,
12:13 but we really saw this very large need
12:17 for Mexican regional (speaking in foreign language)
12:21 this kind of new sound of Mexican rap.
12:24 And we started integrating into Baja.
12:26 And what we realized was, is wow,
12:28 it's not just reggaeton, it's just not Latin pop.
12:31 It really is Latin culture in general.
12:33 And how do we create an event similar to Beso Mi Mucho,
12:37 it's speaking to a little bit of an older audience.
12:39 How do we continue to speak to this younger audience
12:42 that, in our opinion, was kind of ignored
12:45 for a really long time,
12:46 and didn't have something to call their own?
12:47 Where growing up 20 years earlier,
12:51 there was that kind of Sunday with your family,
12:55 listening to Mexican regional or Mexican rock.
12:57 The younger kids just didn't really have that.
13:00 And so they gravitated towards electronic music.
13:02 They graduated towards a lot of the multi-genre stuff
13:05 that Primavera does, et cetera.
13:07 - What's the percentage of Latins
13:10 versus non-Latins at Baja?
13:12 Is it overwhelmingly Latin,
13:13 or has that changed in the last few years?
13:15 - It started overwhelmingly Latin.
13:17 I would say 95%.
13:20 And they mostly came from California, West Coast,
13:24 Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas.
13:27 But as the genre's grown,
13:29 especially in the last two or three years,
13:31 what we started to see is,
13:33 people are starting to really love Latin culture,
13:37 and really starting to wanna see what it feels like,
13:40 and feel the good energy,
13:41 and just the dancing and the smiling,
13:44 and people just being...
13:46 I say it like this to people.
13:48 Growing up in California, very heavy democratic state,
13:53 people don't wave the American flag
13:56 like they might do, say, in the Midwest,
14:00 where it's like, "Fuck yeah, America."
14:02 I'm not American, I'm Dutch, just for the record.
14:04 But I'm American too.
14:06 - I'm not either, by the way.
14:07 I'm not either.
14:08 - But I always thought it was weird,
14:09 and I always would be like,
14:10 "Dad, what is wrong with these people?"
14:15 Netherlands flag is waving everywhere we go,
14:17 no matter what.
14:17 We see someone from the Netherlands,
14:19 we're waving at 'em,
14:20 "Hey man, come over here, hang on a second."
14:22 And that's what I got from Latinos in general.
14:25 Not just Mexicans, but Latin culture in general
14:29 is just so accepting of each other,
14:30 and it's such a contagious thing.
14:33 So now we're seeing it.
14:34 I think there's artists that have championed
14:36 the explosion, right?
14:37 Let's say, I think Bad Bunny did the best,
14:40 when it just comes to,
14:41 he really penetrated beyond the Latin confines.
14:46 And so I would say now,
14:49 probably like 20 to 25% of the people
14:52 that are attending are non-Latino.
14:55 And it's been incredible.
14:56 It's been incredible.
14:57 - That's a great sign.
14:59 - Yeah.
15:00 - That the market's opening.
15:01 - Yeah, yeah.
15:01 - Hi, John, how did Besame Mucho come together?
15:06 And that lineup you have for this year
15:08 is so eclectic and so cool.
15:11 Manal, Los Bukis, Ananitos Verdes, Trevi, Tacuba.
15:15 So, but you have no reggaeton or Latin urban acts,
15:17 or the new generation of Mexican acts.
15:19 - He's being nice to me.
15:21 - Oh yeah, that's right.
15:23 Cool name, by the way, Besame Mucho.
15:27 - Thank you so much.
15:28 Well, definitely we're trying to have fun with it.
15:30 It is a very young festival,
15:32 and it's interesting because there are
15:36 previous generations of artists that are performing there.
15:41 And so we really just started looking at playlists.
15:44 We started thinking about talking to our friends
15:48 and realizing that these are the songs
15:52 that we still love today.
15:54 And I think the reason that every generation
15:58 is coming to the festival is because if you think back,
16:01 you know, we were all younger
16:02 when we would hear these songs.
16:05 They may have been coming from
16:08 our brother and sister's bedroom that were older.
16:11 We may have heard these songs
16:13 when we were in our parents' cars.
16:17 And so, basically just looked around
16:20 to all of our friends in Los Angeles
16:23 and realized it's very much a part of
16:25 every single generation.
16:27 And so at the festival, we've been finding that
16:29 every age group was there.
16:34 In Los Angeles, we're so lucky.
16:37 I mean, just think of all the amazing examples we have
16:40 from every single country
16:43 that comes to live in Los Angeles.
16:45 And so we've benefited from that.
16:47 We're so fortunate.
16:48 You know, and from that, just so many ideas kept going.
16:52 I work with the most amazing people,
16:55 some of these friends that,
16:57 you know, that we have a similar taste in music.
17:01 They're my friends today,
17:02 and we work together on the festival.
17:04 So we're pretty lucky in that sense.
17:05 It wasn't that hard.
17:07 - And you sold out in 13 minutes, Dodger Stadium, right?
17:10 - We did.
17:11 Yeah, we did.
17:12 - Good for you.
17:13 (audience applauding)
17:14 - Thank you. - Good for you.
17:16 (speaking in foreign language)
17:35 (speaking in foreign language)
17:39 (speaking in foreign language)
17:43 (speaking in foreign language)
17:47 (speaking in foreign language)
17:51 (speaking in foreign language)
17:55 (speaking in foreign language)
17:59 (speaking in foreign language)
18:03 (speaking in foreign language)
18:07 (speaking in foreign language)
18:11 (speaking in foreign language)
18:15 (speaking in foreign language)
18:20 (speaking in foreign language)
18:24 (speaking in foreign language)
18:28 (speaking in foreign language)
18:33 (speaking in foreign language)
18:37 (speaking in foreign language)
18:41 (speaking in foreign language)
18:45 (speaking in foreign language)
18:49 (speaking in foreign language)
18:53 (speaking in foreign language)
18:56 (speaking in foreign language)
19:01 (speaking in foreign language)
19:05 (speaking in foreign language)
19:09 (speaking in foreign language)
19:13 (speaking in foreign language)
19:17 (speaking in foreign language)
19:21 (speaking in foreign language)
19:25 (speaking in foreign language)
19:30 (speaking in foreign language)
19:34 (speaking in foreign language)
19:37 (speaking in foreign language)
19:41 (speaking in foreign language)
19:45 (speaking in foreign language)
19:49 (speaking in foreign language)
19:53 (speaking in foreign language)
19:57 (speaking in foreign language)
20:02 (speaking in foreign language)
20:06 (speaking in foreign language)
20:10 (speaking in foreign language)
20:14 (speaking in foreign language)
20:18 (speaking in foreign language)
20:22 (speaking in foreign language)
20:26 (speaking in foreign language)
20:31 (speaking in foreign language)
20:35 (speaking in foreign language)
20:39 (speaking in foreign language)
20:43 (speaking in foreign language)
20:47 (speaking in foreign language)
20:51 (speaking in foreign language)
20:55 (speaking in foreign language)
20:59 (speaking in foreign language)
21:26 (speaking in foreign language)
21:30 (speaking in foreign language)
21:38 (speaking in foreign language)
21:42 (speaking in foreign language)
21:46 (speaking in foreign language)
21:50 (speaking in foreign language)
21:54 (speaking in foreign language)
21:58 (speaking in foreign language)
22:03 (speaking in foreign language)
22:07 (speaking in foreign language)
22:11 (speaking in foreign language)
22:15 (speaking in foreign language)
22:19 (speaking in foreign language)
22:23 (speaking in foreign language)
22:27 (speaking in foreign language)
22:31 (speaking in foreign language)
22:35 (speaking in foreign language)
22:39 (speaking in foreign language)
22:43 (speaking in foreign language)
22:47 (speaking in foreign language)
22:52 (speaking in foreign language)
22:55 (speaking in foreign language)
22:59 (speaking in foreign language)
23:04 (speaking in foreign language)
23:08 (speaking in foreign language)
23:12 (speaking in foreign language)
23:16 (speaking in foreign language)
23:20 (speaking in foreign language)
23:24 (speaking in foreign language)
23:51 - Hey, Chris, you mentioned Bad Bunny,
23:54 and headlining Coachella was a game changer
23:57 for Latin artists in the festival circuit in the US
24:00 and probably globally.
24:01 Has Bad Bunny headlining Coachella made your job harder
24:05 for securing talent, fees, and everything else?
24:09 'Cause now you have Coachella competing
24:11 and other big festivals in the US competing.
24:14 Is it good for you,
24:15 or does it just make your job a little harder?
24:20 - I think it's great for the music.
24:22 I think it's great for the culture.
24:23 Definitely makes my job harder.
24:25 But that's okay.
24:27 I think the exciting part is
24:30 is that more people are listening to it.
24:32 And my kind of idea behind it is
24:36 is it's not about convincing anybody.
24:38 It's just they need to see it.
24:39 They need to feel it,
24:40 and I think you'll come back for more.
24:42 The exciting thing about things like Baja,
24:46 or we kind of birthed Suenos from Baja Beach Fest
24:50 in Chicago, is our kind of whole entire ethos
24:55 around the event is that it's not just a place
25:01 for the fans to call their own.
25:02 It's also a place for the artists to call their own.
25:05 So as important as it is for Latinos
25:08 or any genre of music to go and play multi-genre,
25:12 I find it super important that you're also staying
25:14 really, really core with your fan base.
25:17 So I would say something that started to affect us
25:19 is when artists are super heavy on cycle touring,
25:24 typically we're not seeing them
25:27 as prevalent on the festival.
25:29 So it's really important that we are helping
25:32 kind of push these artists into their billing positions
25:35 and really helping develop,
25:37 not just on the soft ticket festival side,
25:39 but on the hard tickets,
25:40 because we are seeing that diversification.
25:43 The genre is now having an opportunity to choose.
25:46 Do you wanna do Coachella
25:47 or do you wanna do Baja Beach Fest?
25:49 I'm also experiencing a lot of camaraderie
25:53 with a lot of the festivals.
25:54 We built a lot of open lines of communication
25:57 with the Lollapaloozas, with the Coachellas,
26:00 with a multitude of festivals,
26:02 where we actually don't really believe
26:04 they compete too much.
26:05 The multi-genre festivals are introducing something
26:09 where we have a very cultivated audience.
26:14 I would say where we're actually competing
26:17 is in the hard tickets,
26:18 making sure the managers feel comfortable
26:21 that we're not taking tickets out of the markets
26:24 that they need to sell tickets in.
26:27 And if we are, how are we helping amplify those markets
26:31 for their hard tickets,
26:32 supplementing from the festival brand channels, right?
26:35 'Cause these brand channels, these festival Instagrams,
26:38 these festival databases,
26:40 they speak very linear to the fans.
26:43 And they're like a source of information for them.
26:47 It's not just, "Here's the lineup."
26:49 We're celebrating new music,
26:51 we're celebrating achievements that are happening.
26:53 So using that to kind of help in their own ways,
26:56 I think is a way that we're strengthening
26:59 our relationships with the managers and/or agents.
27:02 Yeah, hopefully that answers the question.
27:04 - That's perfect.
27:06 John, you obviously worked a lot with brands
27:09 through your company events and everything else.
27:12 Is it easier now to go to an AT&T
27:14 or a big multinational brand to have them come on board
27:18 as sponsors or your partners or whatever
27:21 than it was five, 10 years ago?
27:23 - Yeah, actually it is.
27:25 And I think the reason for that is because brands
27:29 and their advertising are essentially a reflection
27:32 of us Latinos and US Latinos.
27:36 And everything's become so much more complex,
27:40 but also more sophisticated.
27:43 And as Latinos grow,
27:47 these brands have developed new metric systems
27:50 in order to stay right on par with us Latinos
27:54 that are moving so fast.
27:56 And so the conversations, all those channels are wide open,
28:01 and we get a lot of support.
28:04 I do think brands from around the world,
28:08 they wanna be there.
28:09 They wanna connect with the US Latino.
28:13 I mean, so much that brands from around the world
28:16 are approaching the festival now
28:19 as wanting to participate.
28:20 So it's definitely not an easy thing.
28:23 It takes a lot of conversation with brands,
28:26 but for the most part, the interest is pretty tremendous,
28:30 and we're fortunate in that sense as well.
28:33 - For best, some of you have AT&T,
28:34 but you also have Jarritos and Jalisco, right?
28:36 As your partners?
28:39 - We have a multitude of brands, yeah,
28:42 in almost every category,
28:44 but they are also participating, that is correct.
28:48 - John, do you see Bessame expanding to other cities?
28:53 - I do, yeah, I do.
28:55 I mean, it's not as though
28:59 we would like to simply be everywhere,
29:01 but there are some markets
29:04 that I think would love to see it.
29:08 Again, I refer to the US Latino.
29:10 Our tastes are so similar,
29:12 either because we were born here
29:14 or because we were raised here,
29:16 and we would absolutely love to be in other cities.
29:20 I've been touring throughout my career
29:23 and have an absolute passion
29:25 for extending our reach to other markets.
29:29 I feel like we identify very, very well.
29:32 We have a lot of experience in those markets,
29:34 and with the amazing guys that I work with,
29:38 we're coming up with some good ideas, some good plans,
29:41 but not trying to expand everywhere.
29:43 Just a couple key markets,
29:45 and hopefully just keep having a good time,
29:47 and hopefully the fans keep loving it.
29:50 - Same format?
29:51 - Same format, but we pay attention to the fans.
29:55 Just like Chris said,
29:57 our marketing is directly to the fan,
29:59 and so we know that our fan
30:02 loves all of today's new music,
30:06 and there is a mixture of that.
30:08 So without a doubt,
30:09 our plans are to continue.
30:14 As US Latinos develop their playlists,
30:18 the festivals are a direct correlation of that.
30:21 We're just not doing only new music, which is amazing.
30:24 This is a mixture of what Latinos really are today.
30:28 We love it all.
30:29 - There's a need for that, for what you want, absolutely.
30:33 Alfonso, and "Primavera" is more than a festival.
30:35 Now it's a record label, a radio station,
30:38 a foundation, and everything else.
30:40 What is the strategy of what you would call, in English,
30:43 branching out, leaving your core?
30:46 - Well, our strategy is very clear.
30:50 Basically, the Barcelona festival is still the flagship,
30:53 from which everything else is illuminated.
30:56 Secondly, it's the internationalization
30:57 to be able to maintain that booking power,
31:01 and thirdly, it has to do with what you say,
31:02 which is diversifying the company,
31:05 using the prestige of the "Primavera" brand
31:09 in other areas related to music.
31:11 I also confess that behind that,
31:13 and you were talking about the importance of sponsors,
31:15 the importance of expanding the effect of sponsorship
31:19 beyond the three days of the festival,
31:21 throughout the year.
31:22 That's why tools like the radio,
31:24 the record label, to be able to make content
31:27 with our own talent for the brands,
31:29 so that we can be loyal to those brands
31:32 throughout the year.
31:33 Let's not forget that in this sector,
31:34 we are competing against the world of sports.
31:37 The budgets come out of the same box,
31:40 and they give us a lot of advantage in terms of sponsorship,
31:43 in how they know how to measure and justify
31:46 the return of those investments, which are growing,
31:48 because the level of sponsorship, as I said before,
31:51 is getting higher and higher, because festivals,
31:54 at least as we do, "Primavera Sound",
31:56 no matter how much it's sold out
31:57 and people are drinking beer,
31:59 it's still far from a break-even with the "Sold Out" festival.
32:03 So the importance of sponsors is vital in our case,
32:08 and everything goes beyond justifying the return.
32:11 And as I said, I think we all have a lot to improve on.
32:15 And Daniel, outside Viña del Mar,
32:17 you also have the Talca festival and the Conde Festival,
32:20 and the Conde is associated with Canal 13, right?
32:24 Yes, well, in general,
32:26 both the Viña Festival and the Conde Festival
32:27 and others that we do, are associated with a TV channel.
32:30 In the case of Viña, for example, we have Canal 13 and TVN,
32:34 which, in fact, today we are accompanied by our official hosts,
32:36 Francisco Saavedra and Mario Pérez Ogodoy.
32:38 I ask you for an applause for them,
32:40 who are here with us.
32:41 Viva Chile!
32:43 And the truth is that yes,
32:47 when we do festivals,
32:48 we always go hand in hand with a TV channel.
32:51 We have a very good relationship with most of them,
32:55 and they play a fundamental role,
32:56 because they, as you well mentioned at the beginning of the introduction,
33:01 the Viña Festival, for example, or the Conde Festival,
33:05 is financed in two parts.
33:06 In the case of Viña, with sponsors,
33:08 which is commercialized by the TV channel,
33:11 but also with the other half, which is put by the festival's box office.
33:16 And there I was given the words that Alfonso said.
33:19 The festival, many times, the re-keven is fair,
33:23 and those are the challenges that are faced,
33:25 and there the role of the TV channels,
33:28 of our partners, is key to get there and move forward.
33:34 And also understanding that in the case of Viña we have something very particular,
33:37 which is preserving a heritage,
33:39 which is a heritage of the national culture that must be taken care of,
33:43 because I am 33 years old, but the festival is 63.
33:47 I mean, I am passing, like everyone else,
33:49 but the festival has to continue existing, hopefully for a long time.
33:52 (Applause)
33:55 And since we are talking about Chile,
33:56 but this year, especially, the politics and everything that is happening in Chile,
34:01 the economy, is it affecting the Viña Festival a lot, or not?
34:05 Yes, yes.
34:07 Yes, because there is a dollar issue.
34:10 We sell the boletaria in pesos and collect Chilean pesos,
34:14 and the artist is paid in dollars.
34:16 And the artist thinks that the dollar is rising incredibly,
34:19 and their expenses have increased.
34:21 I mean, today we have the majority of artists traveling by jet,
34:24 a lot of cargo, a lot of pyro, a lot of effects, a lot of lasers.
34:28 So, finally, all of that has been changing the business model,
34:32 and the challenge, as you mentioned, is to make it efficient,
34:38 always maintaining the quality of what we deliver on screen and to the public,
34:41 the Quinta Vergara.
34:44 But without a doubt, every day, and part of that is that we are here today,
34:49 and part of that is that we have signed an agreement with Billboard
34:52 that allows the festival to continue growing and expanding in audience
34:56 throughout the world, and showing the quality of many artists for that purpose.
35:02 But the festival was broadcast in the United States before.
35:04 I remember that Univision broadcasted the festival here.
35:06 Yes.
35:07 Now, it's not.
35:08 No, what has happened with time is that, as a result of the pandemic,
35:10 the pandemic has changed many things,
35:12 and one of the things that has changed is that the festival
35:14 has been able to be broadcasted for two years,
35:16 because we were under government restrictions.
35:20 And that caused many of the TV stations that broadcast
35:24 to put other content on their screens,
35:27 and the Viña Festival, to put it openly, was displaced from there.
35:32 But today, we are here with that mission of recovering that space
35:36 that does not only belong to Viña, but to Latin culture
35:39 within the television channels in the United States or around the world.
35:43 Thank you.
35:44 Chris, where do you see Latin festivals here in the U.S.
35:47 three to five years from now?
35:49 Any predictions that you may have about Latin festivals?
35:53 More growth? Less?
35:55 Are they going to contract if there's too many of them?
35:57 Where do you see us three to five years from now?
36:01 I think just evolving.
36:02 I don't think it's going anywhere.
36:04 I think that, just like any genre of music, trends bubble up, they pop,
36:09 and they kind of disperse down, and they grow back up again.
36:13 So for me, we never actually had intentions of ever coming to the United States.
36:18 We thought that Baja Beach Fest was our USA footprint.
36:22 We were going to expand in Mexico, because we felt there was a really big need
36:25 to bring A-tier festival quality in that market.
36:31 That was very inclusive.
36:34 In the U.S., when we launched Sueños, it was incredible feedback.
36:39 We did 45,000 people per day first year, and we had no idea what we were going to do.
36:46 We were just blown away.
36:48 To go into this year and see that grow, there's a huge, huge need for consumption,
36:53 but it's completely different.
36:54 We're learning every single day that what we need to challenge ourselves is
36:58 that we don't need to separate ourselves anymore from saying we have an inclusive
37:02 Latin festival versus a multi-genre festival.
37:05 Now what we're seeing is we need to actually create a--how do I say it?
37:13 We need to create a bunch of different styles of Latin music in our festival
37:19 to continue to evolve and not be just linear.
37:22 It cannot just be reggaeton.
37:24 It cannot just be Mexican regional.
37:26 I think that's where we started, right?
37:28 It was like, let's celebrate this one subtype.
37:30 But for it to continue to expand outside of these very nostalgic shows like
37:35 Beso Mi Mucho, which I think has done an incredible job of hitting a lot of
37:40 nostalgic sounds, and now it sounds like bringing in more of the sub-today sounds.
37:44 So I think you're seeing the same feedback that I'm seeing, right?
37:46 It's this we really have to just keep expanding.
37:50 We're really lucky as promoters.
37:52 If you're very connected to your fan, to John's point,
37:56 it's really just relationships at the end of the day.
37:58 Our fans drive everything, and then my incredible team creates that experience
38:04 that the fans come to.
38:06 I think USA is just scratching the surface.
38:09 We just got to listen.
38:10 You work U.S. and Mexico more than a lot of other folks.
38:14 How similar or how different are the audiences in Mexico and the U.S.?
38:19 Mexico City's the loudest fan base in the world.
38:22 Wow.
38:23 If you've never been to a Mexico City show--
38:25 Careful with Argentina.
38:27 I don't know.
38:29 But I would say Mexico City has the loudest fans.
38:33 My ears are ringing every time I leave a show.
38:38 I think what I've learned is that out of all the festivals I do,
38:42 Baja Beach Fest has the most gratitude.
38:46 What I mean by that is I think that it was the most underserved market
38:52 that was the West Coast of the United States for so long.
38:57 I think that people just celebrate that that one time a year they can go to the beach
39:02 and celebrate culture on the white sand with no limits and still feel safe.
39:09 I would say, as a funny thing, very loud, I would say the other things are the economic differences
39:14 are very real.
39:16 And the challenge is I don't like to do events without it being at the same quality across the board.
39:22 And so costs similar, but you get less.
39:28 You get less.
39:29 We're being told that we're almost out of time.
39:31 Maybe just one or two questions if you guys have them.
39:34 [Speaking Spanish]
39:39 Are there any questions or are we all cool?
39:43 Sir in the back.
39:48 Check, check, check.
39:49 So how would--
39:50 [Speaking Spanish]
39:54 Would you consider all four of you collaborating in a single festival?
39:58 I most definitely would.
40:00 I mean, these guys are total studs.
40:04 I would love to, and I think that even just being up here and listening to them talk,
40:09 and realizing the different ideas, the different mentalities, but also everything in common,
40:16 nothing couldn't go wrong with that.
40:20 Okay, I have an idea for you guys.
40:22 Let's do it.
40:23 All right.
40:25 Anybody else?
40:27 [Speaking Spanish]
40:31 Front row.
40:35 [Speaking Spanish]
40:36 Whatever's best.
40:37 [Speaking Spanish]
40:39 [Speaking Spanish]
40:54 [Speaking Spanish]
41:18 I'll speak on my behalf.
41:20 Believe it or not, a lot of those artists are actually invited.
41:24 So we love them.
41:25 We get it.
41:27 Our fans love them.
41:29 I don't know if anyone's going to mind that I even say this, but those artists are actually trying to do that instead.
41:38 Great.
41:39 I hope it's great.
41:41 I personally love to be true to our core fans.
41:45 I think that's where it's at.
41:47 If something's going wrong with crossing over, I think it takes a very special artist to be able to cross over.
41:53 So at least on my behalf, every single one of those artists that you might be thinking of has been invited,
42:01 and they may or may not have said yes.
42:03 I really encourage you to do that.
42:06 We have experience.
42:07 I mean, I personally remember in 2019 when we did J Balvin as a headliner of Primavera Sound.
42:14 That was really crazy.
42:16 If someone told me that 10 years ago, it would be absolutely impossible.
42:20 But somehow we felt responsible of the walls that we built between Latin sounds and the Anglo sounds that we are more accustomed to.
42:29 We were responsible to break that, and we wait for the correct opportunity.
42:34 In our opinion, that record of J Balvin, "Vibras," was the perfect moment to break the wall.
42:40 And right now, we feel so comfortable.
42:43 Still, at that moment, many fans of Primavera Sound, they were not really happy about that decision.
42:48 Today, they understand, and I feel very proud about that day because everything changed at that moment.
42:56 So I really encourage you to do it the other way around because people love this kind of thing,
43:01 and also love the collapse, as he mentioned.
43:04 So really open to that.
43:06 We good? Everything fine?
43:11 I know you guys have a break now that you need to go.
43:13 Oh, one more from the lady right here, the beautiful lady right here.
43:17 [Spanish]
43:26 [Spanish]
43:30 Anyway, [Spanish]
43:40 [Spanish]
43:44 You, the Danish guy, I forget your name.
43:47 But anyway, you should think in Texas, too, to do something like you do in Baja and all your festivals in Mexico City and all that.
43:55 By the way, Houston has become now officially the second largest Latino market in the U.S. over L.A.
44:01 Sorry, over New York. It's Houston. The future is Houston. You're right.
44:06 And for you, Mr. Spanish, I forget your name.
44:10 [Spanish]
44:20 [Spanish]
44:27 Are we, any other questions before you guys go?
44:32 One more, one more. This is the last one, because you guys need to go on break.
44:36 You guys need a coffee break.
44:38 [Spanish]
44:57 [Spanish]
45:03 Okay, well, Alfonso, [Spanish]
45:08 Chris, great seeing you. John, great. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
45:13 [BLANK_AUDIO]