A music festivals that lets locals assist select the bands and mixes rising native bands with stars

It’s nonetheless months away, however Eclectico Music Fest is gearing up for January in Jocotepec once more. I say gearing up as a result of the Fb Posts and the movies are already circulating.  (see my story in Lakeside Information January 12 concerning the final pageant https://bit.ly/3Q0rAxM). 

The Eclectico Music Fest will not be fairly your standard pageant. The organizers usher in headliners, after all, but additionally mid-level artists and excellent native bands. Plus, they arrange the schedule in order that artists can speak collectively and play collectively – from the nationwide stage gamers, like Vampiro final yr, to extremely gifted native bands which might be simply starting to rise above the noise. The result’s thrilling. There are units, however there’s additionally a kind of an ongoing jam session. The headliners play their units like in any pageant, however the members then be part of the opposite bands, different band members be part of them, they bring about on mates and blend it up.

The organizers additionally combine up genres – Rock in Espanol, ska, pop, nation, regional Mexican music,  and tributes. The viewers ranges from babes in arms to abuelas and abuelos (grandparents), and is on the final evening of a multiday celebration of Jocotepec’ s patron Saint so just about each demographic of the 40,000 inhabitants city is there.  

One of many different elements of the Eclectico Music Fest is that the promoters embrace the general public within the choice of the native bands. Locals can vote for native bands. This fives native bands not solely the chance for extra native publicity, however the alternative  to satisfy prime stage artists and producers who can, in the event that they like, assist increase their careers. And it provides them bragging rights.

Since there are just a few months to go earlier than the Eclectico Music, will probably be a while earlier than an enormous push for native bands is obvious, however I want to suggest an area band that has discovered traction nationally – Mary’s Island. The four-piece Ajijic-based band has over 120,000 streams on Spotify and over 1000 month-to-month listeners – they’ve made the preliminary threshold of traction within the music world – 100,000 streams and 1000 a month listeners on the world’s largest music platform. And they’re additionally on iTunes and Apple Music. We’ll see in the event that they hit the following milestones – 1 million streams and 10,000 month-to-month listeners, however on the charge they’re going and releasing new songs, I feel they may.

They’ve additionally crossed one other milestone, professionally produced scripted movies, particularly for his or her most up-to-date music, Away From Paris. Many bands put up edited movies of reside performances and even good selfmade scripted tales of themselves, however scripting, appearing, capturing and enhancing a professionally produced nicely scripted video for a music is one other stage, and Mary’s Island’s newest effort – directed by band chief Fernadra Parra – has been completed superbly, constructing on the band’s expertise making  their earlier video for the music “23”.

So, Mary’s Island has the musical chops, the rising viewers, the video assortment, the unique songs to rise above the noise of 60,000 songs a day posted to Spotify. They’re going about it the correct means – constructing a robust native viewers with covers and unique songs, working very laborious, taking part in each probability they get, coming into contests just like the one on the C3 Upstairs in Guadalajara, and selling with merchandise. And they’re bilingual, to allow them to crossover simply to the massive market within the US. A great selection for the Eclectic Music Fest. 

After I get voting particulars, I’ll submit them right here. Within the meantime, try Mary’s Island on Spotify and YouTube. Patrick O’Heffernan