Vive Latino 2017

For Rosalía's birthday last year I gave her a handmade voucher for a day at a luxury spa in Stockholm (i.e. I scribbled on a bit of paper that I promised to take her to said spa at some unspecified point in the near future). Heavily pregnant at the time, I thought a relaxing day with saunas, jacuzzis and massages would be just what she needed to alleviate the strain. Unfortunately we discovered shortly afterwards that pregnancy and jacuzzis don't mix well, so I naively suggested we could simply wait until after the baby was born, palm it off on some friends for a day and hop over to Stockholm to fulfill the birthday promise. Shows how little idea I had of what having a baby would actually be like. 

One year later on the other side of the world and with the voucher still unused, it was time once again for me to think of a birthday present. I figured this time it had to be something with a limited expiry date, and hit upon the idea of concert tickets: it was about time we started taking advantage of the wealth of cultural delights that Mexico City has to offer. After a bit of Googling I came across Vive Latino, an annual rock music festival celebrating its 18th edition in Mexico City. The line up for this year was mouthwatering, featuring several of the biggest Spanish-language artists in the world: Babasónicos, Enanitos Verdes, Hombres G, Jarabe de Palo, Julieta Venegas, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, and Zoé. I must admit that I'm still a relative newcomer to the rock en español scene, having grown up on a strict diet of late 90s/early 00s British indie rock, and it's entirely possible there were other huge bands playing that I hadn't even heard of. 

Already chuffed with myself for finding such a surefire hit gift, I was then faced with a tricky choice: the festival would play out over two days and I'd have to choose which one to attend. Whilst it would have been great to spend a whole weekend pretending to be 18 again, financial and parental realities meant that I was forced into picking Saturday or Sunday. It was Babásonicos vs Zoé, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs vs Julieta Venegas--Argentina vs Mexico, basically. I suppose there was always only going to be one winner. The first match was pretty much a tie for me, I'm a big fan of both Babásonicos' catchy rock (try this one out for size: Pijamas) and Zoé's batshit crazy lyrics (see No Me Destruyas). In match two Los Fabulosos Cadillacs are, according to Wikipedia no less, "one of the most influential and most-referenced rock bands of the Latin rock world". Like many of the rock en español bands I've come across, there's a strong hint of ska about their sound, and while I certainly appreciate some of their classic tunes (Vasos Vacíos for example), it's ultimately not really my cup of tea. I prefer Julieta Venegas' smart singer-songwriter pop-rock (here's one: Algo Esta Cambiando). I was even inspired to record my own extremely lo-fi version of one of her most famous songs: Me Voy.

We arrived mid-afternoon on the Sunday, and quickly set about getting ourselves fed and watered. 

Satiated, we began following the throngs towards a nearby stage and got ourselves in position to finally enjoy some music.

At this point in time I still hadn't really grasped the scale of the event. I assumed we were at the main stage, and started planning how to make our way further forwards for the bigger acts later in the evening. Rosalía had mentioned several times how huge Vive Latino was; my first impression was that it was amateur hour compared so some of the big festivals I've been to in the UK. All the same, while waiting for the next band to come on we went off to explore the rest of the site until we stumbled across this:

The penny finally dropped: there were tens upon tens of thousands of people there. Part of my misunderstanding had been that I thought the venue, known as Foro Sol, was just a sports stadium; in fact, it's more like a complex of various stadia and concert arenas built inside a Formula One race course. That explained why I was walking on concrete track rather than a dusty field. 

We arrived at the real main stage just in time to see Los Enanitos Verdes, yet another Argentinian rock group, whose most famous tune Lamento Boliviano with its classic refrain "Yo estoy aquí, borracho y loco" is obligatorily sung late into the night at any respectable latino party and is a guaranteed festival crowd-pleaser. Unhappy with the sound quality from the special section up in the bleachers our "platinum" tickets entitled us access to, we moved down into the crowd about halfway through and stayed there the rest of the evening, hopping every now and then between the main stage and the nearby second stage.

We managed to see all the bands we wanted to see, nobody disappointed, the whole evening was a big success. There were similarities to British festivals: the beer prices were extortionate, the toilets were grim; and there were differences: rather than having to actually go to a bar to get a drink, you could just accost one of the dozens of waiters moving tenaciously through the crowd at any one moment with arms stretched directly above the head, carrying precarious-looking trays of pre-poured pints:  

And that was just the start of it; you could also hail down a pizza, a hamburger, a soup (who the hell eats soup in the middle of a festival crowd?). As the night went on many of the beer carriers switched it up to mezcal (easier to carry with tired arms). 

We left elated and ready to drop when Zoé finally departed the main stage after a rousing set of their greatest hits, walked what seemed like an eternity to get far enough away from the masses to be able to order an Uber, and crashed into bed well after 1am. I can't tell you if it was 2am or 3am or even 4am when the baby started crying; I guess it doesn't really make any difference. But we'll both remember Vive Latino 2017 as a special experience, where for a few hours at least we could just relax, have fun, and listen to some great music. 

Let's just hope that by next year's birthday I don't still have the spa day voucher hanging over my head.