“What we bring to the Med Festival is all the strength of Afro-Caribbean music, all the power of the African root, what is the Colombian Caribbean, with the power of drums,” says Edgardo Garcés of the group Ghetto Kumbé and one of the highlights of the upcoming festival.
The Med Festival takes place from June 30 to July 3 and will feature 90 hours of music, 66 concerts on 12 stages spread across the city of Loulé, in southern Portugal, about 200 kilometers from the capital Lisbon.
“Happy to be at the Med Festival for the first time, it makes it very special, we are going to see the reaction of the people, we are going to connect with people and the idea is to put together a drum ritual” said Edgardo, known by the alias of El Guajiro, through the telephone line from Casteluovo di porto, Italy.
Ghetto Kumbé, which brings electronics and drumming together, closes the evening that begins on Friday, July 1 on the Matriz stage in the colonial area of Loulé and ends the next day. The Colombian trio takes the stage at 2:15 in the morning.
Founded at the end of 2014, Ghetto Kumbé is made up of Juan Carlos Puello (El Chongo) and Andrés Mercado (Doctor Keyta) who supply the beat of charming percussion along with the electronic and techno sounds provided by Edgardo Garcés. This latter is also responsible for the visual part of the group. El Chongo and El Guajiro come with a lot of musical experience through groups like Sidestepper, Totó La Momposina, Onda Tropical and Petrona Martínez, among others.
Loulé will be on the spotlight
The city of Loulé, located in the south of Portugal and which is part of the municipality of Algarve, opens its arms and prepares to receive thousands of visitors. For a few days, Loulé, with a population of 70 thousand people, will steal the spotlight from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.
The placid and quiet life of this city will cease for four days with the MED 2022 Festival, in its eighteenth edition. The festival celebrates culture, gastronomy, the arts and especially music, in this city.
The Med Festival is a dream come true for those who love music that emanates from Portuguese-speaking countries, above all. It is also for those who have an inclination for music from other corners of the world and who, under the labels of Music of the World, offer us a very diverse range of musical possibilities.
In this edition of Festival Med, we will not only enjoy musicians from Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde and Angola such as Creatura, Nancy Vieira, Aline Frazão and Johnny Hooker. Artists from other musical worlds will parade, including Bombino (Niger), Chico Trujillo (Chile) and Jupiter & Okwess (Congo). Likewise, six jazz concerts with important artists from Europe are scheduled.
Ghetto Kumbé, who is in the middle of a tour of Europe, will play for the second time in Portugal to show the material from their albums and will have other great surprises.
Blending traditional and contemporary Afro-Colombian sounds
Talking about the group’s history, Edgardo talks about the “Soy Selva” project, their second EP, which, according to “El Guajiro”, was born a little out of the fury and rage that all Colombians experienced as a result of the social protests that began at the end of the 2019 in various geographical points of Colombia.
For this reason, behind the festive spirit of the Ghetto Kumbé proposal, there is also a social reflection of a Colombia anxious for change.
A song for which the public feels very identified, like “Waré Warriors”, boasts a galloping dance rhythm that presents the social conditions of Colombian indigenous people in the Guajira Peninsula.
“In this song, for example, we include instruments from the indigenous Wayuú culture, such as a drum and a mouth harp. The message is very important, the indigenous people, as well as many Colombians, have been forgotten and their rights blocked”, says El Guajiro.
“Soy Selva”, the EP where this song is from, reflects the frustration of those times and the desire for changes in the country,” emphasizes Edgardo. “It’s kind of a catharsis.” This interview took place days before the historic election of candidate Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez to the presidency and vice-presidency of the country, who bring a ray of hope to a country marked by great inequalities, violence and injustice.
By November 9 of this year, the Colombian trio will have their new album, their fourth, entitled “Ghetto Kumbé Clubbing Remixes”, on the ZZK Records label produced by Colombian producer Montoya who has lived in Italy for 20 years.
“We are three coastal individuals (from the towns of Santa Marta, Cartagena, La Guajira) who arrived in the city (Bogotá) and who bring masks, drums, traditions, ours is a ritual ceremony, it is more than a concert, it is an experience”, concludes El Guajiro.
More information:
Festival Med: festivalmed.pt/en/
Loulé:
More about Ghetto Kumbé
Author: Rafael Mieses
