Rock is still alive. It is difficult to recognize him without applause, or pogo, or shouts of encouragement or the voice of the public overcoming that of the singers, but the covid-19 pandemic forces him to adapt away from the crowds. On its 20th anniversary, the Cosquín Rock, born in the Cordoba mountains, in central Argentina, was going to cross the Atlantic for the first time to land in Spain. Canceled due to the prevention measures against the coronavirus, this weekend it reappears in cyberspace, with 70 bands from all over Latin America. From empty concert halls to thousands of screens. In countries where quarantine no longer applies, fans may hang out to dance in houses or bars. In those where meetings are forbidden, the experience is even more distant than usual.
“I can't listen to you, but I ask you, how are you doing?” Asks the Argentine Malena Villa in the presentation of her album La Negación live from La Trastienda, one of the four venues in Buenos Aires set up for the festival. “Gracias Cosquiiiiín”, says goodbye Gonzalo Farfán, the leader of the Peruvian hardcore punk band Inyectores.
It starts at five in the afternoon. The music will play until midnight, a restricted schedule, which seems to be in line with those imposed by the pandemic in the bars of those provinces of Argentina where they have reopened. “We had to take into account the time difference with the different countries,” says general producer José Palazzo on the eve of the festival. In Spain it is five hours more than in Argentina. In Santiago de Chile, one hour less; in Mexico City, two.
“We called our partners from Colombia, Spain, Mexico, the United States, Paraguay and we said: 'Che, are you joining? Do they convince artists to play from their countries and the spirit of the festival can spread? ' It started small and ended up being this madness, with 70 artists playing, the biggest of this moment in the world. Without wanting to, we ended up making a monster ”, says Palazzo, creator of Cosquín Rock.
Over the months, more and more artists have been encouraged to give live shows from their homes or studios. But organizing a festival in the middle of a pandemic requires logistics marked by rigid health protocols. The main stages have to be disinfected between band and band, which forces to alternate live shows from there with others from different countries and some recorded beforehand. Among the latter is Eruca Sativa - due to the pregnancy of the singer, Lula Bertoldi, like Ximena Sariñana - or the Cubans Toque del Río - "due to the poor connectivity of the island," Palazzo justifies. “From the height of La Paz to their houses”, Los Bolitas greet the festival's spectators.
There is no risk that the one in front will cover the stage, or receive a stomp, or that some of the group will want to go to the front row and others will be overwhelmed by the crowd and prefer to go back. Nor the possibility of exchanging glances or starting a conversation with any stranger who is nearby, but instead of doing it, via chat, with some who are listening to the same song thousands of kilometers away through the Cosquín Rock platform.
“Temazo”, several write when the first chords of Ya no sos equal , by the band are heard 2 minutes from the mythical Luna Park stadium. "After the pandemic nothing is the same," says Mosca Velázquez, addressed to the public that follows him behind a screen, without realizing that many criticize the frequent drops in the connection, which force them to switch from one camera to another to let the music return. "We did not make the cameraman dance," laments the vocalist of 2 Minutes. "This is very rare," he admits in the final stretch of the show before a silent audience. "The Galicians are very good", "Cracks", "Wow", "Hold on", praise rained down by chat to the Spanish Izal during the concert broadcast from his studio. "Stop hitting, che, distance please," jokes another.
As a pilot test, about 125,000 people connected a week ago to see the Pericos New Friends show that the band performed from La Trastienda. The organizers trust that Cosquín Rock will at least double that figure. “In the sound checks you can see happy faces as if we were coming back from a war, from assistants and technicians who were months without working. We cannot hug each other, although we are not lacking in enthusiasm, but we nudge each other very hard ”, Palazzo describes the work environment in the previous days, without ignoring the strangeness of the musicians when imagining themselves performing without an audience.
Cyrus and the Persians, headliner
Ciro y Los Persas, the band born in 2009 after the separation of Los Piojos, will close Cosquín Rock tonight from Luna Park and tomorrow there will be a double farewell: the Mexicans Molotov and the Argentines He killed a motorized policeman. Although rock remains the protagonist, the festival continues the opening of genres that began years ago and thus León Gieco is programmed between Trueno, winner of the last Argentinean Battle of Gallos, and the rapper La Joaqui. The Mexican Julieta Venegas, the Argentine Miss Bolivia and Sara Hebe and the Uruguayan Julieta Rada are part of the growing female participation of the festival, promoted by the quota law approved in 2019 and which requires the inclusion of at least 30% of female artists.
There will only be rock. The comedians Guille Aquino and Dalia Gutmann will perform stand-up shows and the writer Hernán Casicari and the philosopher Darío Sztajnszrajber, among others, are also invited.
Cosquín Rock also planned to hold a festival in Buenos Aires in November, but that possibility seems increasingly remote as the pandemic accelerates in Argentina, with more than 7,000 positive cases per day, mostly in the capital and its outskirts. Even so, both the artists and the producer trust that the rockers will accompany them again when possible: “We, as show businessmen, have the responsibility to generate protocols so that people are safe and that they can lose their fear. I don't think we are close, but I hope that we can gradually return ”.
“The cultural industry is in check. There are going to be many parking lots where there were cultural centers, many greengrocers where there were bars and there will be bakers or delivery men from Rappi and Glovo who could have been music mega-stars but they will not be able to endure all this stop ”, predicts Palazzo. However, he stresses, as much as none of the previous Argentine crises resemble this one, they do make it a little easier to reinvent itself.