Cinco de Mayo Fanta Festival

This past Sunday, the Latin American Coalition and Coca-Cola put on the third annual Fanta Festival in Charlotte. Celebrating Cinco de Mayo, an estimated 25,000+ people listened to bands playing banda, norteno, cumbia, and other regional Mexican styles with even a little bachata and merengue mixed in. They also enjoyed a cultural stage, featuring folkloric dancing and mariachis, food and craft vendors, a kid's zone, and sponsors' tents.

Besides the Latin American Festival, this was perhaps the most important part of my field study so far. Since January, I have been helping Tony at the Latin American Coalition organize the event. We fretted over logistics like how to set up the tents on the festival field, getting parking for the festival attendees, and dealing with the Department of Health's food inspection rules. We debated who would be the best musical acts to book and then tried to convince them to play for cheap in Charlotte on one of the most popular weekends for Mexican music festivals. I organized the non-profit and small business sponsor part of the festival, gathering names and then harassing them until every last one had paid. This festival is, after all, a fundraiser for the Coalition, and one of the main ways they raise funds to keep their operations running to provide services for the Latino community in Charlotte. And in the last few days before the festival, we worked our tails off preparing and hoped it wouldn't rain, checking the weather forecasts every twenty minutes.

Finally, the day of the festival arrived; at the crack of dawn I was at the park, making sure things ran as smoothly as possible. There was a minor disaster when a truck with a trailer, delivering a NASCAR car, got stuck going up a steep hill near the back entrance to the festival. This cut off incoming traffic to one of the entrances for over an hour until we were able to get the truck out of the way. Then, the opening band showed up late, forcing the stage manager (me) to switch bands around so we wouldn't fall too far behind schedule. But we rolled with the punches, and things kept moving, lots of people came out on a scorching hot day in May, and we experienced no more major problems.

At the end, I was exhausted and a little startled to realize how much work I put into something that lasted just a few hours and went by in a blur. But it was worth it to get a behind-the-scenes look at how a music festival works and to really participate in making it happen.

Here are some photos of the Fanta Festival with commentary:

Tony says lets get this party started!



The stage pre-festival-



The Coca-Cola World Cup logo (or, will Mexico's selection survive the first round?)



Sidebar: I sent my brother to a similar festival in Atlanta the same day and he remarked about how corporate it seemed. I will include a section in my dissertation about corporate sponsorship, festivals, and music. A neccesary evil? Selling out? The true definition of popular music? Worshipping at the money tree? Irrelevant?

The first band that played, Banda Pachuco, hails from Los Angeles. Que viva el Zoot Suit!




Bachata Flow was supposed to open the festival, but they showed up late, so they went on second. The musicians also played back up for another local group, Sexo, Sudor y Risa later in the day.



One of the celebrity appearances was by Ana Maria Canseco of Univision's "Despierta America." Everybody wanted to have their picture taken with her, including one of the backstage volunteers.



My favorite group of the day was Los Mentirosos. Upcoming blog entry, an exposition of how Dusty Springfield's " I will follow you" became Luis Miguel's "Ahora te puedes marchar," which Los Mentirosos cover in a banda duranguense style.



This drum is money, son!



Here's looking at you, kid.



A picture with the band.



The next group was Salazar Band.




The Carolina Panthers brought their mascot and a cheerleader to the festival.



By the late afternoon, the crowd had grown quite large. Imagine driving a golf cart with a failing engine and loaded with bags of ice through the crowd. I did it three times, but I had to get several volunteers to walk in front of me and clear a path to get to the other side of the field.



Ruben led the audience in a call for comprehensive immigration reform.



Banda Tecno Caliente really got the crowd moving. Leydy Bonilla joined them for a song, a key moment of the show that I missed. I think I was taking a food break.




The Latin American Coalition staff went onstage to ask for donations.



Aliados de la Sierra closed out the festival.