It’s called Rock al Parque. ‘Rock in the Park’.
Rock al Parque happens once a year over three days in Simon Bolivar Park, Bogota, Colombia.
Rock al Parque is Latin America’s biggest free music festival – put on by the Colombian government.
Rock al Parque is not just rock music. Yes there are rock bands, but also metal bands, reggae/dub bands, gypsy bands, Latin music bands and more, and of course bands playing music that is a fusion of all of the above genres and more. The line-up is a reflection of the diversity that is Colombia.
2013 was my third time at Rock al Parque. This year I managed to get to the festival on Sunday and Monday nights. That was definitely enough for me. Although the line-up generally includes a huge number of talented international and Colombian bands, being in the festival environment that is Rock al Parque itself is hard work.
Imagine a huge park – bigger than Central Park in New York. Imagine a wet park – it rains a lot in Bogota. Imagine it is cold. Imagine tens of thousands of people (120,000 on day one they say) moving about, not really engaging socially with one another except for the people they’ve come with. Imagine having almost nowhere to sit and relax. The closest festival venue comparison I can think of is the Byron Bay Blues Fest in Australia – but with less seating, more people, and two frisk searches by police on entry. Rock al Parque is hard work.
Despite the effort it takes to be there, there is always good music to be found, and I managed to find some very wacky and unique contemporary bands worthy of mention – Bambarabanda – Dubioza Kolektiv – Pulenta – and a not so wacky, but a legendary one – Living Colour.
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Rock al Parque is just one of countless musical and other artistic events that were happening in Bogota over the weekend. Same goes for all throughout the year really – including the other government funded festivals Salsa al Parque, Hip Hop al Parque and Jazz al Parque. It is hard not to be in a constant state of sleep deprivation in a city like this where the musical (and other arts) feasts on offer are seemingly abundant.
I wonder if Los Bogotanos appreciate how lucky they are to have all of it at their finger tips?