Festival de La Leyenda Vallenata
Folk Music Aficionados and Tourists Descend on Valledupar
Rey de Reyes - King of Kings - this year's 40th Vallenato Music Festival in Valledupar promises to be an unforgettable celebration of Colombian folkloric tradition
From April 26 – 30 the streets of Valledupar will be crammed to bursting point with Vallenato music lovers and visitors to this monumental event, 2007 the Rey de Reyes. Colombian television and radio networks will be broadcasting the full event live and this year, being the 40th anniversary of the Festival, it has been reported that all hotels are booked to full capacity. The competitions promise to be of stellar quality as competitors not only want to get their hands on the coveted prize money but realise the status and security that winning in this Festival means.
Importance of Vallenato Music
In a country famed for its musical style and unstoppable rhythms it would appear unusual that this folk music has an established fan base that spans the generations. Perhaps it is the variety of traditional rhythms that a Vallenato group plays Merengue, Paseo, Puya and Son that attracts such crowds. You are just as likely to see urban middle class teenagers dancing to Vallenato as an elderly rural campesino. This fact is proven by blaring Vallenato beats on public buses that hurtle through the countryside, chickens and all, and the long lines of Bogotano youngsters waiting to enter Vallenato clubs such as La Trampa in Bogotá’s Chapinero district.
Vallenato, Part of the Colombian Psyche
Vallenato music strikes a chord in the Colombian psyche. Typically a group consists of 4 people, the Accordion, the Caja, the Guacharaca and the Vocalist. It is the mixture and the symbolism of the three instruments that draws in a certain mysticism and provides a cultural identity in the pre and post colonial experience in Colombia.
Representation of the Instruments
The Accordion represents the European influence in the music and of course in Colombia itself. The Accordion arrived on these shores towards the end of the 18th Century via the pirates and merchants with whom the music was popular. The Caja is a tightly fastened drum that would not look out of place in an African ceremony and indeed, strengthening the music’s African ties, the Vallenato group has to play Merengue – a word descended from Muserengue, one of the African cultures transported to the new world by slaves from Guinea. Finally, the Guacharaca, best described as an Indigenous instrument that produces a sound as if one were to rub a spoon along a cheese grater.
Be Prepared for Crowds!
The people of Valledupar are bracing themselves for the deluge of visitors and are preparing spare rooms to rent out as well as making space in their gardens for those who wish to camp. In 2006, 85,000 people attended the 39th Festival but this year promises to blow that out of the water with internationally renowned Colombian stars and a variety of Colombian celebrities making the journey to the Cesar department.
It was recently announced that Carlos Vives, Elvis Crespo and Wilfrido Vargas will be performing and that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and former Presidents, Andres Pastrana, Ernesto Samper, Cesar Gaviria and Belisario Betancur will be attending the inauguration of the Festival.
For more information see festivalvallenato.com
See how the Festival ends...
