Do you know when you feel that a concert or festival is absolutely justified? Do you know when you look the revolution in the eye, so deep inside, that the feeling that something is changing excites you? From March 24 to 26, the anti-racist festival was held in the capital of Bizkaia Damba Fest, an initiative located in the Bilborock room that is celebrating its second edition. Pushed by the Angolan rapper Betto Snay, the festival transcends in the fight for the inclusion of the migrant community in the conventional music circuits. At the same time, it aims to make visible the music created by the racialized community and born in Bilbao, especially the people residing in the San Francisco neighborhood.
The family nature of this festival is a strategic fact since the fight against racism is the responsibility of racially privileged artists and attendees who have been invited to take sides and act. «We want to make diversity visible as it deserves. Neither white nor black, a Bilbao of people» Snay clarifies in the presentation. “Migrant people want to occupy spaces for people who were born here” and for this they also need non-racialized people.
The artistic pillar of Damba Fest II it was music but also dance and theater. During the three days, culture was represented in various artistic disciplines from an Afro, Latino and international perspective. The first hour of Friday was poor. understandable and unavoidable. He Dj SlimDaze encourage attendees with mashups of different electronic currents seasoned with tribal genres. Another constant of the festival was the irundarra dance company Afrodelicious directed by Raquel Coroma who shone in the first performances with the solemnity of Billie Holiday but also in the second, the spaces between concerts and revolutionized the dance floor. Afrodelicious is a project focused on obtaining scholarships so that young migrants who want to dance and do not have resources can do so. The Afrobeat dance current was one of the most interesting prolongations of the festival with highly qualitative, sensitive and hypnotic performances rooted in the root sounds of the African people fused with contemporary rhythms.
After the different opening stimuli, the rapper enters the stage from the audience Denjah Man with some sound difficulties but managing to warm up the public. This artist was one of the surprises of the festival since he was not on the poster. Next to Slimdaze She performed several songs, of which her latest release “Como ella” stood out. Betto Snay joins the rapper and confesses that in this second edition, the Damba Fest he wants to position himself: «We are going to continue giving voice to people who sing with their hearts». The line up of the festival was accentuated in the figure of Mad Muasel, the Bilbao rapper who has set a benchmark on the local scene and obviously among women rappers. She becomes strong on the stage accompanied by a dancer or shadow metaphor that complements her repertoire. We listened to songs like “She likes to dance” from her previous “Acid Bomb” with a very danceable flow to a dancehall rhythm. She confesses that the last album she recorded before the pandemic she has in the closet and now she is making new music more slowly. We vibrated with “Chulo” where she blended in with her DJ placing the samples and we ended up listening to “Cántame mucho”, another feminist ode that the audience chanted mercilessly.
After the gig, Betto Snay interviews Mad Muasel that he refines his promise to release new songs this summer and of course, he shouts out support for the local scene. After new tribal, electric and very energizing dances, the Navarrese group takes the stage Katanga Dub whose late motive is the Colombian root, the bullerengue and the cumbia. References to King Coya flew over the gig of this duo that uses ancestral animal masks and electronic music as a mirror of Colombian folklore. Zarys Falcón confesses her own racist experiences and sings to her “ancestors”, slave women who built their lives and their freedom with their hands. The a cappella singing prostrate on the floor and without a microphone that she dedicates to the queen of bullerengue Petrona Martínez is overwhelming. We listened to “El mochuelo” their latest release that they define as “rhythmic bullerengue”. To finish the gig in Bilborock they mixed with the public and according to some attendees commented, it left them “with goosebumps”. The after party was held in the El Muelle room where Slimdaze and Hija del Nopal put the point and followed by afrobeat rhythm, afrohouse sound and “elektro kumbia makarra”.
On Saturday we returned to reflect on the anti-racist charge of the festival and the need to build spaces of recognition and reparation for Afro-descendant, Latino and suburban artists of the world‘s ‘western axis’. Afrodelicious went up on stage to inject Afrobeat into our veins while the room was filling up with more and more attendees. The night promised. After the dance we witnessed a very emotional moment thanks to the tribute that the organization and some artists dedicated to Easter Endongo, a vital and artistic reference for many and many of those present there. The veteran singer delighted us with classics like Louis Armstrong’s “What a wonderful world” where the audience’s chorus created a very close atmosphere.
The next artist Lova Lois She wasn’t on the bill either, but the public was waiting for her. This Erandiotarra rapper is one of the revelation voices in reggae and dancehall on the Basque scene. Her performance on Saturday shed light on the recesses of social inequalities. As she blends urban and tribal sounds, she confesses that she wants her words to be cures for people in need. She sang “Sambala” and when she said that “art goes hand in hand with the revolution” we knew what was coming: “Art”. She ended with fluid reggae and the song she composed for the first edition of Damba Fest: “A united people will not be separated”… the audience sang.
Slimdazethe festival’s resident dj introduced Ryhan, an artist who came from Vitoria with roots from Santo Domingo. Screams were heard as she climbed onto the stage as a group of fans were standing in front of the stage with cell phones in hand. The style of this artist is syrupy reggaeton that raises so many blisters. Ryhan just released a new Ep “exotic” from which we hear “Wifi” and “Delicioso” with a very fine scratch and good sound on the turntables.
The only band that was accompanied by conventional instruments was that of Africa Bibang who filled the stage with keyboard, drums, bass and vocals. When she took to the stage, the singer from Algorta displayed her soul repertoire in Basque. Afrika is the first black woman to sing in Basque. We listen to “Revolution” with the consequent slogan: “Today you are making the revolution by being at this festival”. Every song, every word and every artistic expression acquired a revolutionary identity at the festival and Afrika raised the fight to the nth degree. When she sounded “Emakumeak” she vindicated the power of women, she vindicated the freedom of the bodies: “Dance like niggers!”. The atmosphere became very friendly, again very familiar. The dance floor did not stop and the people of Afrodelicious once again stirred the moment with compulsive movements of their feet and hips to the rhythm of funk. Betto Snay went up to interact with the artist and made it clear that Afrika is one of the greatest references for girls who want to be artists but racism and machismo do not let them move forward. The “beste bat” was shouted very loudly and the band returned to the stage to play “Azala Ilunagoa”.
Another of the great bets of the festival was that of the gig by the Madrid artist Lion Sitte (header photo). He took the stage without warning and accompanied by none other than his sister, the artist and singer Mayka Sitté. From the stage they roused the public with classic and revolutionary reggae: “Who wants to be free?” When they sang “What’s the difference?” I realized the importance of the moment I was living: I was at the heart of the anti-racist fight on many levels. Constant slogans to Rasta culture, raggamuffin and/or dancehall filled the sound space of Bilborock. They played “Firmes”, the eponymous song from the latest album by the Vallecano with highly political content. After asking if we wanted fire, he rapped a capella verses like “Africa doesn’t put you go and that’s why you enter.” Betto went up to improvise and many people in the audience trembled between dances, raps and good vibes. Thus ended the second day in Bilborock of Damba Fest II.
The after party was again at the Pier but Oscar Mena DJ he didn’t get the flow or rhythm of the artists from the night before. Transversality marked the festival and on Sunday it was the turn of the forum theater. Getxo’s company Outside they represented the play “Between two worlds” in which they achieved full capacity. Brigida Ridruejo introduced the company: “We have achieved the goal of this festival, which is to create spaces for people who are not heard.”
Simple set design, austere costumes and a counterpoint script. All the scenes were crossed by racism and machismo that inevitably complement each other. They parodied and ridiculed Western society for its condescension towards migrant women. Due to its condition as a forum, the public was able to change the ending of the scenes and the participation was very productive, as was the debate that emerged from all of this. Damba Fest celebrates its second edition with objectives met and a purpose that will be repeated in all its editions: say NO to racism.