accustomed to liturgypromotional gia of most festivalsand to the mantra of record attendance figures, the case of the Vida Festival continues to draw attention, a place that has reached its 9th edition and remains faithful to his quiet ideals. Anti-festival festival, with sweet transit between stages and a stable number of attendees: this year it expects to be around, or close to, 10,000 in each of its three days. They do not want more, they assure.
The slogan of these days in the Masia d’en Cabanyes, in Vilanova i La Geltrú, is “system error”, with luminous letters, such as a severe amendment to our civilization. Is everything going wrong, except the Vida Festival? It may not be such a big deal, but the show has built a kind of oasis, a bit of a ‘new age’ bubble, into which it fitted gently and sympathetically, on the opening day this Thursday, Julieta Venegas’ songbook. It is not that the Mexican sings of economic decline, but a familiar, spiritually close melody can be noticed in her musical craftsmanship, her integration of folklore into the pop canon, her pre-Fourth Wave feminist lyrical background. At the age of 52, Venegas has become an inspiring muse for singers in the Hispanic world, beginning with her countrymen Natalia Lafourcade and Carla Morrison.
In first person
came to the festival loaded with a beautiful album, ‘Your story‘, released last fall (after a seven-year hiatus), of which it ran through eight songs, intertwined with titles from other times, and featuring an awake trio. Material that he composed in pandemic times, interior and somewhat vindictive, with a lot of first person and a very advanced synthesis of pop instinct and his traditional fondness. There was the opening piece, ‘Tell me the truth‘, trotton and colorful, and the crossover of synthesizers and accordion that brought ‘En tu orilla’ (sort of praise of sentimental memory beyond calamitous endings, inspired by a poem by Chilean Raúl Zurita). Songs with slender melodic lines and danceable drifts: the disco-funk of ‘Mismo amor’.
Another “scornful & rdquor;
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AND letters with quarrelsome keys, like ‘Walking alone’, the darkest. “A song about the fear that women feel when we go out on the streets alone, and about taking that fact for granted,” said Venegas, inviting reflection “to the men we have close”. And what to say about ‘Despechada mexicana’ (nothing to do with Rosalía): a song that she wrote “a little angry & rdquor ;, she let it be known, that she was inspired by the arts of José Alfredo and his“ beloved & rdquor; Juan Gabriel, and who slipped conclusive verses: “I have to pamper myself and take care of myself, and make love to myself / I have to love myself & rdquor ;.
Smiling atmosphere in Vida, and spontaneous dance scenes, all spurred on by the insinuation of a familiar tune, and there were not a few: ‘Slow’, ‘I saw you’, ‘Part of me’… Milestones from other times, such as ‘Walk with me’, which she presented as an emblem of “quite the opposite& rdquor; of the spiteful drive, ‘I’m leaving’. But, before saying goodbye, he did not want to leave any loose ends and returned to the new material and the central theme, ‘Your story’, with its challenging psychoanalysis: “let your past be part of you / proudly carry your mistakes & rdquor ;, he asked us with that voice that without being dazzling responds to what he needs each of his songsand it was a beautiful way to start the festival.